Persuasion

Plot

Set seven years after the broken engagement of Anne Elliot to Frederick Wentworth, having just turned nineteen years old, Anne fell in love and had accepted a proposal of marriage from Wentworth, whom then a young- and as yet- undistinguished naval officer. Wentworth was considered clever, confident and ambitious, but his low social status and lack of wealth made Anne's family — her vain father Sir Walter Elliot and her older sister Elizabeth — view him as an unsuitable match for the daughter of a baronet. Lady Russell, a distant relative whom Anne had considered a second mother since the death of her own, also saw the relationship as imprudent for one so young and persuaded Anne to break off the engagement. Sir Walter, Elizabeth, and Lady Russell are the only family members who knew about the short engagement, as Anne's younger sister, Mary, was away at school.

Several years later the Elliot family are in financial trouble on account of Sir Walter's lavish spending. This had been kept in check while Lady Elliot was alive, but Sir Walter and Elizabeth have since spent without thought. Forced into action at last, they are persuaded to let Kellynch Hall, the family estate, and settle in Bath until their finances improve. Sir Walter, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's new companion, Mrs Clay, look forward to the move. Anne, on the other hand, doubts she will enjoy Bath but cannot go against her family. Mary is now married to Charles Musgrove of Uppercross Hall, the heir to a respected local squire. Anne visits Mary and her family, where she is well-loved. As the Napoleonic Wars are over, Admiral Croft and his wife Sophia (Frederick's sister) become the new tenants of Kellynch Hall. Captain Wentworth, now wealthy from prize ships he captured in the war, visits his sister and meets the Uppercross family, where he crosses paths with Anne.

The Musgroves — including Mary, Charles, and Charles's sisters Henrietta and Louisa — welcome the Crofts and Captain Wentworth, who makes it clear that he is ready to marry. Both the Crofts and the Musgroves enjoy speculating about which sister Wentworth might marry. The Musgroves' cousin, the young clergyman Charles Hayter, who is absent when Wentworth is introduced to their social circle, returns and is rather upset over Henrietta's apparent interest in Wentworth as Hayter has been wooing her. However, when Charles Hayter stops visiting so often, Henrietta realises where her true affections lie, and now it seems that a match between Louisa and Wentworth will soon follow. Anne still loves Wentworth, so each meeting with him requires preparation for her own strong emotions. She overhears a conversation in which Louisa tells Wentworth that Charles Musgrove had first proposed to Anne, who turned him down; so he later married Mary. This news startles Wentworth, and Anne realises that he has not yet forgiven her for letting herself be persuaded to end their engagement years ago.

Main characters

Anne Elliot – The second daughter of Sir Walter Elliot. Anne is intelligent, accomplished and attractive, and is unmarried at 27, having broken off seven years earlier her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, then a naval commander. Anne fell in love with Wentworth but was persuaded by her late mother's friend, Lady Russell, to reject his proposal because of his uncertain prospects and lack of money, and Anne's youth. Anne rejects Charles Musgrove's proposal a few years later, knowing she still loves Wentworth, but it is only when Wentworth returns from fighting abroad that she finally confronts her unfulfilled feelings for him.

Captain Frederick Wentworth – A naval officer, about 31 years old, who proposed to Anne some seven years earlier. At the time, he had no fortune and uncertain prospects, but owing to his achievements in the Napoleonic Wars, he advanced in rank and in fortunes. He is one of Sophia Croft's two brothers. He gained his step to post Captain, and gained wealth amounting to about £25,000 from prize money awarded for capturing enemy vessels. He is an eminently eligible bachelor, eager to settle down with a good woman.

Sir Walter Elliot, Bt. – A vain and self-satisfied baronet. Sir Walter is a man whose extravagance since the death of his prudent wife thirteen years before has put his family into dire financial straits, forcing him to lease his estate, Kellynch Hall, to Admiral Croft and rent a more economical residence in Bath. Despite being strongly impressed by wealth and status, he allows Mrs Clay, who is beneath him in social standing, to join his household as a companion to his eldest daughter.

Elizabeth Elliot – The eldest and most beautiful of Sir Walter's three daughters, who appears to be his favourite. Elizabeth encourages her father's imprudent spending and extravagance and like her father, she has a tendency to be narcissistic, while she herself desires marriage after spending most of her life managing the family home in her mother's place. She and her father regard Anne as inconsequential, wanting to ensure only that she marries a man who can enhance the Elliot family's social standing.

