Reviews for Persuasion

The average rating for Persuasion based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-07-14 00:00:00 David Killough I want to share something with you. It's a long story and while it might initially seem irrelevant to this book, I assure you there is a point to it. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin. During the summer of 2008 my bestie and I were preparing to go to university. When it was time to move into our halls we had to hire (read: my dad did) a rental van to take our stuff - on account of my friend being entirely impractical and insisting on taking all of her shit. So, on the weekend of said move, my friend's older brother agreed to meet us there and help get us settled in. After a 5 hour drive (it should've taken half that time but the sat nav lady was a bitch and fucked us over) we arrived. I got out of the van and spotted my friend's brother. I halted momentarily in my haste to rush over and say hello when I caught sight of the man he was talking to. Talking to my friend's brother was quite possibly the most beautiful man I had ever seen. He was much taller than me, lean muscled, with hair that refused to behave and rebelled against product by continuously flopping right onto his forehead despite his many frustrated attempts to brush his hair back with his hand. To complete this look he was wearing the sexiest pair of geek glasses you could ever wish to see. I was an instantly smitten kitten. When I finally reached them the beautiful stranger turned his face in my direction. I'm pretty sure I had a mini orgasm when he did this because my beautiful stranger had the most ridiculous green eyes and a motherfucking chin dimple (drooling may also have happened upon this discovery). While I was staring at my beautiful stranger, my friend's brother decides to make introductions. . . "Hey, Kat. This is my friend James. James this is--" "What the fuck happened to you?" James said I stood there stunned for all of 0.5 seconds that this beautiful man would speak to me that way especially when he didn't know me. Then I immediately went into full-on self defence mode. In the fairness of full disclosure I should say I did look a fright as I was suffering with severe sunburn after getting drunk and falling asleep in the sunshine (don't try that at home kids). My skin had blistered all along my left arm and was oozing pus and it really was gross. But I had my pride and my pride took over and I said, "Hey! Don't be rude. For all you know I could have some deadly disease!" "Well, do you?" "Er, no. It's severe sunburn but that's not the point, fucker, and you know it!" He responded by dazzling me with the most irritatingly gorgeous smile as though my outburst was amusing. My response was to gift him with my thousand yard stare which he didn't seem to appreciate. I have no idea why. By now an intense stare down had commenced between myself and James, the man who was originally my beautiful stranger. I did a little victory jig when he looked away first and then went about the business of moving in, all the while internally warring with myself about how I could find such a fucking fucker so attractive. That was the first time I met James. We saw each other intermittently during the following year (we attended different universities). Always verbally sparring. Outwardly I acted as though he was a pain in the arse. Inwardly I secretly loved those moments we shared. For our second year at university my friend and I left the halls and moved into a house with 2 other people. Without realising it at the time this was going to be the beginning of things changing between James and I. It was in my new dwellings I discovered Call of Duty. One of my flatmates had a PlayStation and introduced me to the wonder that is COD. I spent many hours playing this. Honing my skills. Knowing that one day it would be useful. And I was right. Somehow James found out about my new favourite thing and we began playing against each other online. It was here my COD mad skillz were made known. They were made known by my uncanny ability to kill James with a head shot nearly every. single. time. Weirdly this kept making him mad which amused me no end. In order for him to complain at the injustice of it all we began to speak on the phone. This was the start of us becoming best friends. The following three years were spent playing COD regularly, seeing each other when possible but still speaking every day. I learned all his secrets and he learned mine. In 2012 when I graduated university I moved back to London. It was always my intention to do it but I had the added motivation of that's where James was. And for the first time in the four years we'd known each other I was finally going to get to be in the same city as a man who'd come to be my best friend. For the most part I was in heaven with this. But I was internally warring with myself again when the realisation struck me that my feelings were beginning to change. Not willing to risk our friendship I said nothing. Not for once believing that this amazing man could ever feel the same about me. Every time he went out on dates with other women I swear a little bit of me died. I tried going on dates myself but they were always unmitigated disasters due to the fact my heart had already made up its mind and decided it wanted James. December 2012. Two weeks before Christmas and I was sick with flu. For the first time in four days I managed to leave my bed but made it no further than my sofa. James had declared himself my chief nurse during this time. Staying with me, taking care of me, and, knowing how much it mattered to me, making sure my cats were also taken care of. When he wasn't reading to me we were bingeing on box sets of The Wire. During an early episode of the the third series I started feeling a sense of foreboding that something bad was going to happen to