Book
Persuasion
First published 1818
Eight years after Anne Elliot was persuaded to end her engagement to the ambitious naval officer Frederick Wentworth, her indebted family lets Kellynch Hall and moves towards Bath. Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic Wars with rank and prize money, while Anne watches him appear to favour Louisa Musgrove and quietly demonstrates her own steadiness during a crisis at Lyme.
In Bath, Anne’s cousin Mr Elliot renews his attention and encourages the family to imagine a suitable marriage, but information from Mrs Smith reveals his self-interested motives. When Wentworth overhears Anne defending women’s constancy in love, he writes a second proposal. Their reconciliation contrasts earned professional merit and emotional endurance with the vanity of inherited rank.
Georgette Heyer
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