Mary Musgrove – The youngest daughter of Sir Walter, married to Charles Musgrove. Mary is attention-seeking, always looking for ways she might have been slighted, and often claims illness when she is upset. She is just as obsessed with social standing and wealth as the rest of her family, and opposes sister-in-law Henrietta's interest in marrying a cousin, Charles Hayter, whom Mary feels is unworthy of being married to a woman of means.

Themes

Readers of Persuasion might conclude that Austen intended "persuasion" to be the unifying theme of the story, as the idea of persuasion runs through the book, with vignettes within the story as variations on that theme. British literary scholar Gillian Beer establishes that Austen had profound concerns about the levels and applications of "persuasion" employed in society, especially as it related to the pressures and choices facing the young women of her day. Beer asserts that persuasion was indeed "fraught with moral dangers" for Austen and her contemporary readers; she notes particularly that Austen personally was appalled by what she came to regard as her own misguided advice to her beloved niece Fanny Knight on the very question of whether Fanny ought to accept a particular suitor, even though it would have meant a protracted engagement. Beer writes: Jane Austen's anxieties about persuasion and responsibility are here passionately expressed. She refuses to become part of the machinery with which Fanny is manoeuvring herself into forming the engagement. To be the stand-in motive for another's actions frightens her. Yet Jane Austen cannot avoid the part of persuader, even as dissuader.

Fanny ultimately rejected her suitor and married someone else after her aunt's death.

Thus, Beer explains, Austen was keenly aware that the human quality of persuasion—to persuade or to be persuaded, rightly or wrongly—is fundamental to the process of human communication, and that, in her novel "Jane Austen gradually draws out the implications of discriminating 'just' and 'unjust' persuasion." Indeed, the narrative winds through a number of situations in which people influence or attempt to influence other people, or themselves. Finally, Beer calls attention to "the novel's entire brooding on the power pressures, the seductions, and also the new pathways opened by persuasion."

Development of the novel

Canadian scholar Sheila Johnson Kindred states that parts of Persuasion were inspired by the career of Austen's brother Charles Austen, a Royal Navy officer, as there are some similarities between the career of the real-life Captain Austen and the fictional Captain Wentworth: both began their careers in command of sloops in the North America station at about the same age; both were popular with their crews; both progressed to the command of frigates; both were keen to share their prize money with their crews, though Captain Wentworth ended up considerably richer as a result of his prize money than did Captain Austen.

Likewise, Captain Austen's wife Fanny, whom he married in Bermuda in 1807, bears some similarities to Mrs Croft, who, like Fanny Austen, lived aboard naval vessels for a time; lived alternatively in Bermuda and Halifax (the two ports that hosted the Royal Navy's North America station); crossed the Atlantic five times, though Mrs Croft was middle-aged in the novel while Fanny Austen was 15 when she married Captain Austen.

Jane Austen liked Fanny Austen, whom she admired for her "unfussiness and gallant good sense." Even after the outbreak of the War of 1812, Fanny Austen was anxious to follow her husband back to the North America station despite the danger of American attacks on Bermuda and Halifax. Jane Austen was impressed with her devotion according to Kindred, seeing Fanny's desire to be with her husband no matter the danger as an attractive trait. Likewise, in Persuasion, Mrs Croft follows her husband everywhere despite the dangers.

Author Andrew Norman has argued that Barrington Court was the inspiration for 'Kellynch Hall.'

Publication history

In a letter to her niece Fanny Knight in March 1817, Austen wrote that she had a novel "which may appear about a twelvemonth hence." John Murray published Persuasion together with Northanger Abbey in a four-volume set, printed in December 1817 but dated 1818. The first advertisement appeared on 17 December 1817. The Austen family retained copyright of the 1,750 copies, which sold rapidly. The later editions of both were published separately.

The book's title is not Jane Austen's but her brother Henry's, who named it after her early death. There is no known source that documents what Austen intended to call her novel. Whatever her intentions might have been, Austen spoke of the novel as The Elliots, according to family tradition, and some critics believe that is probably the title she planned for it.

Henry Austen supplied a "Biographical Notice" of his sister in which her identity was revealed; she was no longer an anonymous author.

Early drafts and revisions

Unlike Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion was not rewritten from earlier drafts of novels that Austen had originally started before 1800.

