Though its plot may be less intricate than those of Austen’s earlier works, Persuasion is a captivating tale, and Anne Elliott is one of her most enduring creations. The last novel Austen wrote in her short life, it points toward an expansion of her extraordinary talents; in the pages of Persuasion, Virginia Woolf would astutely write a century after its publication, Austen “is beginning to discover that the world is larger, more mysterious, and more romantic than she had supposed.” It is a discovery the reader is happy to share.