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A review by richardleis
Persuasion by Jane Austen
5.0
Jane Austen has long been on my list of authors to read, but until I was required to read Persuasion in a literature class, I was no closer to getting started with her work. I'm ashamed now that it took so long and that I should have started the novel somewhat grudgingly. Persuasion was simply fantastic. The humor and sarcasm were so unexpected. By the end I was in a terrible suspense as to what would happen; no wonder I responded with an outburst of emotion at a certain letter written spontaneously near the end of the book.
There is so much to recommend: sharply drawn characters, a wonderful protagonist in Anne Elliot, suspense, comedy, drama, satire, and the very language of the Romantics themselves in Austen's verdant descriptions of Lyme (which now must be added to my list of places to visit someday.) The work becomes melodramatic at times, but it remains grounded, and I think as the storyline becomes resolved, much of the melodrama seems less so in retrospect. The novel was sometimes very aggravating to me, especially in the second volume, when I just wanted the right people to speak to each other to clear up all the miscommunication. But therein lay the tension and suspense, and my emotions at the end were all the more charged by the aggravation until then.
I'm eager to read Austen's other novels!
There is so much to recommend: sharply drawn characters, a wonderful protagonist in Anne Elliot, suspense, comedy, drama, satire, and the very language of the Romantics themselves in Austen's verdant descriptions of Lyme (which now must be added to my list of places to visit someday.) The work becomes melodramatic at times, but it remains grounded, and I think as the storyline becomes resolved, much of the melodrama seems less so in retrospect. The novel was sometimes very aggravating to me, especially in the second volume, when I just wanted the right people to speak to each other to clear up all the miscommunication. But therein lay the tension and suspense, and my emotions at the end were all the more charged by the aggravation until then.
I'm eager to read Austen's other novels!