A reader's guide to Persuasion

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Jane Austen endured a particularly trying time during the writing of Persuasion. From October to December 1815 she was nursing her brother Henry through a severe illness.

To make matters worse, he was declared a bankrupt in March 1816 when Austen’s own health was declining (probably because of Addison’s disease).

The novel was published posthumously, in 1818, and it has been suggested that there is a decidedly ‘autumnal’ feel to the text.

The book’s title refers to the character Lady Russell and her ‘persuasion’ of the heroine, Anne Elliot, to reject Frederick Wentworth. Years pass, and Anne does not really expect to find love again.

Whereas Austen’s earlier novels deal with ‘young love’, Anne is a mature protagonist. She may have been based on the author’s sister, Cassandra, but it has also been mooted that elements of Austen’s own personality can be detected.

Persuasion is set in the Somerset countryside, Lyme and Bath in the summer of 1814. As usual, the focus is on the upper-middle-class.

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Although Austen lived through the period of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, she rarely touched upon war and politics in her writing. However, two of her brothers, Francis and Charles, actually joined the Navy and rose to be Admirals, and Naval officers and their families feature in Persuasion.

A frequent criticism of Austen’s fiction is that it is limited in scope, but why should we judge her for that? What she does is done beautifully, and perhaps that should be enough!

Images from BBC TV's adaptation of Persuasion