Persuasion I

This is Austen's last novel which was not published until after her death. She was in failing health during the writing of it, and it is shorter than her other works. It is a more emotional story than the other ones, and her heroine is several years older than the heroines of earlier books. Anne Elliot is 27 and has lost her good looks to an extent. Anne is one of three sisters. He father, Sir Walter is a baronet, a middle aged widower who is extravagant and snobbish, and his eldest daughter Elizabeth is like him. The other sister, Mary has married but is not very clever and something of a hypochondriac. Anne is not much loved by most of her family, who don't appreciate her intelligence or kindly nature. She has a good friend in Lady Russell who lives nearby and was her mother's close friend. Lady Russell is a kindly intelligent woman, though she is also rather snobbish and Anne depends on her a good deal. However Sir Walter has over spent and is now in debt and the family lawyer advises them that they are going to have to let out their home Kellynch Hall and find a cheaper place to live.