Persuasion was published in 1817 together with Nortbanger Abbey, a revised earlier novel about a naive young girl starting out on social life;Peruasion, on the other hand, has a heroine regretting the loss of youthful hopes. Both were presented in two rather than the usual three volumes, and are shorter than the rest of Austen's completed novels.This edition keeps the two-volume structure.

What does persuasion mean - a firm belief, or the action of persuading someone to think something else? Anne Elliot is one of Austen"s quietest heroines, but also one of the strongest and the most open to change.She lives at the time of the Napoleonic wars, a time of accident, adventure, the making of new fortunes and alliances. A woman of no importance, she manoeuvres in her restricted circumstances as her long-time love Captain Wentworth did in the wars. Even though she is nearly thirty, well past the sell-by bloom of youth, Austen makes her win out for herself and for others like herself, in a regenerated society.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

PUBLICATION

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

VOLUME I

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

THE CANCELLED CHAPTER OF PERSUASION

NOTES