Jane Austen's final novel, her most mature and wickedly satirical, is the story of Anne Elliott, a woman who gets a second chance at love. To achieve happiness she must learn to trust her own feelings and resist the social pressures of family and friends.
The story starts with the aftermath of Anne being persuaded by her family not to marry Captain Wentworth because he has nothing but his person to offer her, leaving this a rather dark story compared to the tone of Austen's previous novels. Even though the novel is rather short, it is not completely a light read; people face danger in "Persuasion", the fall ill, the fall in love and out again. Instead this dark telling is only lit by hope. Hope of falling in love and surviving it, hope of getting a second chance in life and to love and be loved in return.
"I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never."
Somehow the ending of the plot is easily guessed, yet the road to that result is rather bumpy and unpredictable. It is filled with great dangers and several twists that makes the reader question his certainty of the end of the novel. It is after all not a typical Austen novel. I highly recommend this book to anyone being interested in reading Austen and realistic fiction.
