Update #2: Finished Persuasion by Jane Austen!

"She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older-the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning."

Okay, so I have crossed the second novel off of my list-Persuasion.  It was a pretty quick read.  However, like all Austen novels, I have to give myself a couple of days to get into it.  I read 90 pages over two days, then finished it (around 150 pages) yesterday.  That's always how Austen novels work for me.  She sets everything up, and it can be a lot to take in, but then, once it picks up, it just keeps rolling.

So, Persuasion is Jane Austen's final novel, published posthumously. Its story revolves around Anne Elliot, a very wealthy, thoughtful 27 year old woman, also Jane Austen's oldest main character.  Anne's father is a baronet, and he is very proud and all about lineage.  Anne's two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, are both very proud, too. Elizabeth, the oldest and arguably (depending on who you talk to) the most beautiful, is her father's favorite.  She is very, to put it into today's terms, very snooty.  She will only talk to people that are on her level.  Ironically, she is the only one in the end of the novel who is not yet married.  Mary, the youngest daughter, was married very early, and has two very spoiled boys that she cannot control.  She seems more agreeable to me than Elizabeth, but she still is quite vain.  Anne is the odd woman out-she is very thoughtful and not conceited.  She is supposed to like her mother, who died when she was younger. 
 

There has been one movie adaptation made in the 90's, one in 2007, and a couple of miniseries, but it really hasn't been widely adapted, like Pride and Prejudice.  I really do think, and the author of the introduction of the novel even says this, that its because most of the drama and turmoil is internal, and there is not a lot of actual drama happening.  Sure, there are a few things, but even the dramatic ending where the characters fall back in love is by a letter-not like Mr. Darcy proposing to Elizabeth in the rain.  No, most of Anne's turmoil comes from little things that occur, that only she would be anxious about. 

Unlike Emma and Pride and Prejudice, its hard to compare this book to any movies, so I was unsure of what to actually talk about.  I think I will just put in a synopsis and do some quotes. Sounds like fun!

So here is the whole concept of the book in a few paragraphs (spoiler alert!!):

Eight years before the novel starts, Anne was in love with Frederick Wentworth, who, at the time, was going into the navy and didn't have any money.  In this book, and I guess in this time period, (or maybe just with these characters-who knows), being in the Navy was not an "honorable" profession for someone like a baronet or a true "gentleman."  Sailors had (and this is the direct from the book, I cannot make this up) "ugly" mahogany skin because they were in the sun and sea so much, and because they were on ships so much, could not possibly have manners.  Anyway, back to the story, Lady Russell, Anne's godmother and really only one who really cared about her, persuaded (get it-persuaded-persuasion) Anne to cut ties with Wentworth.  There was no way he would ever be at Anne's level (class) or rich enough for her.  He was a sailor and she was a real lady.  

Around the time Anne cut off ties with Wentworth, her mother also died, and she went alone to Bath to recover (I am guessing).  She lost all of her youthful beauty and became skinny and sallow. Okay, maybe not sallow, but you get the idea.  Anne, at least to her vain family, was a lost cause, and only Elizabeth could marry someone of rank and standing.  Anne never stops loving Wentworth, and assumes he will find someone else.

Fast forward to the novel, Sir Walter (that is the father) is broke, and has to "let" (rent) his estate, which is very dishonorable.  Who to rent it to? Well, the war was over, and tons of sailors had made their fortune in the Navy.  After a lot of hesitation, Sir Walter lets his estate to Admiral Croft and his wife, who are way more genteel than Sir Walter ever could be.  Okay, this is where the juice starts. Admiral Croft's wife is sister to....(now) Captain Wentworth! It seems that Wentworth went out and made his fortune and really is a fine young man now. And-he is super hot!

Sir Walter, Elizabeth, Lady Russell and Mrs. Clay, Elizabeth's friend, who I will speak of later, move to Bath to pick a house, and Anne goes to Uppercross, which is about 3 miles from her original home Kellynch, to visit her sister Mary.  Well, of course, Wentworth comes, and meets with Anne and everyone! No one knows the history between those two, so they just ask super civil.  They don't talk, just "how d'ye do?"  

