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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Read as part of the 2025 Jane Austen Reading Challenge by Canterbury Classics, this re-read reminded me just how heartbreakingly lovely Austen’s last completed novel is.
At its heart, Persuasion is about Anne Elliot—27, unmarried, and quietly carrying the weight of regret after breaking off her engagement to Captain Wentworth eight years earlier. When their paths cross again, Anne must navigate the ache of lost time, the fear of desire rekindled, and the fragile hope of second chances.
Austen paints Anne with such tenderness: her loneliness, her yearning to be useful, her quiet suffering. You feel every moment of her longing, her restraint, her self-effacing kindness—and the depth of love she still carries.
This is a novel steeped in melancholy, but also in resilience. It asks what happens when we let others shape our choices, when silence becomes habit, when years slip away unnoticed. And yet, through it all, Austen reminds us that love can still endure, even after loss, bitterness, and separation.
Not my favourite Austen (it lacks some of the sparkle of Pride and Prejudice), but I was completely absorbed. Anne’s story is intimate, raw, and quietly devastating—proof that sometimes the softest voices echo the loudest.
slow-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4.5 I know this novel wasn’t complete before her death but this one feels more mature than her others. I enjoyed it very much.
slow-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i don’t know, i was sold, it was over in a day, perhaps i merely have a weakness for bittersweet and elusive romance, a slow delicious torture of diagonal advances, retreats, with a healthy dose of cunning characterisation
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of Austen's more complicated character sets. It's hard to say how much the character growth affected the plot, against changing circumstances but this is ultimately the point of the book - a true vindication for all those that say 'if it's the right person, there'll be a right time'.
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am so glad I finally read this. Persuasion is stunning, and Jane Austen is at the height of her craft here. The characterizations and plot are incredibly elegantly constructed, and the yearning is tender and truly exquisite.
It is a more mature and quiet story than Austen’s other novels that I read, which I appreciated. P&P is perhaps my favorite book of all time, but I dare say it is maybe better than, or at least equal to it in its construction.
It is a more mature and quiet story than Austen’s other novels that I read, which I appreciated. P&P is perhaps my favorite book of all time, but I dare say it is maybe better than, or at least equal to it in its construction.