Persuasion (Easy Classics)

Written by Jane Austen and Gemma Barder

Narrated by Charlie Sanderson

An adapted and illustrated edition of Jane Austen's romantic classic - at an easy-to-read level for all ages!
Eight years ago, Anne was persuaded not to marry Captain Wentworth. Now he is back, rich, handsome and still unmarried. While everyone wonders which lucky lady will become his wife, Anne can't help hoping for a second chance. A chance to prove that her mind may have once been changed, but her heart never had.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sweet Cherry Publishing
• Release date: Jul 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781782266150

Jane Austen

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels—Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion—which observe and critique the British gentry of the late eighteenth century. Her mastery of wit, irony, and social commentary made her a beloved and acclaimed author in her lifetime, a distinction she still enjoys today around the world.

Reviews for Persuasion (Easy Classics)

[kalliegrace · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love Austen, everything I read of hers takes a few dozen pages to get going but then grabs my attention so thoroughly I don't want it to end. This is a very quiet novel, with most of the progression happening in the thoughts of our main character, but it is lovely and gripping just the same.

[japaul22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I do love this one. I think Captain Wentworth is my favorite of the love interests in Austen's novels. This one has a really different feel from the others (though honestly, the more often I reread her six completed novels, the more I find them all incredibly different from each other). [Persuasion] has a more romantic feel - romantic in terms of the writing style. There is more poetry, more dramatic events, and more internal emotion described. I also noticed how well Austen rekindles the romance between Anne and Wentworth by small looks (or lack of eye contact), small physical interactions, and by what they say to others. I do wish that she'd developed the relationship between Mrs. Clay and Mr. Elliot (the younger) a bit better. I think if she'd been able to do a bit more revision before she died, she would have.

[pgchuis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Re-read for my OU course. Short and relatively light, despite being seen as her most "mature" work. I like Admiral Croft and his happy marriage - a picture of what Anne and Wentworth can aspire to. Mr Elliot's character is not entirely convincing, I don't think - if he is so concerned to keep an eye on Sir Walter, why doesn't he just marry Elizabeth at the end? I also find it hard to warm to Mrs Smith, who is by turns uncomplaining, happy to exploit Anne's influence when she becomes Mrs Elliot, and then very keen to expose Mr Elliot's wickedness and complain a lot. Mary's character is very entertaining and I think Lady Russell a little underwritten. I'm glad Wentworth and Anne get together again obviously, but their only real one on one conversation prior to this is the one they have at the concert in Bath - obviously a lot of meaningful glances and telepathy involved as well.

[kjuliff-519887 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Those people in the upper echelons of society had too much time on their hands.With no screens, cars and in a time of peace, novels were full of talk of the minutiae of daily life, and the weather.I remember my own first love tearing to small pieces his copy of Pride and Prejudice, in utter disgust, and though I rank Jan5e Austen novel amongst my favorites, I can now, all those years later, see his point.Like Anne Elliot, I left my young lover, only to spend much of the rest of my life regretting it. But at least I had the good sense, and lack of talent not to write about it.Persuasion is much ado about nothing. Every facial nuance, every step, every jaunt into town is described in such meandering detail. I do not want to offend lovers of Ms Austen, but really….It has been decades since my Mr Wentworth tore up Persuasion in fury at what he saw at a Mills and Boon romance. He was. Wrong, and so was I. Not your normal review. But neither was Mr Wentworth’s letter. Mr Wentworth would have been better off had Snapchat been available. And I? Well it took me decades to get around to reading Persuasion, and I have to think I’d have been better off not reading it. Apologies to Austen fans.

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As you probably remember from your high school literature class, there is not a whole lot of excitement happening in Persuasion. This is a character driven story based on personality, dialogue and society. Austen's keen sense of observation was not in what people did, but how they did them.Confessional: sometimes the characters drove me crazy. Maybe it was a Victorian societal thing, but I was annoyed with one character who was disagreeable to be in the confidences of other residents, especially when they constantly bitched to her about others. Mary is annoying with her fashionable hysterics, ailments and imaginary agitations. I liked the more clever persuasions, like when Anne was persuaded to think the engagement an indiscreet and improper mistake. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Anne as isolated and unloved as she was. Jane Austen had a tongue-in-cheek humor. My favorite line was something like, "He took out a gun but never killed. Such a gentleman."

[bodagirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For a long time, I've said that Persuasion was my favorite of Austen's novel, but this reread has made me reevaluate. While Austen is still poking fun at English society, Anne is a very non-modern heroine who comes across as a most tragic character: hemmed in by the society's strictures, taken advantage of by her family, and generally overlooked. She is just waiting for things to happen and is patiently resigned when things don't. Wentworth as a hero is more palatable, but his pride and hurt stymy his growth too much. That letter though! The pacing is uneven - nothing much happening except introducing a lot of side characters who aren't that memorable (I still can't keep Louisa and Henrietta straight), until the last few chapters when most things are resolved with an underwhelming amount of drama. I think P&P is my current favorite, even if it is expected.

[heychowda · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Finished Persuasion tonight on the drive home from work listening to the Audible version. My first encounter with Jane Austen, with the exception of getting about 4 pages in on Sense and Sensibilty a while back before becoming distracted with life .Why have I waited so long?It was lovely. Captain Wentworth's letter alone made the entire journey worthwhile. I think the narrator, Greta Scacchi, enhanced my experience with her pleasing voice.I have paper versions of Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibilty, as these are all on my bucket list. Deciding which to read first.

[lslabach-623446 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My all time favorite Jane Austen--so many delicious moments! Sorry, Darcy fans, but Captain Wentworth is who I would choose. Heavy sigh ...

[ms_rowse · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My most favorite Austen. At least once a year I pull it out to read the letter that Wentworth writes to Anne...it fills me with hope that in my old age I might find someone who loves me.

[raizel_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A nice quote showing Anne's astute observation of the relationship between Admiral Croft and his wife by describing what happens when the Admiral takes her for a drive:"But by coolly giving the reins a better direction herself they happily passed the danger; and by once afterwards judiciously putting out her hand they neither fell into a rut, or ran foul of a dung-cart; and Anne with some amusement at their style of driving, which she imagined no bad representation of he general guidance of their affairs, found herself safely deposited by them at the Cottage." [p. 66]

[stbyra · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I saw the Masterpiece version years before reading this, so was interested to see how they differed. Not much, but then Masterpiece knows how to translate book to screen with the best of them.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Janeites, sit down and grab your smelling salts: I did not like this novel. I've avoided reading Persuasion for years and now I know why - the characters are either unlikeable caricatures or sickly saints and the story is slow, even by Austen standards (and my favourite novel is Emma!) Why are we supposed to care about Anne, exactly? Because she's stuck with her ridiculous family after dumping the love of her life on the advice of a 'friend'? That makes her weak, not admirable, in my view - although Anne certainly needs a fault or two, to make her even slightly appealing. Give me a headstrong Emma Woodhouse or even a puffed up Lizzie Bennet any day. Anne is so pathetic she can't even make a two year old child listen to her!Anne Elliot, a 27 year old spinster who has lost her 'bloom' but is otherwise pretty and kind and intelligent, etc, lives with her vain and pompous father and equally shelf-based elder sister in the family home which they no longer afford to keep. Eight years previous, Anne fell madly in love with the first man to move into the neighbourhood who wasn't a relation, but rejected him after being engaged for only a few months because her father pulled a face and Lady Russell, her late mother's friend, said he wasn't good enough. So the fiance, Frederick Woodworth, went off to sea to make something of himself. When the Elliots are forced to leave home and move to Bath to save money, Anne discovers that her father's new tenants are the sister and brother-in-law of her former beloved, and spends most of the book fretting that she will have to face him again, which of course she does. There are fake suitors, scoundrels, sisters who come between the lead couple (one of whom is so flaming stupid that she jumps off a wall and lands on her head) - all standard Austen fare. I just didn't care. About any of them. Anne and Frederick are built up in an unconvincing 'tell don't show', very un-Austen-like manner - 'He was, at that time, a remarkably fine young man, with a great deal of intelligence, spirit and brilliancy, and Anne an extremely pretty girl with gentleness, modesty, taste and feeling' - and then the reader is expected to pity Anne for being 'persuaded' to choose wealth and prospects over love. Captain Wentworth himself, although famous for the letter he finally writes Anne in the final chapter, is a bit of a nonentity. He returns rich, after eight years at sea, saves Anne from a marauding two year old, receives a glowing reference from a friend a la Darcy's housekeeper, and lets Anne's sister-in-law fall on her head (what grown woman goes around expecting to be 'jumped' down stairs and off walls like a child? No wonder a bang to the head was considered so serious, in her already weakened mental state!) That's the sum total of what Wentworth achieves to win over Anne and the reader. While she just hovers in corners, eavesdropping on people talking about her. I honestly despaired of the pair of them.I did appreciate Austen's increased snark, from Mrs Musgrove and her 'large fat sighings' over her son Richard who only ever earned the name 'Dick', but honestly, the rest bored me to tears, and even at 200 pages compared to Emma at 500, I started skimming through. I'm sure Austenites will be quick to tell me how Persuasion is Austen's most mature and thoughtful novel and I obviously just don't understand, but I hope I never become the type of woman who does understand Anne Elliot,

