"
Persuasion" is a novel written by Jane Austen, her last completed novel published in 1818. It is a social comedy but with
a serious underlying reflection.
The setting is in the summer of 1814, in Somersetshire. A baronet and widower of fourteen years, wife was Elizabeth, Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall, whose favourite reading is his own entry in "The Baronetage" – has three daughters: Elizabeth, who shares his unwise spending and vanity and, at 29, has found no one quite good enough to marry; Mary, the younger sister, with some condescension, married Charles Musgrove, the son of the local squire; and the admirable but neglected Anne.
Sir Walter, with all his lavish spending and overspending to maintain his status in society, is now heavily in debt. Unable to keep up a style of living to his status and to manage his financial affairs, Sir Walter is forced to rent out Kellynch to Admiral and Mrs Croft. Incidentally, the future male heir of the estate, William Walter Elliot, nephew of Sir Walter, has snubbed the family by marrying a wealthy woman of common origins.
Anne meets again Captain Frederick
Wentworth, a brother of Mrs Croft, whom she had known, loved and turned down eight years previously when she had yielded to the
persuasion of her godmother and friend, the excellent but cautious Lady Russell. She still loves Wentworth, and is disappointed and yet relieved when he appears not to care for her any longer. Wentworth becomes a favourite with the Musgrove family, particularly Charles's two high-spirited sisters, Louisa and Henrietta, and Anne suspects that he is attracted to Louisa. When Louisa falls on the steps of the Cobb and suffers a sever head injury, Wentworth's concern seems to confirm Anne's suspicions.
On arriving in Bath, where her father and sister have settled, Anne meets William Elliott, her cousin and father's heir. Elliott pays her marked attention, but Anne, who has renewed an old acquaintance with Mrs Smith, a school-friend, now a widow and an invalid, learn from her of Elliot's past misdeeds and his present schemes.
Unexpected news arrives of Louisa's engagement to Captain Benwick, and soon afterward Wentworth appears in Bath, by now anxious to renew his friendship to Anne.
Anne is overheard by Wentworth in a conversation talking about the quality of love in which she declares that a woman's love is more enduring than man's, especially where the object seems lost for ever. Wentworth understands her remark to refer to her own experience. Leaving Anne an ardent declaration which he hurriedly scribbled, he later overtakes her in the town. Eventually, everything between them is lovingly settled before they reach the top of Milson Street. "Persuasion" is another moving story, the last one from Jane Austen as she battled against her illness.