Persuasion
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
Anne Elliot was once engaged to Captain Frederick Wentworth, but she broke off the engagement when a family friend persuaded her that it was an imprudent match. Several years later, Captain Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic Wars, but his seeming indifference towards Anne convinces her that it is too late to win him back. Meanwhile, the charming Mr. Elliot—Anne's cousin and her father's heir to Kellynch Hall—plots to marry her to ensure he remains the sole heir to the family estate. Will Captain Wentworth rediscover his feelings for Anne, or will she be forced to marry the scheming Mr. Elliot? English author Jane Austen wrote this novel of manners in 1816, one year before her death at the age of 41. This unabridged version of her last completed novel is taken from the 1818 copyright edition.
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.