American literary historian A Walton Litz has emphasized the special quality of Persuasion among Austen's novels, as it was written over a relatively narrow space of two or three years from start to finish. Almost all of Austen's novels were written in the form of first drafts (now lost) from before 1800, over a decade before their first publication in the last years of Austen's life. Since Persuasion was written over such a narrow time frame, Litz was able to locate and publish Austen's early handwritten drafts as she refined the text of the novel into its final published form. Persuasion is unique among Austen's novels in allowing such a close inspection, as recorded by Litz, of her editorial prowess in revising and enhancing early drafts of her own writing. Litz, citing the research of Norman Page, gives an example of Austen's meticulous editing by excerpting a passage of Austen's cancelled Chapter Ten of the novel and comparing it to the revised version. In its original version, the manuscript stated:

[Wentworth] found that he was considered by his friend Harville an engaged man. The Harvilles entertained not a doubt of a mutual attachment between him and Louisa; and though this to a degree was contradicted instantly, it yet made him feel that perhaps by her family, by everybody, by herself even, the same idea might be held, and that he was not free in honour, though if such were to be the conclusion, too free alas! in heart. He had never thought justly on this subject before, and he had not sufficiently considered that his excessive intimacy at Uppercross must have its danger of ill consequence in many ways; and that while trying whether he could attach himself to either of the girls, he might be exciting unpleasant reports if not raising unrequited regard./ He found too late that he had entangled himself, (cancelled version, as published in Chapman's edition of Austen).

Litz then gives the final version by Austen:

"I found", said he, "that I was considered by Harville an engaged man! That neither Harville nor his wife entertained a doubt of our mutual attachment. I was startled and shocked. To a degree, I could contradict this instantly; but, when I began to reflect that others might have felt the same—her own family, nay, perhaps herself, I was no longer at my own disposal. I was hers in honour if she wished it. I had been unguarded. I had not thought seriously on this subject before. I had not considered that my excessive intimacy must have its danger of ill consequence in many ways; and that I had no right to be trying whether I could attach myself to either of the girls, at the risk of raising even an unpleasant report, were there no other ill effects. I had been grossly wrong, and must abide the consequences"./ He found too late, in short, that he had entangled himself (final version).

Literary significance and criticism

In his essay "Persuasion: forms of estrangement", A Walton Litz summarises the issues critics have raised with Persuasion as a novel:Persuasion has received highly intelligent criticism in recent years, after a long period of comparative neglect, and the lines of investigation have followed Virginia Woolf's suggestive comments. Critics have been concerned with the "personal" quality of the novel and the problems it poses for biographical interpretation; with the obvious unevenness in narrative structure; with the "poetic" use of landscape, and the hovering influence of Romantic poetry; with the pervasive presence of Anne Elliot's consciousness; with new effects in style and syntax; with the "modernity" of Anne Elliot, an isolated personality in a rapidly changing society.In her 1980 book on Austen, Susan Morgan challenges Litz on calling Persuasion a novel showing Austen's assimilation of the new romantic poetry. Morgan notes Litz's comment on "the deeply physical impact of Persuasion"; he remarks that "Mansfield Park is about the loss and return of principles, Emma about the loss and return of reason, Persuasion about the loss and return of 'bloom'." According to Morgan, Litz "acknowledges the crudeness of these formulations, and we recognize that he is attempting to discuss a quality of the novel that is hard to describe. But such summaries, even tentatively offered, only distort. The few brief nature scenes in Persuasion (and they are brief, out of all proportion to the commentary on them), the walk to Winthrop and the environs of Pinny and Lyme, are certainly described with sensibility and appreciation. And in Anne's mind they are just as certainly bound up with 'the sweets of poetical despondence'."

Persuasion is the first of Austen's novels to feature as the central character a woman who, by the standards of the time, is past the first bloom of youth. British literary critic Robert P Irvine writes that Persuasion "is in many ways a radical departure" from Austen's earlier novels. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin characterizes the book as Austen's "present to herself, to Miss Sharp, to Cassandra, to Martha Lloyd...to all women who had lost their chance in life and would never enjoy a second spring."

