Persuasion

Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Jane Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily engaged to a naval officer Frederick Wentworth, but she abruptly breaks off the engagement when convinced by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unfit. The breakup starts a deep and long-lasting regret for Anne. Wentworth later returns from sea a rich and successful captain, and he finds Anne's family on the edge of financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. All the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and Wentworth be reunited in their love?Readers of Persuasion will discover that neither her skill for delicate, poignant observations on social custom, love, and marriage nor her aptitude to apply a sharp focus lens to English manners and morals has abandoned her in her final finished work.