Tag: Anne Elliot

Persuasion: The Complete Novel, Featuring the Characters’ Letters and Papers, Written and Folded by Hand, by Jane Austen, curated by Barbara Heller — A Review

From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: 

Happy Monday Dear Readers,

Coming your way tomorrow is a gorgeous new curated edition of Jane Austen’s final novel, Persuasion. It includes the complete unabridged text and thirteen pockets throughout containing replicas of items from the story such as maps, pages from newspapers, and recreated correspondence written as if you were picking up the very letter addressed to one of the characters in Austen’s novel. Wow. Just wow! The full title is a mouthful, but here it is: Persuasion: The Complete Novel, Featuring the Characters’ Letters and Papers, Written and Folded by Hand. Continue reading “Persuasion: The Complete Novel, Featuring the Characters’ Letters and Papers, Written and Folded by Hand, by Jane Austen, curated by Barbara Heller — A Review” →

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My Top Ten Favorite Retellings & Spinoff Novels Inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion

Anne and Captain Wentworth at Lyme, by Marsha Laurence at Etsy

From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress:

The new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion aired on Netflix on Friday, July 15, 2022. It takes a creative approach to the Regency-era second chance love story, adding contemporary language, an American actress Dakota Johnson in the key role of heroine Anne Elliot, and breaking the fourth wall by having her speak directly to the audience while looking at the camera. The tried-and-true Janeites were all Continue reading “My Top Ten Favorite Retellings & Spinoff Novels Inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion” →

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A Preview & Exclusive Excerpt of Mr. Darcy’s Persuasion: An Austen-inspired Tale of Pride, Prejudice, and Persuasion, by Cass Grafton & Ada Bright

Mr Darcys Persuasion by Cass Grafton and Ada Bright 2021

From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: 

It is full-on winter here, however, there is hope.  My tulips are starting to sprout despite the cold and pounding rain, so Spring is on its way. This ebullience of nature, despite the challenging conditions, is reassuring during a difficult time. I hope that things look brighter in your corner of the world too.

I am delighted to welcome Cass Grafton and Ada Bright back to Austenprose today to share their forthcoming release, Mr. Darcy’s Persuasion. The premise of this novel is intriguing—it combines Continue reading “A Preview & Exclusive Excerpt of Mr. Darcy’s Persuasion: An Austen-inspired Tale of Pride, Prejudice, and Persuasion, by Cass Grafton & Ada Bright” →

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Persuading the Captain: An Austen Inspired Romantic Comedy, by Rachel John— A Review

From the desk of Sophia Rose:

Modernizing a classic through a retelling can be fraught with authorial peril. One must do more than simply slap a pair of blue jeans on a heroine and put some slang on her lips, but at the same time, one has a duty to the legacy of the classic and the reader should recognize the original story within the fresh tale. Did author Rachel John avoid these pitfalls in Persuading the Captain, inspired by Jane Austen’s final novel Persuasion? Stick around and see. Continue reading “Persuading the Captain: An Austen Inspired Romantic Comedy, by Rachel John— A Review” →

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Captain Wentworth Home from the Sea: A Re-imagining of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, by Mary Lydon Simonsen – A Review

Captain Wentworth: Home from the Sea, by Mary Lydon Simonsen (2011)From the desk of Lucy Warriner: 

If your lost love returned with no recollection of the dispute that separated you, how would you react? If you had a second chance at happiness with him, would you divulge your tumultuous past? Anne Elliot faces these questions in Captain Wentworth Home from the Sea, Mary Lydon Simonsen’s new “what-if” retelling of Persuasion.

When the straitened Sir Walter Elliot lets Kellynch Hall to the Crofts, Frederick Wentworth joins his sister and brother-in-law at the estate. Sophia and Admiral Croft are helping Frederick recover from a head injury that destroyed his memory and compelled his retirement from the navy. In the absence of the housekeeper, Anne agrees to remain at Kellynch for a week after her family’s departure. Though certain that Frederick does not remember her ending their engagement Continue reading “Captain Wentworth Home from the Sea: A Re-imagining of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, by Mary Lydon Simonsen – A Review” →

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Persuasion: Does Anne Elliot have poor judgment?

Portrait of Maria Bicknell, by John Constable (1816)“Any acquaintance of Anne’s will always be welcome to me,” was Lady Russell’s kind answer. 

“Oh! as to being Anne’s acquaintance,” said Mary, “I think he is rather my acquaintance, for I have been seeing him every day this last fortnight.” 

“Well, as your joint acquaintance, then, I shall be very happy to see Captain Benwick.” 

