Jane Austen's Persuasion was this month's choice for Bloggy Book Club and I have to admit it has been ten years or more since I have read a Jane Austen book and I have never read Persuasion before now.Persuasion was, like Northanger Abbey published after Miss Austen's death. The book begins in the Summer of 1814 and peace has broken out; and the Navy is home. A vain widower, Sir Walter Elliot due to his finances is forced to rent out his family's estate to an Admiral Croft, and move with his eldest daughter, Elizabeth to Bath. Anne Elliot the youngest daughter, visits her very whiny married sister, Mary before she joins her father and older sister in Bath.
Anne, years before was engaged to Admiral Croft's brother-in-law, Captain Frederick Wentworth but after her family and a family friend, Lady Russell disapproved of the engagement, Anne called it off . She does still feel love for him however these many years later.
Eventually after some misunderstandings on both of their parts...they realize that both feel as they once did and marry.
I wanted to enjoy this book so very much but I have to admit...I struggled to get through it. It seems so predictable and I kept thinking and comparing it to other Jane Austen novels...to the point that I had totally frustrated myself. I haven't read Northanger Abbey, but found myself wondering what that book was like while reading Persuasion!
I don't think it has anything to do with Jane Austen's book but rather where my heart lies these days...I haven't read fiction in a while...I have read three books, one right after another about the Middle east or about religious conflicts. My mind just couldn't get to this place of simple genteel gestures...I am not however giving up! I am reading Northanger Abbey and after that
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, in fact that will be the choice for September's Bloggy Book Club. This is an contemporary novel using Jane Austen's books and readers as a vehicle to engage us in her storytelling. You may link to this post or leave a comment if you have a review of Persuasion!
2 comments:
Well, not a review as such, but I do find Jane Austen a little formulaic if you read more than one too close together. I like her, but they aren't books I return to too often as I find her prose a bit 'prissy' (yeah, I know - it's meant to be!) for stories I can predict so well. There's almost the same characters peppered through them, a bit Danielle Steele (but without the bits that make you want to start a fire with the book)
I have not finished Persuasion yet-definitely not a quick read. Austen has ninety plus word sentences! However, I am enjoying the story.
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