[alanwpowers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have taught this novel a dozen times in sophomore literature to my community college students, most of whom are women. From the first paragraph--always a tour-de-force in Austen--the author savages male vanity: here, Sir Walter Elliot's favorite, indeed his only reading, the page in the Baronetage that mentions him. When I began teaching Persuasion in the late seventies, an American version of Sir Walter existed on the Mary Tyler Moore Show in the person of the TV anchor, Ted Knight. Now Ted Knight has "won" our presidency, and appointed a Cabinet of self-conceived Barons."Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsone in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women would think more of their personal appearance than he did...He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliott, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest repect and devotion."(10, Worlds Classics 1988)Forced to rent a townhouse in Camden-Place, Bath, he laments, "The worst of Bath was, the number of its plain women..Once he had stood in a shop in Bond-street, he had observed eighty-seven women go by, without a tolerable face among them. It had been a frosty morning, to besure, a sharp frost, which hardly one woman in a thousand could stand the test of. But still, there were a dreadful multitude of ugly women in Bath"(134).Sir Walter was forced to Bath by indebting himself. At first he delayed renting out his great house, but finally meets his renter, Admiral Croft. Hilarious, their mutual assessment: Sir Walter concedes the admiral not as weather-beaten as he feared, he went so far as to say that, had his "own man [servant] had the arranging of his hair, he should not be ashamed of being seen with him anywhere." The Admiral, for his part, said, "The baronet will never set the Thames on fire, but there seems no harm in him"(35).Austen's usual irony here has for its source: "Large allowances, she knew, must be made for the ideas of those who spoke," in this case Sir Walter's stupid preoccupation with his appearance and birth, and the Admiral's self-reliance and skill, by which he has raised his social position and wealth almost as an American would.Vanity over reason recurs in Austen, but elsewhere with women protagonists: in "Emma" where the central character encourages misalliances because she understands people so poorly, but thinks she knows them well. And even in Pride and Prejudice, in Ch 36 Elizabeth realizes "Vanity, not love, has been my folly."Sir Walter of course undervalues his thinking daughter Anne Elliot, who in fact undervalues herself, taking the advice of her older, independent mentor. (Her independence is achieved in the usual 19C way, inheritance, here by the husband's death.) The advice is not to marry Wentworth, a mere naval officer. Jane Austen's successful brothers were, incidentally, naval officers.Austen's most acerbic paragraph in all her novels describes a troublesome son who "had been sent to sea, because he was stupid and unmanageable on shore; that he had been little cared for by his family, though quite as much as he deserved"(52). However, one Musgrove parent recalls him tenderly when they meet the Captain Wentworth who shepherded him until lost. Only a specific glance of the Captain's eye revealed to his former girlfriend Anne how little he wished to recall the troublesome one.In sum, this is a delicious novel for female readers, and not only for them. It is arguably her best novel, published posthumously. Her acute irony unforgettably phrases common evils, like slander, which she calls "the accustomary intervention of kind friends"(14). Images of male vanity surround modern Americans--on TV, in sports, in film--that arguably, Persuasion resonates more in our society than when it was written. In fact, the US recently "elected" (with almost 3 million fewer votes) a vainglorious male, a non-reader like Sir Walter, except for covers of magazines, like the Baronetage, that features this 70 year old adolescentMy edition, ed John Davie, Worlds Clasics, 1988. 251 pp.