“You will not find any thing very agreeable in him, I assure you, ma’am. He is one of the dullest young men that ever lived. He has walked with me, sometimes, from one end of the sands to the other, without saying a word. He is not at all a well-bred young man. I am sure you will not like him.” 

“There we differ, Mary,” said Anne. “I think Lady Russell would like him. I think she would be so much pleased with his mind, that she would very soon see no deficiency in his manner.” 

“So do I, Anne,” said Charles. “I am sure Lady Russell would like him. He is just Lady Russell’s sort. Give him a book, and he will read all day long.” 

“Yes, that he will!” exclaimed Mary tauntingly. “He will sit poring over his book, and not know when a person speaks to him, or when one drops one’s scissors, or any thing that happens. Do you think Lady Russell would like that?” 

Lady Russell could not help laughing. “Upon my word,” said she, “I should not have supposed that my opinion of any one could have admitted of such difference of conjecture, steady and matter-of-fact as I may call myself. I have really a curiosity to see the person who can give occasion to such directly opposite notions. I wish he may be induced to call here. And when he does, Mary, you may depend upon hearing my opinion; but I am determined not to judge him beforehand.” 

“You will not like him, I will answer for it.” 

Mary Musgrove, Charles Musgrove, Anne Elliot & Lady Russell, Persuasion, Chapter 14 

Jane Austen knows a bit about family dynamics. This conversation regarding Captain Benwick appears to be about Mary Musgrove’s objections to him, but it is more about her opinion of her sister Anne and her judgment. It is a theme running throughout the novel. Her family generally shuns her opinions “but Anne…was nobody with either father or sister; her word had no weight; her convenience was always to give way — she was only Anne.” Lady Russell her closest female advisor didn’t trust her judgment either. We learn about her choice of Captain Wentworth as a spouse eight years before the novel begins and how Lady Russell persuaded her to reject his offer of marriage because he did not match her social or financial station. However, some characters do trust Anne, but are not in the family. After Louisa Musgrove is injured in a fall on the Cobb at Lyme, only Captain Wentworth sees the truth. “But if Anne will stay, no one so proper, so capable as Anne.” This line is the turning point of the novel for our heroine. As readers we have never doubted Anne’s judgment; we were just not sure until this moment if Captain Wentworth did.

*Portrait of Maria Bicknell, by John Constable (1816)

flourish 5

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Persuasion: “I am so ill I can hardly speak.”

Illustration by Niroot Puttapipat, Persuasion, The Folio Society (2007)

“So, you are come at last! I began to think I should never see you. I am so ill I can hardly speak. I have not seen a creature the whole morning!”  

“I am sorry to find you unwell,” replied Anne. “You sent me such a good account of yourself on Thursday!”  

“Yes, I made the best of it; I always do: but I was very far from well at the time; and I do not think I ever was so ill in my life as I have been all this morning: very unfit to be left alone, I am sure. Suppose I were to be seized of a sudden in some dreadful way, and not able to ring the bell! So Lady Russell would not get out. I do not think she has been in this house three times this summer.”  

Anne said what was proper, and enquired after her husband. “Oh! Charles is out shooting. I have not seen him since seven o’clock. He would go, though I told him how ill I was. He said he should not stay out long; but he has never come back, and now it is almost one. I assure you, I have not seen a soul this whole long morning.”  

“You have had your little boys with you?”  

“Yes, as long as I could bear their noise; but they are so unmanageable that they do me more harm than good. Little Charles does not mind a word I say, and Walter is growing quite as bad.”  

“Well, you will soon be better now,” replied Anne cheerfully. “You know I always cure you when I come. Anne Elliot & Mary Musgrove, Persuasion, Chapter 5 

I would like Anne Elliot to come to my house today and cure me of this retched flu bug that has taken over my life for the last five days. I can’t seem to shake it, and am beginning to feel like Mary Musgrove spread out on her divan bemoaning her ailments to her kind and loving sister Anne. 

Jane Austen treats illness and death in her novels almost like another character. She seems to plant a sick one or death in each of her novels causing reaction in the community: Mr. John Dashwood Senior dies in Sense and Sensibility causing the whole plot to begin, Mrs. Bennet and her nerves in Pride and Prejudice, Lady Bertram and her mysterious languor in Mansfield Park, Mr. Woodhouse the valetudinarian who fusses over drafts and gruel in Emma, Mrs. Tilney whose mysterious illness and death in Northanger Abbey ignites heroine Catherine Morland’s Gothic imagination, and so many sickies and deaths in Persuasion, (Mary Musgrove, Mrs. Smith, Captain Harville, Captain James Benwick, Louisa Musgrove, Fanny Harville, and Mrs. Elizabeth Elliot) that you can not turn a page and not be reminded of it. 