Mary had married to Charles Musgrove, and because this is back in the day and families were always near each other and with each other, Mary was close with Charles' sisters, Louisa and Henrietta, who are rather silly and vain, too.  Okay, so here I am going to skip over some parts, but Louisa and Wentworth had become very close, and everyone thought they were to marry. That is, until Louisa, being very annoying, had an accident.  She jumped some stairs, thought it was fun, did it again, and was knocked out for days.  She had a slow recovery. Remember, they didn't have cat scans back then, people! Anne, always being the calm, caring one, was looked to for guidance in the situation.  It was at that instant, that Frederick really fell back in love with Anne.  He had been angry and denying his feelings, but when he compared Louisa's silliness with Anne's steadfastness (I hope that is the right word), he knew what he was missing.



After this incident, Anne goes to Bath to meet with her family in their new house, and Frederick just up and left.  Everyone thought it was because he was so sad about his "love" almost dying, but actually it was because he realized the predicament he was in, and that he had kind of led her on.  He left to avoid marrying Louisa.  He really would have had to marry her, the way he was acting.  Anyway, while he was gone, Louisa fell for another Captain, Captain Benwick, who liked to read poetry with Anne and was very sentimental over his fiancee dying the past year.  Louisa and Benwick really didn't belong together, but it opened up Wentworth to be with Anne.

So, while Wentworth is figuring out what to do, Anne is in Bath hanging out with Mr. Elliot, her cousin, heir to Kellynch.  Anne likes him, but that's it.  There is something suspicious about him-he is not truly open.  Turns out, after speaking with her now crippled friend from school Mrs. Smith, that Elliot is quite the skeez. He had turned his back on the Elliots ten years ago because he didn't like them, but was now sucking up to them to get back into the family. He had married for money a while back,  and after she died and he had all the money he could want, he wanted the title of baronet.  Well, there was one person in his way-Mrs. Clay.  Mrs. Clay is also a skeez.  She is of a much lower rank than the Elliots, and sucked up to Elizabeth to get close to-who else-Sir Walter! She was using her friend to get close to a baronet, and it was working.  Anne never liked Mrs. Clay because of this.  Anyway, Mr. Elliot also knew about this, and came around Sir Walter as much as possible, all hours of the day and night, to keep Mrs. Clay away from him.  If she married Sir Walter and had his child, Mr. Elliot was no longer the lawful heir of Kellynch. Mrs. Clay was very afraid of Elliot, and kind of embarrassed by the things he would say around her, about people of lower ranks weaseling their way into families. Mr. Elliot did fall for Anne in the process, but he cared more about title and rank.

Anne learns all of this, and means to tell Lady Russell right away, but she has to put it off because of social engagements.  The Musgroves are in town, and Anne is obliged to be with her family. Also, Elliot was supposed to leave town, so she could spare a few days.  Ironically, Mr. Elliot did not leave town.  His sister saw him outside with, who would have known, Mrs. Clay! How strange! 

The second day the Musgroves are in town, Anne is in a parlor room with a few people, one of them being Captain Wentworth! He has come to Bath on the pretense that Admiral Croft is in town for the winter. Anne is talking to Captain Harville about love, and how a man only ever loves one woman, but a woman does not have the same loyalty.  Anne, clearly, has the opposite opinion, and they go back and forth on the subject in front of Wentworth, who knows now what Anne feels for him.  Wentworth was busy writing a letter for the duration of the conversation.  Harville wants to leave and Wentworth goes with him.  However, a minute later, he rushes back in, and puts the letter back on the table where he left, also where Anne stands (she moved there after he left).  The letter was written to her, and basically said he loved her still and was in turmoil without her.  And that he was super jealous of Elliot. All he needs to know that she cares, too, is a smile or expression of devotion.



Anne is sublimely happy, but now has to find him! She is walked by Charles, her brother-in-law to town on the way back home, where they run into...Wentworth! Charles, who had an appointment with the gunsmith, asks Wentworth to walk Anne home. (Oh, Jane Austen, you!). Then, after that walk, everything is right in the world again! He asks Anne's dad for permission to marry her, and he is fine with it.  Elizabeth is like whatever, which is good for her, and even Lady Russell says okay.  She kinda feels bad that she had persuaded her not to marry him before, but felt it was her duty.  She now accepts him like a son.  As for Elliot, he rolls out of there, along with..Mrs. Clay!! They are in love.  Two con artists in love <3 

That was a lot that you probably didn't read, so here are some quotes that you probably will read:

“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."  - Wentworth's letter


“My idea of good company...is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.' 
'You are mistaken,' said he gently, 'that is not good company, that is the best.” - Mr. Elliot and Anne


“I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men." "Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.” - Captain Harville and Anne