Persuasion: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Jane Austens last completed novel, Persuasion is a delightful social satire of Englands landed gentry and a moving tale of lovers separated by class distinctions.

After years apart, unmarried Anne Elliot, the heroine Jane Austen called almost too good for me, encounters the dashing naval officer others persuaded her to reject, as he now courts the rash and younger Louisa Musgrove.

Superbly drawn, these characters and those of Annes prideful father, Sir Walter, the scheming Mrs. Clay, and the duplicitous William Elliot, heir to Kellynch Hall, become luminously aliveso much so that the poet Tennyson, visiting historic Lyme Regis, where a pivotal scene occurs, exclaimed: Dont talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth.

Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell!Tender, almost grave, Persuasion offers a glimpse into Jane Austens own heart while it magnificently displays the full maturity of her literary power.