There is a book devoted to interpreting Jane Austen’s view on health that I have not read, but could shed some light for interested readers entitled Jane Austen and the Body: ‘The Picture of Health’, by John Wiltshire which Austen scholar Juliet McMaster recommended as “…a fine book, informed and sensitive, and it throws a spotlight on an aspect of Austen’s work all too rarely noticed.” in the literary journal Eighteenth-Century Fiction. With that clout behind it, it is well worth a peek. 

Image of Anne Elliot and Mary Musgrove by illustrator Niroot Puttapipat, Persuasion, The Folio Society, London, (2007)     

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Jane Austen Book Sleuth: Little Gems to Treasure and Gift

Illustration of a Morning & Evening Dress from Ladies Magazine (1811)It was the choicest gift of Heaven; and Anne viewed her friend as one of those instances in which, by a merciful appointment, it seems designed to counterbalance almost every other want. The Narrator on Anne Elliot, Persuasion, Chapter 17 

Looking for a gift book for a special Janeite, or as an introduction of Jane Austen to an un-indoctrinated friend? Recently, I was faced with both challenges, and researched a good many gift titles to find the prefect match to personality and purpose. 

It can be a challenge to buy for others, but I find books are the finest gift, and heck, if by some chance you mess up and they hate it, they can always exchange it!

In my mind, to qualify as a gift book, the edition must be

  1. A book that I would buy for myself
  2. A positive subject, that is informative and uplifting
  3. Beautifully designed, illustrated, or colorful images
  4. Hardcover
  5. Nonfiction
  6. Under $20.00 

Here are a few of the finalists in the Jane Austen gift book roundup.  Continue reading “Jane Austen Book Sleuth: Little Gems to Treasure and Gift” →

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Jane Austen’s Persuasion (2007) – A Movie Review

From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: 

A new adaptation of Persuasion will air on Masterpiece PBS tonight. Based on Jane Austen’s 1817 novel, its themes of patience, fortitude, and second chances ring true to today’s audience even after two hundred years. The story of Anne Elliot, a twenty-seven-year-old unmarried daughter of an aristocrat who was advised seven years earlier to decline an offer of marriage from a dashing young Royal Navy officer she loved because his social standing was not on par with her family’s rank, is one of Austen’s most Continue reading “Jane Austen’s Persuasion (2007) – A Movie Review” →

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Persuasion: You may perhaps like the heroine

Image of the title page of Persuasion, by Jane Austen, Frank S. Holby, (1906)

Do not be surprised at finding Uncle Henry acquainted with my having another ready for publication. I could not say No when he asked me, but he knows nothing more of it. You will not like it, so you need not be impatient. You may perhaps like the heroine, as she is almost too good for me. Letter to niece Fanny Knight, 23 March 1817, The Letters of Jane Austen

In this letter to Fanny Knight, the daughter of her brother Edward (Austen) Knight, Jane Austen refers to “having another ready for publication”, which is her last completed novel, Persuasion. It was written between 8 August 1815 and 16 July 1816, with final chapter revisions in August 1816. The novel would be published posthumously after her death, bound together with the novel Northanger Abbey in 1818.

Jane Austen’s coyness in diverting her niece’s interest in reading her new work by foretelling her reaction is typical of the banter she exercised with her family and friends regarding her view of the quality and importance of her work. Modest? I think not. Her next remark regarding her further prediction of Fanny’s reaction to liking the heroine Anne Elliot, “for she is almost to good for me”, surely qualifies as a sideways complement to herself. For what writer who has ever created a character does not find a bit of themselves fashioned into their nature? And – – Anne Elliot exemplifies some of the finest and amiable qualities of any of Jane Austen’s creation.

It is interesting to note that the working title for the novel was The Elliot’s, and was later changed after her death by her brother Henry Austen to Persuasion. In this instance, I must agree with his choice. The novel is not so much about the Elliot family, as it is about the life choices we make, and in particular how others can influence us. Anne Elliot’s choice to be persuaded by her family friend Lady Russell to decline an offer of marriage by Captain Wentworth will take her on a journey of loss, patience and faith; – – not unlike Jane Austen herself. You can read more about Persuasion’s plot and characters at these fine links.

Image of Sally Hawkins as Anne Elliot, PBS presentation of Persuasion (2008)Be sure to mark your calendars and set your watches for the premiere of the Masterpiece Theatre presentation of The Complete Jane Austen, on Sunday the 13th of January at 9:00pm. The first adaptation will be Persuasion, staring Sally Hawkins as our heroine Anne Elliot. You can read further details on the series in my post, An Austen New Year awaits.

