Persuasion

"Eight years ago, Anne Elliot bowed to pressure from her family and made the decision not to marry the man she loved, Captain Wentworth. Now, circumstances have conspired to bring him back into her social circle and Anne finds her old feelings for him reignited. This novel tells the story of a love that endures the tests of time and society."

~ Vintage Classics

"Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year.
Persuasion is connected with Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together two years later, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Jane Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805.

Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy. The significance here is that two brothers of Jane Austen used persuasion to later achieve the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath—well known to Jane Austen—is portrayed extensively, and serves as a background for the second volume. Persuasion marks a clear break with Austen's previous works, for the warm attitude of positive characters she usually portrays is in stark contrast to this novel's often dull heroine. Haughtiness and a lack of cordiality—of which Mr Darcy, in Pride and Prejudice is an extreme example—are characteristics not previously encountered in the heroine."

~ Wikipedia



The story of two lovers, divided by the want of wealth and consequence, and left with broken hearts. Many years later, the regretful and lonely Anne Elliot and her family have now hit hard times. What will happen when she runs into the same Captain Wentworth she rejected, now rich, 8 years later?



Adaptations

2007

Persuasion
(TV movie based on the novel)
Sally Hawkins (Anne Elliot) Rupert Penry-Jones (Captain Wentworth)

1995

Persuasion
(TV movie based on the novel)
Amanda Root (Anne Elliot) Ciarán Hinds (Captain Wentworth)

1971

Persuasion

(TV mini-series based on the novel)
Ann Firbank (Anne Elliot) Bryan Marshall (Captain Wentworth)

1960

Persuasion
(TV mini-series based on the novel)
Daphne Slater (Anne Elliot) Paul Daneman (Captain Wentworth)