🍷 Jane Austen and the Brontes 📚 Issue #19: The Story of Persuasion
Anne Elliot does have a spine!
I know some may demand I turn in my JASNA membership, but I liked Netflix’s version of Persuasion. Was I going into it thinking it would be a perfect Austen adaptation? Of course not. Did I think it was going to be by the book, as it were? Nope. Anne Elliot may be taken advantage by her family or steered in the wrong direction, but she does show her spine and I think Johnson did a great job illustrating that. (Don’t get me started on Fanny Price. UGH.) And there is absolutely nothing wrong with the winking and fourth wall breaking. Who the hell cares about the production if it introduces a whole new generation of Austen fans and is in the spirit of the story?
Anyway, that’s why I choose this issues image. 😂
Per one of my many Austen calendars, Jane Austen started writing Persuasion on this day in 1815 and completed on August 6, 1816. Persuasion is the last completed novel by Austen. It was published after her death, in a set along with Northanger Abbey, on December 20, 1817.
Like other Austen books, it’s never been out of print. It was well received upon publication and continues to be part of Austen’s academic chatter about her work.
The plot is such: Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth court when Anne is 19. After a whirlwind, Wentworth asks Anne for her hand in marriage. Guided by her family and family friend Lady Russell, Anne turns down Wentworth as her family does not believe Wentworth is of equal station as Anne.
Over eight years go by. Wentworth has gone on to become a well-established, and rich, captain in the Navy. Anne traces Wentworth through the paper to keep abreast of his life. In 1816, Wentworth is home on leave when he visits his sister who happens to live near Anne. Low and behold, the two lovers still have a thing between them, Anne grows a spine, rejects her family’s influence, and marries Wentworth.
Wentworth’s letter to Anne, which confirms he still has feelings for her, contains the following:
I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.
Pretty great! It is also considered some of the most romantic prose in Austen’s oeuvre.
What I adore about Persuasion is not Wentworth’s letter (which isn’t too bad) but that Anne is an older, and mature, character than Austen’s previous heroines. At the ripe old age of 27, Anne has been through a lot, but she’s never given up on her love for Wentworth. There is no one else but him. She would rather live as a spinster and a carer to her family than marry someone she believes to not be worthy of her.
As a romance reader, second-chance romances are my jam. I too am living my third chance at love with Mr. Lisa. We even got divorced and remarried! While Mr. Lisa’s poetry is more on the campy side, there is no one else but him.
And that second chance romances are certainly not a thing of the past! They are a common trope in romance world (regardless of if historical or contemporary). Who doesn’t love a good coming back together with a great, thank god!, HEA?
I know, I do.
References
Jane Austen’s House. “Persuasion.” https://janeaustens.house/jane-austen/novels/persuasion/.
JASNA. “Persuasion.” https://jasna.org/austen/works/persuasion/.
Morrison, Robert. “‘Persuasion:’ Jane Austen’s greatest novel turns 200.” The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/persuasion-jane-austens-greatest-novel-turns-200-84174.
Powers, Martine. “Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ is having a moment. It’s about time.” Washington Post. https://wapo.st/4fLSDaG. (gifted link)
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