The Lure Of Persuasion

I have been slowly collecting the hardcover versions of Jane Austen's novels from Penguin, I love the beautiful cover designs and the introductions.

Persuasion has been a favorite of mine since I first read it. While I thrill at Elizabeth's wit in Pride & Prejudice, Maryanne's ability to throw herself fully into life and Love in Sense & Sensibility, it is quiet restrained Anne who I feel a special kinship.

I spent many years being the duitiful child. It was my nature and a cultivated skill to keep me sane in times of upheavel at home. When a chance came for me to take a risk in moving across state I leapt at it. 

But not everyone has that strength and so reading the opening chapters of persuasion and seeing how Anne had allowed her self to be talked out of a love match, my heart ached for her.

So much of persuasion seems to be leading to a second heartbreak for Anne. First she is thrown back into the company of her jilted lover, she also must watch him possibly woo and marry one of her relatives.

Misunderstandings abound and it isn't until fully clear if she will have her chance of happiness. 

I look forward to diving into this narrative work for the second time.