Persuasion (1817)

Eh! ¿No esperasteis durante todo el tiempo que se reúna de una vez con su marine? Yo sí.
( )

I have taught this novel a dozen times in sophomore literature to my community college students, most of whom are women. From the first paragraph--always a tour-de-force in Austen--the author savages male vanity: here, Sir Walter Elliot's favorite, indeed his only reading, the page in the Baronetage that mentions him. When I began teaching Persuasion in the late seventies, an American version of Sir Walter existed on the Mary Tyler Moore Show in the person of the TV anchor, Ted Knight. Now Ted Knight has "won" our presidency, and appointed a Cabinet of self-conceived Barons.
"Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsone in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women would think more of their personal appearance than he did...He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliott, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest repect and devotion."(10, Worlds Classics 1988)

Forced to rent a townhouse in Camden-Place, Bath, he laments, "The worst of Bath was, the number of its plain women..Once he had stood in a shop in Bond-street, he had observed eighty-seven women go by, without a tolerable face among them. It had been a frosty morning, to besure, a sharp frost, which hardly one woman in a thousand could stand the test of. But still, there were a dreadful multitude of ugly women in Bath"(134).

Sir Walter was forced to Bath by indebting himself. At first he delayed renting out his great house, but finally meets his renter, Admiral Croft. Hilarious, their mutual assessment: Sir Walter concedes the admiral not as weather-beaten as he feared, he went so far as to say that, had his "own man [servant] had the arranging of his hair, he should not be ashamed of being seen with him anywhere." The Admiral, for his part, said, "The baronet will never set the Thames on fire, but there seems no harm in him"(35).
Austen's usual irony here has for its source: "Large allowances, she knew, must be made for the ideas of those who spoke," in this case Sir Walter's stupid preoccupation with his appearance and birth, and the Admiral's self-reliance and skill, by which he has raised his social position and wealth almost as an American would.

Vanity over reason recurs in Austen, but elsewhere with women protagonists: in "Emma" where the central character encourages misalliances because she understands people so poorly, but thinks she knows them well. And even in Pride and Prejudice, in Ch 36 Elizabeth realizes "Vanity, not love, has been my folly."
Sir Walter of course undervalues his thinking daughter Anne Elliot, who in fact undervalues herself, taking the advice of her older, independent mentor. (Her independence is achieved in the usual 19C way, inheritance, here by the husband's death.) The advice is not to marry Wentworth, a mere naval officer. Jane Austen's successful brothers were, incidentally, naval officers.

Austen's most acerbic paragraph in all her novels describes a troublesome son who "had been sent to sea, because he was stupid and unmanageable on shore; that he had been little cared for by his family, though quite as much as he deserved"(52). However, one Musgrove parent recalls him tenderly when they meet the Captain Wentworth who shepherded him until lost. Only a specific glance of the Captain's eye revealed to his former girlfriend Anne how little he wished to recall the troublesome one.

In sum, this is a delicious novel for female readers, and not only for them. It is arguably her best novel, published posthumously. Her acute irony unforgettably phrases common evils, like slander, which she calls "the accustomary intervention of kind friends"(14). Images of male vanity surround modern Americans--on TV, in sports, in film--that arguably, Persuasion resonates more in our society than when it was written. In fact, the US recently "elected" (with almost 3 million fewer votes) a vainglorious male, a non-reader like Sir Walter, except for covers of magazines, like the Baronetage, that features this 70 year old adolescent

My edition, ed John Davie, Worlds Clasics, 1988. 251 pp. ( )

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own...I have loved none but you."

Jane simply understood the essence of women's hearts. ( )

It took a while to get interesting. Overall this book wasn't good, but it wasn't bad. It's not very memorable either. It's just meh for me. ( )

Jane Austen never disappoints but Persuasion, her last novel, published six months after her death, could be my favorite of all.

Anne Elliot is the middle daughter of the vain and silly widowed baronet, Sir Walter Elliot. She is steady, smart, and observant, and while her strengths are noticed by others, she is pretty much ignored and dismissed by everyone in her family. Her biggest supporter is Lady Russell, her late mother's best friend, who has taken the role of a second mother to Anne. When the novel begins, Anne is in her late 20s. We learn that eight years ago she had a brief engagement to a young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, that was quickly ended by her family and Lady Russell, who persuaded Anne to break off the engagement to the poor and unproven young man. Fast forward to the present and Anne's silly father and snobby oldest sister have wasted the family fortune and need to rent out the estate and move to smaller quarters in Bath in order to make ends meet. Anne spends the autumn before joining them with her needy youngest sister and her family and, while there, meets again with the dashing Captain Wentworth, who is now quite wealthy and in the prime of a distinguished naval career. And to further complicate things, William Elliot, the sisters handsome, estranged, cousin (and heir to Sir Walter), is back on the scene, in the good graces of Sir William, and making eyes at Anne.

Austen masterfully weaves together the story of 18th century manners, enduring love, and the desires and regrets of past persuasions through the eyes of Anne Elliot. This is a complicated story told simply, and a page turner that also has real depth. I can't believe it was written over 200 years ago and if you haven't dipped into Jane Austen yet, this is a marvelous place to start. ( )