BOOK REVIEW: PERSUASION BY JANE AUSTEN

4.25 stars

LOVED THIS SO MUCH. LOVED ANNE SO MUCH. LOVED WENTWORTH SO MUCH. ALLL THE LOVVEEE

WHERE TO BEGIN??? (this is about to be long af so bear with me as I sort through the endless amount of thoughts I have about this)
► now that I've read 4 Austen books, my ranking is as follows: 1) Pride and Prejudice (is anyone surprised tho), 2) Persuasion (as I've already mentioned, I LOVED IT !!!), 3) Northanger Abbey, and lastly, 4) Sense and Sensibility (it was rli long ok)

► first of all, ANNE IS MY HOMEGIRL. I absolutely LOVE her. I'd to go to war with her any day. She's admittedly the least exceptional heroine of Austen's that I've read so far, but she is by no means boring. She's not witty like Elizabeth, or stoic like Elinor, or naive like Catherine. She's twenty-eight, much older than all of them, so she's had a lot of time to think her decisions and values through. 

► There are so many adjectives I'd use to describe Anne, namely self-possessed, opinionated, patient, and sensible. The cards she's been dealt could be worse, but they're certainly not the best: her dad (i will be roasting Sir Walter in a sec) and older sister are assholes, her younger sister doesn't give two shits about her (Mary is funny tho hehe), and her mom died when she was young. She's old (by the standards of her time, that is), unmarried, and her family has fallen on hard times (because of said asshole dad's shitty decisions). There are only two people—Lady Russell and Mrs. Smith—who care about her at all. And yet, despite ALL THAT, Anne is never self-pitying. She keeps her head up and rolls with it with such grace and aplomb. Honestly, what an absolute trooper. 

► LOOK AT THIS 

"She knew that when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself; but this was no new sensation. Excepting one short period of her life, she had never, since the age of fourteen, never since the loss of her dear mother, known the happiness of being listened to, or encouraged by any just appreciation or real taste. In music she had been always used to feel alone in the world; and Mr and Mrs Musgrove’s fond partiality for their own daughters’ performance, and total indifference to any other person’s, gave her much more pleasure for their sakes, than mortification for her own."

I mean, the whole passage is basically about how lonely she's been for a long time, and yet it never seems like she's bringing it up for pity or sympathy. In fact, she's happy that at least others have what she doesn't/didn't. Anne is too good for all of us tbh. it's ok Anne I will love you (and so will Capitain Wentworth, *wink wink*). 

► Onto my boy Captain Wentworth. There are very few people who could ever deserve Anne, and good ol' CW is definitely one of them. HE IS WONDERFUL. That letter tho. If there was ever an appropriate time to use the word "swoon," this would be it.

"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature!"

NO WONDER ANNE WAS SHOOK AS HELL. HONESTLY I'M GETTING EMOTIONAL READING THIS RIGHT NOW. WHAT THE HELL FREDERICK HOW DARE YOU


(me in the end when Anne and Wentworth finally talked about their Feelings)

► I can't tell you how happy I was for Anne and Wentworth in the end. Imagine falling in love with someone, almost marrying them, then messing it up, then 8 years later they're back and you still wanna be with them but you think they love someone else but not really and it's all MESSY AND COMPLICATED AND THE WHOLE TIME YOU BOTH STILL LOVE EACH OTHER BUT WON'T JUST ADMIT IT TO EACH OTHER DAMMIT. 

► I think Anne and Wentworth's relationship is a reminder of how much our feelings get cloaked in and obstructed by social decorum and our fears and anxieties and pride, etc. I certainly don't think that's something that's specific to Austen's time.

► This book also brings up a lot of interesting points about the extent to which we're willing to be influenced by other people's opinions. The book is called Persuasion after all. Was Anne wrong to be persuaded out of her engagement? How much are we willing to trust those closest to us? And how does our personal confidence in our choices factor into all of this? I have more questions than answers, really. 

"Anne wondered whether it ever occurred to [Captain Wentworth] now, to question the justness of his own previous opinion as to the universal felicity and advantage of firmness of character; and whether it might not strike him that, like all other qualities of the mind, it should have its proportions and limits. She thought it could scarcely escape him to feel that a persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character"

(I told y'all Anne was opinionated)

► the time has come for me to roast Sir Walter. let me start by saying: what an absolute shitbag. 100%. Undeniable. But I'll be damned if he isn't hilarious. I mean if I had to deal with him on a daily basis, I'd lose my mind in about 5 seconds, but reading about him was loads of fun. 
this scene made me laugh. he's so damn ridiculous. 

"The worst of Bath was the number of its plain women. He did not mean to say that there were no pretty women, but the number of the plain was out of all proportion. He had frequently observed, as he walked, that one handsome face would be followed by thirty, or five-and thirty frights; and once, as he had stood in a shop on Bond Street, he had counted eighty-seven women go by, one after another, without there being a tolerable face among them. It
had been a frosty morning, to be sure, a sharp frost, which hardly one woman in a thousand could stand the test of. But still, there certainly were a dreadful multitude of ugly women in Bath; and as for the men! they were infinitely worse. Such scarecrows as the streets were full of! It was evident how little the women were used to the sight of anything tolerable, by the effect which a man of decent appearance produced."

when you count the number of women passing you (87 !!!) and all of them are ugly!!!! #JustSirWalterThings
I would kill to get Sir Walter a twitter I would love to see what nonsense he'd spew on there

► Speaking of Sir Walter, Austen is totally throwing shade at the notion that women are vain through his character. Admiral Croft is like sorry Anne we had to move the 29730231 mirrors your dad had in his room when we moved--we didn't need that many #YourDadisHellaConceited 

"Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot’s character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did."

► also, Persuasion has some killer quotes. 

"Captain Harville: 'I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman’s inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman’s fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.'
Anne: 'Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.'"

CAN I GET A HELL YEAH

(About Mrs. Smith) ↓

"A submissive spirit might be patient, a strong understanding would supply resolution, but here was something more; here was that elasticity of mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding employment which carried her out of herself, which was from nature alone. It was the choicest gift of Heaven; and Anne viewed her friend as one of those instances in which, by a merciful appointment, it seems designed to counterbalance almost every other want."

talk about goals. who knew Mrs. Smith would be an inspiration.

OK. I BELIEVE THAT IS ALL. I NEED TO BELIEVE THAT THAT IS ALL BECAUSE THAT WAS A LOT. If any of you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed me gush about the beauty that was Persuasion.