A recurring debate in 18th-century Britain concerned the power of books over women: were women more susceptible to the power of reading than men, and if so, was reading a benign or malign influence on them? Austen first addressed this question in Northanger Abbey, in which reading Gothic books has comic effects for Catherine Morland, and also gives her a more acute sense of reality and people. The American scholar Adela Pinch writes that Austen returns to this theme in Persuasion but in a more mature and probing manner, as Persuasion is concerned with "what it feels like to be a reader. It does so by connecting this feeling to what the presence of other people feel like. It explores, that is, the influence reading can have on one's mind by comparing it to the influence of one person's mind over another's."

Adaptations

Film

1995: Persuasion, released in the United Kingdom as a made-for-television film starring Amanda Root as Anne and Ciarán Hinds as Captain Wentworth. This was released as a theatrical film in United States movie theatres by Sony Pictures Classics.

2007: Persuasion, television film using Bath locations shot in September 2006 for ITV1, with Sally Hawkins as Anne, Rupert Penry-Jones as Captain Wentworth.

2020: Modern Persuasion, a film modernisation and retelling of Persuasion, for Hulu, starring Alicia Witt and directed by Alex Appel.

2022: Persuasion, a Netflix film starring Dakota Johnson as Anne and Cosmo Jarvis as Captain Wentworth.

Digital Media

2015: Classic Alice, a digital series adaptation starring Kate Hackett as an interpretation of Anne.

Television

1960: Persuasion, BBC miniseries starring Daphne Slater as Anne and Paul Daneman as Captain Wentworth.

1971: Persuasion, ITV miniseries starring Ann Firbank as Anne and Bryan Marshall as Captain Wentworth.

1972: Persuasión, a ten-part Spanish miniseries by TVE starring Maite Blasco as Ana (Anne) and Juan Diego as Michael Trent (Captain Wentworth).

2012: Moon Embracing the Sun, is a K-drama that loosely adapts the plot of Persuasion, setting it in a royal court during Korea's Joseon period. In this version, the lovers are the king and the princess Yeon Woo, who loses her memory and returns as a shaman eight years later.

2019: Rational Creatures, a web series modernization of Persuasion, with Kristina Pupo as Ana Elías (Anne Elliot) and Peter Giessl as Fred Wentworth (Captain Wentworth), created by Ayelen Barrios, Hazel Jeffs, Jessamyn Leigh, and Anya Steiner.

2025: Monica Dolan reads Persuasion in series 4 of BBC4's "The Read".

Theatre

2010: Persuasion, a musical drama adapted from the novel by Barbara Landis, using music from the period selected from Austen's own writings. It was performed by Chamber Opera Chicago first in 2011, again in 2013, and subsequently performed by the same company in New York as well as several cities in the United Kingdom in 2013–2015.

2011: An adaptation for the stage of Persuasion by Tim Luscombe was produced by Salisbury Playhouse (Repertory Theatre) in 2011. In 2019, this adaptation was staged by the Genesian Theatre.

2012: Persuasion, adapted for the theatre by Jon Jory, world-premiere at Onstage Playhouse in Chula Vista, California.

2015: Reading of Persuasion at 5th Avenue Theatre's Festival of New Musicals.

2017: Persuasion, a musical adaptation by Harold Taw and Chris Jeffries. World-premiere production at Taproot Theatre Company.

2017: Persuasion, directed by Jeff James, who adapted it with James Yeatman, ran at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester in May and June. This adaptation ran at Alexandra Palace Theatre in April 2022.

2018: Persuasion: a new play by Sarah Rose Kearns, adapted from the novel by Jane Austen; in development 2016–2018 with assistance from the HB Playwrights Foundation and the Jane Austen Society of North America New York Metropolitan Region.

Radio

1986: BBC Radio 4 dramatised full-cast adaptation in three parts with Juliet Stevenson as Anne and Tim Brierley as Captain Wentworth.

Literature using themes or characters of the novel

Beckford, Grania (1981), Virtues and Vices: A Delectable Rondelet of Love and Lust in Edwardian Times, St. Martin's Press, ISBN 978-0312849542

Dev, Sonali (2020), Recipe for Persuasion, Rajes, HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-06-283907-7

Peterfreund, Diana (2013), For Darkness Shows the Stars, Balzer + Bray

Edwards, Melodie (2024), Once Persuaded, Twice Shy, Berkley Romance, ISBN 978-0-59344-079-7

Bellezza, Audrey; Harding, Emily (2025), Anne of Avenue A (For the Love of Austen #3), Gallery Books, ISBN 978-1-66809-765-6