Persuasion
Illustrated by C.E. Brock
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $0.99
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- $0.99
Publisher Description
This Top Five Classics illustrated edition of Jane Austen’s Persuasion features:
• 30 full-color illustrations by Charles E. Brock
• an informative Introduction
• a detailed Biography and Bibliography
Originally published in December 1817, just five months after Jane Austen died at the age of 41, Persuasion was her last completed novel. Released with Northanger Abbey as a four-volume set, its publication marked the first time Austen was acknowledged as the author of these and her previous four novels.
Persuasion begins eight years after Anne Elliot’s love affair was thwarted by her well-meaning mentor, Lady Russell. Now Anne must endure being thrust into company with her former fiancé, as he courts another, younger woman. Persuasion is not only one of Austen’s most popular novels, it is her most mature.
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.