[kristykay22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jane Austen never disappoints but Persuasion, her last novel, published six months after her death, could be my favorite of all. Anne Elliot is the middle daughter of the vain and silly widowed baronet, Sir Walter Elliot. She is steady, smart, and observant, and while her strengths are noticed by others, she is pretty much ignored and dismissed by everyone in her family. Her biggest supporter is Lady Russell, her late mother's best friend, who has taken the role of a second mother to Anne. When the novel begins, Anne is in her late 20s. We learn that eight years ago she had a brief engagement to a young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, that was quickly ended by her family and Lady Russell, who persuaded Anne to break off the engagement to the poor and unproven young man. Fast forward to the present and Anne's silly father and snobby oldest sister have wasted the family fortune and need to rent out the estate and move to smaller quarters in Bath in order to make ends meet. Anne spends the autumn before joining them with her needy youngest sister and her family and, while there, meets again with the dashing Captain Wentworth, who is now quite wealthy and in the prime of a distinguished naval career. And to further complicate things, William Elliot, the sisters handsome, estranged, cousin (and heir to Sir Walter), is back on the scene, in the good graces of Sir William, and making eyes at Anne. Austen masterfully weaves together the story of 18th century manners, enduring love, and the desires and regrets of past persuasions through the eyes of Anne Elliot. This is a complicated story told simply, and a page turner that also has real depth. I can't believe it was written over 200 years ago and if you haven't dipped into Jane Austen yet, this is a marvelous place to start.

[ma_washigeri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

And another half star. Absolutely vicious. I think she takes all the characters apart, just some more viciously than others. Some such as Captain Harville and the Crofts get off lightly with a bit of teasing but even the heroine does not escape.

[foggidawn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Eight and a half years ago, Anne Elliot fell in love with a dashing young naval officer, but an influential family friend persuaded her that the match would not suit. Now, he's back in the neighborhood, wealthy, successful and still single, but apparently not interested in her any more. She's still in love with him, though -- despite being courted by another.I hadn't read this since my teen years, so I was due for a reread. I have friends who claim this as their favorite Austen, so I was interested to see if this one would rise in my opinion, what with it's "mature" heroine (*gasp* 27!) and all. It didn't, really. I enjoyed it, of course, but not as much as I like P&P, S&S, or Northanger Abbey. It's still middle of the pack for me, along with Mansfield Park. I feel that Austen really harps on the concept of "persuasion," touching on it many times throughout the book. Anne isn't the strongest character, and I occasionally found her frustrating -- and I really couldn't see the attraction of Captain Wentworth. I'd recommend this to readers who have enjoyed other books by Austen. I know many people love it, so who knows, it might become your favorite! (It's just not mine.)

[patsymurray · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this in an annotated edition which provided some background regarding the Royal Navy, social customs and Bath that enriched the story for me.

[lamour_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Published in 1817 shortly before Austen's death, this novel is a satire on vanity and persuasion. It is also the story of missed opportunities and second chances. Anne Elliot is the middle of two sisters. Elizabeth, the oldest, is only concerned with her status in the community and that of her father who has been given the means to maintain his estate but fails to manage it. In the novel he must rent it out in order to keep it.Anne is the protagonist and eight years earlier turned down the man she loved because her advisor told her he had no money and no prospects. Now he has returned a rich war hero and she is reluctant to approach him to tell him she still loves him. She has another rich gentleman suitor who seems to have it all but her warning bells suggest not all as it seems.As the novel works its way to the denouement, we are treated to many foolish folk who judge others by their social and financial status and not on their character and as a result suffer indignities and failure because of their treatment of others.A little wordy and slow going sometimes but generally a fun read. I did not enjoy this title as much as Pride and Prejudice.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Hard to connect or care about the personalities or any of the characters:Anne = weak, timid, always holding back, submissive to other's needs and desires, no backbone -yet loved for her "accomplishments" (which are oddly invisible) - and so fearfulNo wonder Captain Wentworth was attracted to the spirited Louisa.And him = he appears as a 'cad' for his relentless attending to women he did not really want to love,with his last-minute letter a bit of a long plot stretch given his on-going silence.Worse stil is the toleration of the repellant, plot dragging Mary...not that the plot was much going anywhereexcept in the tedious concerns and pretensions of the middle class.Jane should have kept this one in her desk.

