Persuasion

Description

Jane Austen's final novel is her most mature and wickedly satirical. It follows the story of Anne Elliott, who as a teenager, was engaged to a seemingly ideal man, Frederick Wentworth. But after being persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that he is too poor to be a suitable match, Anne ends their engagement. When they are reacquainted eight years later, their circumstances are transformed: Frederick is returning triumphantly from the Napoleonic War, while Anne's fortunes are floundering. Will their past regrets prevent them from finding future happiness? Gorgeously illustrated by Hugh Thomson, this Macmillan Collector's Library edition of Persuasion also includes an afterword by author and critic Henry Hitchings. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Jane Austen was born in 1775 in rural Hampshire, the daughter of an affluent village rector who encouraged her in her artistic pursuits. In novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma she developed her subtle analysis of contemporary life through depictions of the middle-classes in small towns. Her sharp wit and incisive portraits of ordinary people have given her novels enduring popularity. She died in 1817.

Persuasion seems to be the Jane Austen novel that has most touched our readers' hearts -- Sam Jordison * Guardian * Persuasion is Austen's most mature and melancholic novel, a frost-tipped exploration of the meaning of love and a quietly savage critique of Regency England's obsessions with money and class -- Claire Allfree * Telegraph *