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Persuasion

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Persuasion

By: Jane Austen
Narrated by: Jill Masters
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About this listen

 Jane Austen was born in 1775 and died unmarried in her early forties. The daughter of a rector, she lived a comfortable upper middle-class life which was made eventful only be her active imagination.

In Persuasion, the book's heroine, Ann Elliot, was earlier engaged to Frederick Wentworth, a young navel officer, who now has become a captain. Anne is 27, and the early bloom of youth is past, when she and Captain Wentworth are thrown together again.

This book is often thought to be the story of Jane Austen's own lost love. In it, she seems mellowed and more philosophical, touched perhaps by the sentiment of a story in which she saw herself as the heroine but in whose happy outcome she has a premonition that she would never play a part.

Public Domain (P)1982 Jimcin Recordings Classics Historical Fiction Romance Fiction

Editor reviews

Jane Austen's last completed novel, published posthumously in 1818, depicts the trials and tribulations of the young Englishwoman Ann Elliot as she reconnects with naval captain Frederick Wentworth. After spurning his marriage proposal years earlier on the advice of friends, she is practically a spinster by the time Wentworth returns to town. After suffering through the vain, shallow society around her, Ann and Captain Wentworth do eventually find a happy ending. Although this is an earlier recording with some inconsistent sound quality, performer Jill Masters' genteel English accent is enjoyable to listen to and perfectly suited to the tale.

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This is one of the few of Austen's works that didn't immediately grip me and I found myself struggling through the first volume and Anne Elliot's grindingly slow apotheosis and constant anxious inward reflection. However, after getting past Anne's initial struggle I gained a new found appreciation for Austen's understated style of writing in which she primarily focuses on the values held by her characters and allows the foolish among them to condemn themselves through her technique of free indirect speech.
I have tried to be positive about the book, but ultimately I found it dry and tedious. This wasn't helped by the narrator who seemed inept at reflecting accurately the portraits painted by Austen.
Not something if you're after a light, pleasant read.

Great piece of fiction- shame about the narrator

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