oh, my God!

[kiki1982]

Oh, my God, what a book! It is the only thing I can say. This could indeed be the best book she wrote.

The end just sparkles with energy from both sides. When Waptain Harville and Anne Elliot are talking, it is so beautiful what they say there. It is so profound.

What struck me in this, is that Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion are very similar in plot: both deal with the pride of a man, first impressions that are not right, mistunderstandings... The both have a heroine who knows what she wants. But Captain Wentworth is so much more deeply drawn than Mr Darcy. Also Anne Elliot is more of a woman than Elizabeth. Anne and Wentworth are not 'types', but they are humans, people that move around in this world. Austen's look on that same world from twenty years before has become so much calmer. She still laughed at the world, but that same world had become a necessity/a normality.

What Captain Harville and Anne said there, I will always remember it, and re-read it, over and over again.

[Niamh]

See! we told ya!
Is by far her best...!

[kiki1982]

I am still going to read the rest...

How are Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Emma, compared to Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility?

Was Lady Susan the book that wasn't finished?

[Niamh]

Lady Susan annoyed me. Northanger Abbey is good, i really like Mansfeild Park... but i dont like Emma.

[Wilde woman]

Yes, I too think Persuasion is Austen's best novel. And that last conversation with Captain Harville is one of the reasons why. Also, Wentworth's letter!

But Captain Wentworth is so much more deeply drawn than Mr Darcy. Also Anne Elliot is more of a woman than Elizabeth. Anne and Wentworth are not 'types', but they are humans, people that move around in this world.

I agree 100%! Since Wentworth and Anne have a few more years of experience in them than do Darcy and Lizzy, they're more mature.

[kiki1982]

What do you think about a little autobiographic material in there? Iread an article on the Daily Mail about a man that broke Austen's heart. Every one tinks straight of Darcy, but she met her man after she wrote the first draft of Pride and Prejudice. What's more is that his brother was a curate become doctor (GP) at the sea-side as well.

The problem as that Jane and her man, Blackal as it turns out, met a first time in 1798, but the acquaintance was not pursed because sh aparently misinerpreted a letter he wrote (more interest than love from his side) and they lost track of each other until in 1802 they were both coincidentally at the Devon coast: she visiting with her parents and he visiting his brother (a curate become doctor in the place). She fell in love.

Years after in 1813, she finds out that he is to be married and is bitter about it. She doesn't wish him well, but hopes that his wife will be dull.

Her sister burnt the letters they wrote on that affair between 1801 and 1804. Despite this being a normal practice to protect the character of someone (remember how Mrs Smith finds that it is impertinent to even disclose Mr Elliot by a letter),

I can't help thinking that maybe her advancing in age helped her to accept the fact that they were never to be married. Her desease might also have helped in accepting the fact that it was neither her, him nor circumstances, but that it was just to be that she was never to be married to him.

In that, Peruasion might be considered as a reconciliation to herself, which mirrored her own acceptance in Wentworth's acceptance that he cannot love another but Anne.

Any thoughts?

[Lokasenna]

Wonderful, isn't it? It was the first Austen I read, and very easily the best. The emotions feel so profound and realistic, and I love the feeling of advancing age and yearning. Absolutely beautiful - made me a fan for life!

[Frankie Anne]

I loved "Persuasion." It is my favorite by Austen. "Mansfield Park" is good, too. I've read it twice and it is unusual for me to read the same book twice. I really liked "Northanger Abbey" as well.