J.A.D. Ingres, Madame Antonia Devaucay de Nittis(March 18) I read Persuasion all at once over the weekend. It was a wonderful way to spend a weekend. I miss it now and would like to spend another couple of days with that set of characters and their scrupulous ways.
I thought I must have read Persuasion before because I am such a big Austen fan, but it wasn’t familiar. That is, the plot was familiar because it has many of the elements of a typical Austen plot; but I didn’t recall any of the little idiosyncrasies of the story, and I’m sure I would have remembered the comically vain father, Sir Walter, the emo suitor, Captain Benwick, and the spoiled sister, Mary, at the very least. They are amazing.
The heroine, Anne, is preternaturally wise and kind and virtuous, as is the hero, Captain Wentworth, but they aren’t cloying or tiresome; rather, they’re heartening somehow. Persuasion presents so many selfish and heartless people that Anne and Captain Wentworth are a contrast and a reprieve, and you want to cheer them on. In fact, I was struck by how a lot of the older people, the father, the older sister, the Dowager Viscountess, and even Lady Russell sometimes, are such poor role models. Austen is scornful of both the upper classes and the generation ahead of the heroine's in this novel.
However, though Persuasion is full of broad caricatures and grand passions, the charm of the novel is in the quietness and subtleness of the main action (the reconciliation of Anne and Captain Wentworth). So much hangs on so little – a look, a gesture, a tone of voice. The refinement actually supplies the most exquisite suspense.
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For cancelled chapters of Persuasion, see http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pcanchap.html
I read Persuasion for the first time last summer. I was so captivated by the story and the characters that I read it twice more before the summer was over!
Shannon
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