*Image of the title page of Persuasion, published by Frank S. Holby, New York (1906)

©  2008 Laurel Ann Nattress, Austenprose

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Gloried in the sea

Illustration by William C. Cooke, Anne Elliot & Henrietta Musgrove, Persuasion, (1892)GLORIED

Anne and Henrietta, finding themselves the earliest of the party the next morning, agreed to stroll down to the sea before breakfast. They went to the sands to watch the flowing of the tide, which a fine south-easterly breeze was bringing in with all the grandeur which so flat a shore admitted. They praised the morning; gloried in the sea; sympathized in the delight of the fresh-feeling breeze — and were silent.The Narrator on Anne Elliot & Henrietta Musgrove, Persuasion, Chapter 12

From this poetic description of a stroll by the sea, I am inclined to believe that the authoress had a fondness for the seaside inspired by a romantic view of the past. Only real experience could evoke such feelings and finess of description.

Jane Austen did experience the delights of the seaside with her family during visits to both Lyme-Regis and Bath which were both prominent health and pleasure resorts in the 18th-century. In the on-line article  ‘The Bathing was so delightful this morning’  from the Jane Austen Society of Australia, we learn a bit more about her experiences there.

Jane Austen was well aware that when people like Mrs Bennet claimed ‘A little sea-bathing would set me up for ever’ they were using imagined ill health to achieve their real aims of novelty, entertainment and pleasure.

Within the Austen family there was a preference for using spas for ill health and visiting the seaside for pleasure. Edward Austen visited and James Leigh-Perrott lived in Bath for treatment of their gout. Jane and Cassandra Austen visited Cheltenham in 1816 to try to cure Jane’s declining health. Their visits to the seaside were planned as recreational visits only, with no specific medical purpose attached to them. It was only the prospect of annual visits to the seaside that made the move to Bath tolerable to Jane.

Both Jane and Cassandra sea-bathed regularly while in residence at Lyme-Regis in 1804, using bath machines which were small wooden bath houses on wheels drawn by horses into the shallows. The bathers could then descend by stairs into the water, in the nude, which was the fashion of the time. (smiling while envisioning my idol Jane Austen skinny-dipping!)

*Illustration by Edmund H. Garrett, ‘They went to the sands”, Persuasion, Chapter 12, published by Robert Bros, London, (1892)

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Dignified situation

Watercolour by Jane Hartshorne, “Camden Place, Bath” 1829DIGNIFIED 

Sir Walter had taken a very good house in Camden Place, a lofty dignified situation, such as becomes a man of consequence; and both he and Elizabeth were settled there, much to their satisfaction. Sir Walter Elliot, Persuasion, Chapter 15

I find it amusing that Sir Walter chose a location for his ‘retrenchment’ home high up on the hill in Bath with a lofty view. I imagine that it was pleasing for him to look out his windows and down on the rest of the city! Like a high and mighty King in his castle.

Jane Austen resided in Bath with her family from 1801 until her father’s death there in 1805. Her experiences there greatly influenced her novel Persuasion. Take the pilgrimage and walk in the gentle footsteps of Jane Austen as she arrives in Bath in this descriptive and informative account from the book Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends, by Constance Hill.  

Let us follow in the wake of this “very neat chaise” gentle reader, alighting, as Jane did, in Paragon.

Those who know Bath may remember that this name is given to the eastern side of a curved street on the slope of a steep hill, whose opposite side, called Vineyards, is raised above the level of the road on a high terrace walk. In Miss Austen’s day Paragon consisted of twenty-one houses only, as those at the northern end of the row were then called Axford Buildings. The Leigh Perrots’ house, it seems, was No. 1 Paragon, which is nearly opposite a steep passage leading up to Belmont.

 At the further end of the street can be seen the green slopes that rise abruptly to Camden Place; which “Place” is described by a contemporary writer, the grandiloquent Mr. Egan, as a “superb crescent composed of majestic buildings.” No wonder that the author of “Persuasion” made Sir Walter Elliot choose this locality for his residence in Bath as being “a lofty and dignified situation, such as became a man of consequence.” There, “in the best house in Camden Place,” we can fancy the vain-glorious baronet and his daughter Elizabeth rejoicing in their superiority to their neighbours in the size of their drawing-rooms, the taste of their furniture, and the, elegance of their card-parties.

Book cover, Jane Austen in BathStroll along the shady, tree lined walk where Captain Wentworth met Anne Elliot in this beautifully illustrated guide, Jane Austen in Bath: Walking Tours of the Writer’s City , available on-line at Barnes & Noble Booksellers

*Watercolour painting of Camden Place, Bath by Jane Hartshorne, 1829 

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