Persuasion

I like Jane Austen a lot. That said, it took me a long time to get through more than 1 or 2 chapters in this book. I didn't think I'd like Anne Elliot all that much, but as I let the story unfold and got to learn more about the people around her, I grew to admire her restraint. Frankly, I'd want to bash her relatives upside the head for their vanity and cluelessness. But that wouldn't be proper, would it?

Persuasion is a thinner book than most of Austen's previous works, but still has a lot going for it. A family in debt that has to rent out their estate while they take a smaller place (horrifying to the father and Anne's sister, Elizabeth), some new friends come into Anne's life, and some old ones like her old schoolmate Mrs. Smith and (now) Captain Wentworth, who she'd been engaged to years before but was persuaded to break it off. Circumstances bring these two together in different ways while others are usually in the way.

I thought the character diversity was fantastic, though I did get confused a few times when reading. Several characters share the same name, and though propriety and mannerisms have changed, when you have two characters named Charles and more of the Elliot family coming into the story, I had to sit back and remind myself who these people were that we were talking about right then. And it took me a bit that they were making a difference between Mr. Elliot and Sir Walter (Anne's father). I just had to try to remember because Sir Walter name-drops "Elliot" every chance he gets!

Other than that, once I got my "Austen glasses" on, I could get into the story easier. I like this one and am going to keep it.