[debbiemccauley-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Written in 1816. Anne rejected a suitor eight years ago due to her family and friends not thinking him good enough. Now he is back... A good read.

[westwest-3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In time for the 200th anniversary of her death I decided to read the last Austen novel I had yet to read. Austen's prose is here at her most polished and her sarcasm at it's most subtle and biting, but she proves once again that the ending was not her strength. As progressive and liberal as her characters were, her endings seem very XVIII century, not even XIX century. I was still glad to enjoy Austen's beautiful style.
After reading all the novels here is my ranking:
1) Emma
2) Pride and Prejudice
3) Sense and Sensibility
4) Northanger Abbey
5) Persuasion
6) Mansfield Park

[sandra.pinkerton83 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lovely and fun book of Victorian era.

[threadnsong · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A lively, short read that is Jane Austen's final complete work. Anne Elliott is older than the norm for marriage, and eight years before this novel begins she was engaged to young Wentworth. Sadly, her best friend (her only friend, let's face it) and the person who stands between Anne and her loveless family has "persuaded" Anne to break off the engagement.Neither party fully recovers and when Sir Elliott finds himself in straightened circumstances and forced to rent out the family estate, Anne finds herself with a larger group of adults in the town of Bath. And who should show up but (now) Captain Wentworth??So while manners must be followed and Empire-era protocols must be observed, Anne is able to thwart the intrusive attentions of Mr. Elliott, save her school friend Mrs. Smith, calm her never-quiet sister Mary, and find herself accepted back into Captain Wentworth's heart. While there are some persons whose later mention I had forgotten from earlier in the book, I was much more easily able to grasp the threads of this story than I had with earlier stories.

[jonfaith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When Louisa stumbled, I sighed and, yet, continued through the remainder of the book. I knew that Mr. Scott would be unmasked and that all would be well. The flimsy layers did trouble me greatly. I don't know whether it is national chauvinism or some maudlin coddling but how is it that most consider Austen to be superior to Balzac?

On a personal level, this was likely the only book given to me by the mother of a woman I was seeing.

[kimkimpton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book so much more on my second read. In my opinion, it still doesn't beat Pride and Prejudice, but it it a good one!

[danielstj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I don't get all the literary aplomb about this book. I didn't find it to be anything special.

