Persuasion by Jane Austen

Hello Dragonflies,

Hope you are staying warm this holiday season. This month we will be reading Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Persuasion is the last novel completed by Jane Austen. It was published on December, 20 1817, along with Northanger Abbey, six months after her death.

The story concerns Anne Elliott, an Englishwoman of 27 years, whose family moves to Bath to lower their expenses and reduce their debt by renting their estate to an admiral and his wife. The wife's brother,Captain Wentworth, was engaged to Anne in 1806, but the engagement was broken when Anne was persuaded by her friends and family to end their relationship.

The novel was well received in the early 19th century, but its greater fame came later in the century and continued into the 20th and 21st centuries. Anne Elliot is noteworthy among Austen's heroines for her relative maturity. As Persuasion was Austen's last completed work, it is accepted as her most maturely written novel, showing a refinement of literary conception indicative of a woman approaching 40 years of age.

As always you dont have to read the book to come to the meeting.

Happy reading and see you soon.