For PERSUASION
I read Pride & Prejudice and Emma, but I think this one might be my favourite now just because I love Anne. She’s a different kind of heroin.. she’s quiet, she’s sensible and she’s wonderfully introverted!

Her family are shallow, snobbish extroverts who completely overlook her qualities, but she has a few close treasured friends and those more ‘sensible’ people who do take the effort to speak with Anne one on one soon grow to love and appreciate her.

This is a very difference kind of romance. Anne had been persuaded in her early twenties to give up an engagement to Captain Wentworth, a man she loved and who loved her. At the time his social rank and fortune was too far below hers. Now 8 years later, he has reappeared in her social circle but neither of them can acknowledge the pain of the intervening years or how they may still feel for each other.

She is on the sidelines and passive for most of this book. A true wallflower, she is always observing rather being driver of the action unless the circumstances truly require it. She must be witness to Wentworth being presumed to pursue other ladies, and wonder about his intentions while bearing the pain. They barely speak a word to each other for most of this novel.

Even once they eventually figure things out (in perhaps the most introvert way possible, and I loved it!) we come to a perfectly reasonable, drama free happy ending!

I did often find this challenging to read (I don’t remember other Austen books being this hard on the sentence structure, but it has been many years!). I had to reread paragraphs at times to make sense of what was going on. But it was worth the struggle because I just loved Anne and Wentworth, this story makes me feel seen as an introverted wallflower. ( )

What hasn't been said about Jane Austen? Not only is she arguably the greatest female writer of all time, she is also arguably one of the greatest writers of all time. She is in the same status as Shakespeare and Dickens. Chances are you've heard her name if you are a reader. I still think she is important to English literature as well as the language.

I was never really fond of Austen before reading her books. For the longest time I thought she was either this snooty bitchy writer or she was chick-lit that attracted hopeless romantics. After watching Becoming Jane and actually reading her books, I was proven wrong. I fell in love with Austen's writing. She's not my favorite author, but I now have a better understanding of her works. Kind of proves the point that you shouldn't have critical thoughts about authors you've never read before. Sometimes you're right, but most of the time you are wrong.

One thing I've kept saying while reading this massive book was about Austen's writing. I was kind of blown away by it all. She can write. Her vocabulary is quite impressive. It's as if she is carefully picking the words she writes rather than writing a book with a silly plot that doesn't make any sense. It's also impressive that she was a bestseller at her time, let alone being a woman writer. Maybe sometime in the distant future I'll have to reread this book again.

My Top 7 (There are only 7 books in this collection by the way)
1. Northanger Abby
2. Emma
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Mansfield Park
5. Persuasion
6. Sense and Sensibility
7. Lady Susan

NOTE: I wrote some individual reviews of each book if you are interested on there pages. ( )

Having read all of these several times before, I cannot say there is any surprise...but by heaven there is joy...in them. No one paints her time with so much style and realism as Austen. She is the rarest of storytellers, whose language alone delights. ( )

hb

(Dec 2021): Re-reading Persuasion I found it even better and more engaging and immediate than I remembered. ( )