Persuasion

In this, Jane Austen's last novel, appears her most mem­orable heroine - Anne Elliot, a young woman of perfect breeding, profound depth of emotion, and unswerving in­tegrity. These virtues, however, exist in a world - the world of country gentry in Regency England - in which shallow­ness and hypocrisy thrive and ever threaten to win domin­ion. It is Anne's poised confrontation with these forces, as she vies for the affections of the man she loves, which gives shape to a work which displays Jane Austen's rich maturity of vision and her new-found sense of human potential. Blending sharp wit and warm sympathy, stylistic brilliance and tender insight, Persuasion represents the crowning achievement of Jane Austen's career, the final unfolding of her matchless art.