A review by julis
Persuasion by Jane Austen

emotional reflective slow-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

5.0

This was such a treat and so much more developed than S&S. Lots of people have talked about Anne, and about Wentworth, and about their relationship and the plotline, so I won’t belabor the point here except to say that I loved it.

I do want to talk about Mrs Smith who serves a very interesting point, aside from furthering the plot.

Mrs Smith is exactly what Anne was worried would happen to her if she married Wentworth–husband dead, money squandered, family useless, body disabled. “Woman, abandoned by everyone who should care for her due to poor childhood choices, forced to live in a boarding house and hiring a nurse for her only reliable interaction” is a horror story to people of the Elliots social class.

But Mrs Smith is happy. She is happy and she is involved in her little social network and she knows everyone, and by no means is her life over just because she is physically confined.

And that’s when Anne starts to realize, not just that she still has a crush on Wentworth, but that she screwed this up. That she could have had years longer with Wentworth, and lost them, not because of her fears, but because of other people’s that she let herself listen to.

Anyway, it’s about the Pining TM.