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.
Persuasion was published in a four volume set along with Northanger Abbey after Jane’s death. They are shorter novels and are unique as a set, as Jane wrote Northanger Abbey as a gothic novel about a young Catherine Moreland who is in fact ‘coming out’. This is in contrast to Jane’s oldest heroine, Anne Eliot, who meets Captain Wentworth again after many years apart.
Jane referred to the novel as The Elliots, the name of Anne’s family. Jane wrote it whist living at Chawton Cottage.
After her death, Henry and Cassandra arranged for Murray to publish the two novels of Jane’s, and it was up to Cassandra to edit the novels as she knew them so well.
Plot summary (no spoilers)
The story follows Anne Elliot, Jane’s most mature heroine who is 27 years old. She is unmarried, having seven years earlier been persuaded to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a promising young naval officer. When the Elliots rent out their family estate to try to reduce their debts, Anne is reacquainted with Captain Wentworth, who is home on leave and has since been promoted.
The Cobb itself, its old wonders and new improvements, with the very beautiful line of cliffs stretching out to the east of the town, are what the stranger’s eye will seek.
The theme focuses on the relationship between Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth, who are given a second chance at love after years of separation and misunderstanding. It deals with themes of loss, love, second chances, and pride. Jane had a deep love of the sea and the Navy, and weaves those themes throughout.
Family themes
Jane and Cassandra were given Topaz crosses by their youngest brother Charles, bought with his winnings gained as a Royal Navy officer. Jane was so impressed with the gift, she wrote it into Mansfield Park, where Fanny’s brother William gives his sister a topaz cross.
It seems that she was further inspired by Charles as there are similarities between his career and character and those of Captain Harville. Both began their careers in North America, commanding sloops and then frigates. They are both about the same age, popular with their crews, and won prize money, although Captain Wentworth won considerably more!
When Jane met Charles wife Fanny Palmer, she liked her and they got on well. Jane greatly admired her bravery, as England was at war with France at this time and Fanny lived with Charles on board his ship. Fanny has similar traits to Mrs Croft in Persuasion who follows her husband, no matter where he was commissioned to serve and the danger they were in.
Another ending
Jane rewrote the ending of the novel, as explained by her nephew in his Memoir of Jane Austen. Edward writes that his aunt finished the novel in July 1816, but was dissatisfied with the ending. “She thought it tame and flat, and was desirous of producing something better.”
In her revision, Jane expanded Chapter 10 of Volume 2 into two chapters, and made the original Chapter 11 into Chapter 12 of the finished novel.
The original draft of the last two chapters of Persuasion is the only part of a manuscript of Jane Austen’s that has survived, and you can read the original manuscript in Jane Austen, A Portrait in Prayer.
Publication
Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published by John Murray in December 1817, with the title page of January 1818. For the first time the biographical notice, written by Jane’s brother Henry, named Jane Austen as the author – although she never got to see it.
The first edition of around 1750 copies sold quickly, and the total profits were estimated to make around £500 for Cassandra at that time.
Persuasion in film
Persuasion has barely made it onto screen, and the most known is the 2022 film with Dakota Johnson who took the lead role. The film gained mixed reviews.
The End
For fans of Jane Austen, Persuasion is Jane’s most mature novel and is quite a sad story. Anne is like all of her heroines, poor and unprotected, cultivating the theme that is so particular to Jane Austen, the style that Sir Walter Scott describes as “renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting.”
It was thought that some lines in the novel, with its heroine Anne being in later years, described in some parts as a mirror of Jane’s life. Of love lost, and in her case, never found again.
What do you think?
Jane Austen Travel
There are four locations that feature in Persuasion. Bath, Lyme Regis, Kellynch Hall, and Uppercross. Jane spent a number of years living in Bath and mentions places throughout the novel, some of which can still be found today including the Pump Room and Assembly Rooms.
In Lyme Regis, Louisa makes a leap from the Cobb, which is a man made brick structure that goes out to sea above the waves, that you can walk along. For Kellynch Hall and Uppercross, there has been much speculation as to what inspired these places.
For More persuasion
Read the last two chapters of Persuasion online at the London British Library
Read more about the cancelled chapters of Persuasion in Jane Austen, A Portrait in Prayer
