9 h 21 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 230 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 230 pagesAbout this book
What if the person you never stopped loving returned—and still remembered why you let him go?
Anne Elliot is twenty-seven when Captain Frederick Wentworth comes back into her life. Eight years ago, Lady Russell persuaded her to end their engagement. Now he returns from the wars at sea with wealth and standing, but he has not forgiven Anne for yielding.
In Jane Austen’s Persuasion, family pride and other people’s advice press against private feeling. From country houses to the seaside and Bath, Anne moves among people who depend on her yet barely notice her. Meeting Wentworth again forces her to face an old question: whose judgment should guide her life?
What you’ll discover
- A quietly strong heroine Follow Anne as her good sense and steady affection emerge beneath her family’s indifference.
- Love after long silence Feel the strain of meeting someone whose absence has never meant the end of love.
- The weight of advice Consider when loving guidance helps, and when it drowns out a person’s own judgment.
- Pride under Austen’s eye Watch Sir Walter’s devotion to rank and looks meet Austen’s sharp attention to manners.
- A world close at hand Enter country houses, seaside company and Bath society through Anne’s watchful, deeply feeling point of view.
Is it for you?
This summary suits anyone who likes quiet, close-up stories about feeling, manners and second chances, and anyone curious about Austen who wants a gentler start. If you only want fast plots and big events, the slow pace may suit you less.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A vain father spends beyond his means
- Anne still carries a loss from long ago
- Wentworth returns and Anne must meet him
- Anne is useful but nearly invisible
- At Lyme a sudden accident tests everyone
- Bath brings new faces and an old family
- The book asks when to trust advice
- Constancy, class and the strength of Anne
- A story told close to Anne's mind
Who’s who
- Anne ElliotThe quiet, sensible middle daughter of a vain baronet, she has never stopped loving the man she was persuaded to refuse eight years ago.
- Captain Frederick WentworthA naval officer who has returned from the wars with a fortune and a reputation, and who has not forgiven Anne for yielding.
- Sir Walter ElliotAnne's father, a baronet so proud of his rank and looks that he lets his debts force him from his home.
- Elizabeth ElliotAnne's elder sister, who shares her father's pride and rules Kellynch Hall without warmth for Anne.
- Lady RussellA widowed friend of the family who loves Anne like a daughter and once persuaded her to end her engagement.
- Mary MusgroveAnne's youngest sister, married and living at Uppercross, who is always sure that she is unwell and neglected.
- Mr ElliotSir Walter's cousin and heir, who reappears in Bath with polished manners and a keen interest in Anne.
- Admiral and Mrs CroftA cheerful married couple who rent Kellynch Hall, and Mrs Croft is Captain Wentworth's sister.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Language: English
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A vain father spends beyond his means
The novel opens with Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall in Somersetshire. He is a baronet, and he has read one book all his life, the Baronetage, where his own name and his family tree stand in print. He is proud of his rank and even prouder of his good looks. He cannot pass a mirror without a glance, and he judges other people by their faces and their titles.
Sir Walter is a widower with three daughters. Elizabeth, the eldest, is much like him in pride and takes her place as mistress of the house. Mary, the youngest, has married Charles Musgrove, the son of a landowning family nearby, and she spends her days feeling unwell and neglected. Anne, the middle daughter, is quiet, clever and kind, and nobody in her own family pays her much attention. Her father says her bloom has faded.
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The author
Jane Austen
1775–1817 · English novelist
Jane Austen was an English novelist born in Steventon, Hampshire, in 1775. She lived in Bath, Southampton and Chawton, and died in Winchester in 1817. Her novels included Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815). Northanger Abbey and Persuasion appeared after her death.
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What is Persuasion by Jane Austen about?
It tells of Anne Elliot, who was persuaded at nineteen to break her engagement to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth. Eight years later he returns, wealthy and cool toward her, and the story follows how they meet again.
What does the title Persuasion mean?
It refers to the influence others have over our choices. Anne was persuaded by Lady Russell to give up Wentworth, and the novel asks when advice should be followed and when a person must rely on her own judgment.
When was Persuasion written and published?
Austen wrote it in 1815 and 1816 and it was published in December 1817, after her death in July of that year. It is the last novel she completed.
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