[antao-3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

(Original Review, 1981-02-25)I think it's evident, once one steps back from an emotional response to the novel, that it would have benefited from some editing and expanding by Austen, had she lived.I can see the flaws in it. It seems disjointed and overly episodic, and I think the excursion to Lyme is a bit forced into the narrative although I believe it’s essential to the novel. The trip to Lyme is essential: the flirtation between Wentworth and Louisa comes to a crash, he can see Anne's steadiness, and we can see her lack of romantic desperation—her grit in the teeth, not of poverty (bad enough), but of loneliness—… and it's all by the sea, place of both voyage and anchorage. On reflection I've found the Mrs. Smith episode slightly unbelievable as well - not in the sense that Anne wouldn't visit her now that she's fallen on hard times, but that she would so serendipitously know all about Anne's scheming suitor (a scene or two of Mrs. Smith, where she and Anne could have some interaction beyond her being an information booth, might've been flesh rather than padding.) Wentworth's letter to Anne, on the other hand. . . what a sublime piece of literature, all on its own; I have to admit also that I felt a bit of a hot flush myself on reading Wentworth's letter to Anne... If I'm in the right frame of mind, I can actually get palpitations reading it :-).I think Austen herself found the ending problematic. She rewrote it at least once--originally, the concluding chapters were fewer and shorter, and the denouement was to have occurred when Anne and Wentworth accidentally end up alone together at her father's house, and explanations ensue. I think what we have now is at least better than that.This theme of a love from the past that recurs over and over and over again in literature, especially from or set in this period, is completely alien to me. I accept that everyone's experience is individual, but I've never had an unrequited love and whenever I've met any of my partners from my youth, even the best ones, I've never felt much in the way of regret, let alone proclaimed: "they must be mine again!"I do like the idea of two people who were "in love" having to come to terms with dealing with each other now. But I've never liked this (or any) of these pop culture memes that make teenage sensations the epitome of human existence and experience! Don't get me wrong, I like romance and I see how themes of escapism can be explored and how a dynamic contrast can be useful in a narrative, but still, find it so weird. It's pretty normal to think of missed opportunities in terms of second chances, not just in romance (in this, you confess to being unusually well-adjusted to your own past), but in education, business, friendship, family connections, and so on. In this case, it might seem a bit Hollywood, that the couple, well-matched when one is convinced to reject the other, are even more perfectly suited after he gets rich and she finds even lonely toil preferable to any other suitor. You sometimes see this criticism of Shakespeare's comedies: so much turmoil results, with a bit of happy accident, in the first day of a happy marriage. But that sense of 'comedy' is a vision of life, of fertility and regeneration, that coexists (for many) alongside the grime and sleaze and villainy that Shakespeare exults weirdly in, and that Austen shows menacing from first page (Sir Walter's stupid vanity) to nearly the last (William Elliot's… well, read it and see).It's not that 'comedy', in the sense of romantic happy endings, is Hollywood, but rather, that 'Hollywood' is mutilation and degradation, a bastardization, of a human instinct for fecundity, even as tragedy is confrontation with the limits of health and strength.It seemed that for the first half of the book not a lot happens other than people moving house, or "popping round for a chat." When Louisa abruptly jumps off the wall and lands on her noggin, the interest perked up a bit, particularly as she seemed to be dead - then it turned out she's just got a concussion. For me, it wasn't until Anne finds out the truth about her cousin from Mrs. Smith that the tension you describe really began for me - then the whole underlying tension between her and Wentworth really starts to go from simmering to boiling.

[philsyphe · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

While I admire Jane Austen’s eloquent language, a gripping plot is not in evidence here. I didn’t expect fast-paced excitement but did hope for something deeper. It's the only Austen novel I've read that features no memorable or larger-than-life characters. Mary was quite amusing with all her complaining, but this wasn't enough to keep me hooked.Apart from a few comedy moments, plus Louisa's accident, I found this story quite a bore. My mind kept wandering and the only reason I didn't give up on it was because I listened to an audiobook version.

[stephlaymon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jane Austen is known for her romances, but there is far less romance in Persuasion than there is a saga of intricate family dynamics, with a nicely played romance playing in the background. It brings into focus Anne Elliot, now my favorite among all of Jane Austen's characters that I have come to know so far. From the perspective of her immediate family, she is quite insignificant. Her opinion matters not in the least, and they think her useless in nearly every way, but she is just the opposite. Anne is the most decent of all human beings within the book, and is the one who saves her family in times of all sorts of trouble.As always, Austen includes the most unlikable sorts. The ones that are so much fun to dislike, so silly that they are entertaining, and ones who are made to make the main character stand out from their sort. Anne's father is the shallowest of all shallow people, and her sister, Mary, is the most pathetic of jealous, self-centered, selfish, attention seekers one could ever imagine. All of them attempting to hide their flaws under a layer of sophisticated class, which makes it all the more entertaining.One of the last things that I expected to see in an Austen book is a character who has some ideas of progressive thinking like Anne does while retaining her femininity. She has a lovely way of looking at the differences between men and women and seeing how they both have struggles that are exclusive to their sex, as well as strengths that each is gifted with, and sees how a pair is better off for it.

[melissalenhardt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book so much, and Anne Elliot is right up there with Elizabeth Bennet as my favorite Austen character.