Persuasion: Jane Austen

Anne Elliot, twentyseven and still single, seems destined for spinsterhood. In her youth, she broke off an engagement to penniless Captain Wentworth at the insistence of her friend Lady Russell, acquiescing to the demands of her class at the expense of her happiness. But when Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic wars rich and famous, Anne finds her affection rekindled even though Wentworth seems more interested in Anne's friend Louisa Musgrove. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, "Persuasion" is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.

In her introduction, Gillian Beer discusses Austen's portrayal of the doubleedged nature of persuasion and the clash between old and new worlds. This edition also includes a new chronology and full textual notes.