Zoë's Reviews > Persuasion
Persuasion
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Jane Austen never disappoints me! This was the first time I've read this book, and, since it's one of her less popular novels, I didn't know what to expect. However, I quickly was swept up into the story and felt all of Anne's emotions like they were my own. I really enjoyed how, unlike the other Austen novels I've read, this one focuses on love lost and how, over time, people change in some ways but remain the same in other ways. Anne and Captain Wentworth aren't my favorite Austen characters, but I still very much enjoyed how they were forced to face many obstacles, reflect, and mature before getting their happily ever after. My only complaint is that I wish we got to know more about Captain Wentworth, so I could feel the love for him as strongly as Anne does.
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Reading Progress
September 20, 2016
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Started Reading
October 2, 2016
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Finished Reading
October 30, 2016
– Shelved
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Kiah-Lynn
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Oct 30, 2016 06:03PM
I have to read this now! :)
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I totally felt the same about Wentworth! I wanted to love him but even at the end of the novel I just felt like I didn't know him :/
My absolute favourite, never should it be less popular than the others. It is DIVINE. But I totally agree that Wentworth's character could have been much more fleshed out than it was.
Yes I agree with you! As much as I love how Austen always tells the story from the heroine side but I would've liked to have more details on Wentworth the way we had on Darcy.
[spoiler alert!]
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All I need to know about Captain Wentworth is that he is willing to admit he made a mistake.
"But I too have been thinking over the past, and a question has suggested itself, whether there may not have been one person more my enemy even than that lady? My own self. Tell me if, when I returned to England in the year eight, with a few thousand pounds, and was posted into the Laconia, if I had then written to you, would you have answered my letter? Would you, in short, have renewed the engagement then?"
"Would I!" was all her answer; but the accent was decisive enough.
"Good God!" he cried, "you would! It is not that I did not think of it, or desire it, as what could alone crown all my other success; but I was proud, too proud to ask again. I did not understand you. I shut my eyes, and would not understand you, or do you justice. This is a recollection which ought to make me forgive every one sooner than myself."
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All I need to know about Captain Wentworth is that he is willing to admit he made a mistake.
"But I too have been thinking over the past, and a question has suggested itself, whether there may not have been one person more my enemy even than that lady? My own self. Tell me if, when I returned to England in the year eight, with a few thousand pounds, and was posted into the Laconia, if I had then written to you, would you have answered my letter? Would you, in short, have renewed the engagement then?"
"Would I!" was all her answer; but the accent was decisive enough.
"Good God!" he cried, "you would! It is not that I did not think of it, or desire it, as what could alone crown all my other success; but I was proud, too proud to ask again. I did not understand you. I shut my eyes, and would not understand you, or do you justice. This is a recollection which ought to make me forgive every one sooner than myself."
Why do you think Jane Austen gives such little description in persuasion though?
I do love this book but I can't get a visualisation of what the place might look like when reading it.
I do love this book but I can't get a visualisation of what the place might look like when reading it.
@Joanne the readers of early-19th-century England were probably much more familiar with Bath, Lyme, etc. than we are.
It's almost painful to see that her most famous novels (which are terrific too) usually overshadow Persuasion. Anne is a brave and very mature character. Perhaps I wish I read more meetings and moments between Anna and Wentworth, but I guess this is a minor flaw. Reading Austen is always enlightening and an absolute delight.
I find it amusing that you wish we got to know Wentworth more, when I love that he is an enigma. I think it serves to show how dependable and trustworthy Anne is when all we have to go on are her very intense feelings for him. We all love Wentworth because the sensible and reserved Anne finds him lovable and worthy of her attention and what's more, her affection. (Which I would argue to the ground she does not give out as freely as her attention)
I just reread this and disagree slightly on the Wentworth part. I think we get two insights into Wentworth. 1) when Harville’s sister died, he raced to meet and then rowed out to Benwick’s ship to tell him his fiancée had died and be there for him. 2) he takes up Mrs. Smith’s cause for no other reason than that she is Anne’s friend.
Plus his family love him.
Plus his family love him.