my beloved Stringer Bell. I'd barely been able to speak for days but I managed to say, rather croakily, "If David Simon kills off Stringer I promise you I will take up ninja fighting, fly to Baltimore, and use my new found ninja skills on him before threatening to do the same to his family members if he ever kills off my most favourite character, Omar, or Brother Mouzone." James started chuckling which I wasn't happy about because I was deadly serious. I continued watching The Wire all the while muttering to myself my revenge plans when James said with a smile in his voice, "You're terrible." I still continued my watching but stopped my muttering to say jokingly, "I know I am but you still love me." And then, in a voice I'd never ever heard him use before, "Yeah. . . I do." There was something in that tone that caused me to drag my eyes away from the tv. And when I did, that's when I saw he wasn't joking. Because that look on his face. That fucking look. It said everything. I responded in the only way I knew how. With a very loud, despite my sore throat, "WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK?!?!" I was rewarded with the most beautiful smile and I knew we were going to be just fine. I later learned his initial reaction to me was that of shock at seeing me in the flesh that day, as he had no clue I would be there. Apparently, a few months before, he had seen a picture of me and told me that looking at it made him feel funny things. The good kind. That's the story of how James and I came to be. Okay, so I bet you're wondering what that has to do with anything. Let me tell you. I've always thought Persuasion was Jane Austen's most romantic novel. A large part of that is to do with this letter that Captain Wentworth writes to Anne: I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W. 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. And this line after Anne reads it: Such a letter was not soon to be recovered from. This letter was such a simple gesture. It cost nothing. Yet Anne could be in no doubt about anything. Much like that look James gave me that day. And to this day that look is the greatest thing he has ever given me, and bar any future children, always will be. So now I hope you understand why I told you this story. Persuasion is my favourite romance, my favourite second chance romance and my favourite Austen.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-03-31 00:00:00 John Minatoya One of the major sources of contention and strife in my marriage is the disagreement between my wife and me over what is the best Jane Austen novel (yes, we are both more than a bit geekish in our love of words and literature--our second biggest ongoing quarrel is about the merits of the serial comma). For my money, there are three of Austen's six finished novels that one can make a good argument for being her "best": "Pride and Prejudice" (the popular choice, and my wife's) "Emma" (the educated choice--most lit profs go with this one) "Persuasion" (the truly refined choice) Harrold Bloom in "The Western Canon" calls it perhaps a "perfect novel," and while I disagree with some of his interpretations of the characters (yes, blasphemy, I know), I wholeheartedly concur with his overal assessment. While all of Austen's novels are generally comic, "Persuasion" is the most nuanced. It's been described as "autumnal" and that word suits it. There's a bittersweetness to it that you just don't get in Austen's other work. The novel it comes closest to in terms of character and plot is probably one of her earliest novels "Sense and Sensibility." Like Eleanor in that novel, Anne is older and more mature than the typical Austen heroine. In fact, she's dangerously close to being "over the hill" at the age of 27(!). Love has passed her by, apparently. But unlike Eleanor, who one always feels will muddle through even if she ends up disappointed in affairs of the heart, there's something more dramatically at stake with Anne. She is in great danger of ceasing to exist, not physically, but socially. When we meet her, she's barely there at all. Although a woman of strong feelings, she is ignored and literally overlooked by most of the other characters. In the universe of Austen's novels, the individual doesn't truly exist unless connected with the social world, and while Anne has a stoic strength, we understand that she is in some senses doomed if things don't change for her. This is where we see what the mature Austen can do with a character type that she couldn't when she was younger. This edition also has the original ending of the novel included as an appendix, which gives us a rare and fascinating look in to Austen as a technical artist. I read this novel as an undergraduate, and have reread it several times since. I even took the novel with me to Bath on a trip to England, and spent a wonderful summer evening reading it while sitting in Sidney Gardens, across the street from one of the homes Austen lived in during her time in Bath, listening to Mozart's Piano Concerto #27. It's one of my favorite memories. More than any other of her novels, "Persuasion" shows how Austen dealt with profound existential questions within the confines of her deceptively limited setting and cast of characters. Those who think Austen is simply a highbrow precursor to contemporary romance novels or social comedies are missing the colossal depth of thought that is beneath the surface of any of her novels, this one most of all. Austen is nearly unique in the history of the novel for the consistency of her excellence. While most novelists have a clear masterpiece that stands out among their work, and usually a fairly sizable number of works that are adequate but not enduring, all of Austen's novels stand up to repeated readings and deserve a wide audience among today's readers. Having said that, "Persuasion" is simply the best of the best.