Persuasion
Publisher Description
An Apple Books Classic edition.
Jane Austen’s last completed novel is a mature, gorgeously bittersweet story about love, regret, and second chances. It’s been seven years since Anne’s family induced her to break off her engagement to Wentworth, a sea captain of little means. But losing him only made her realize how precious their love had been, leaving her with a sorrow that never quite faded.
When their paths cross again, his presence cuts through the grayness of Anne’s world like sudden sunlight. But could he ever rekindle his feelings for her after such heartbreak? Nuanced in its humor and deeply yearning in its emotion, Persuasion shows Austen at her most ruminative and insightful.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stevenson has read all of Austen's novels for audiobook, in abridged or unabridged versions, and her experience shows in this delightful production. Though dominated by the intelligent, sweet voice of Anne Elliot the least favored but most worthy of three daughters in a family with an old name but declining fortunes Stevenson provides other characters with memorable voices as well. She reads Anne's haughty father's lines with a mixture of stuffiness and bluster, and Anne's sisters are portrayed with a hilariously flighty, breathy register that makes Austen's contempt for them palpable. Anne's voice is mostly measured and reasonable an expression of her strong mind and spirit but Stevenson imbues her speech with wonderful shades of passion as Anne is reacquainted with Capt. Wentworth, whom she has continued to love despite being forced, years before, to reject him over status issues. Listening to Stevenson, as Anne, describe a sudden encounter with Wentworth, one hardly needs Austen's description of how Anne grows faint Stevenson's perfectly judged and deeply felt reading has already shown that she must have. Even those who have read Austen's novels will find themselves loving this book all over again with Stevenson's evocative rendition ringing richly in their ears.
