Persuasion

Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy. The significance here is that two brothers of Jane Austen used persuasion to later achieve the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath—well known to Jane Austen—is portrayed extensively, and serves as a background for the second volume. Persuasion marks a clear break with Austen's previous works, for the warm attitude of positive characters she portrays in stark contrast to the often dull heroine. Haughtiness and a lack of cordiality—of which Mr Darcy, in Pride and Prejudice is an extreme example—are characteristics not previously encountered in the heroine. More than seven years prior to the events in the novel, Anne Elliot falls in love with a handsome young naval officer named Frederick Wentworth, who is intelligent and ambitious, but poor.