Persuasion: Ed. with an Introduction and Notes by Gillian Beer (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Austen, Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141439688 ISBN 13: 9780141439686

Verlag: Penguin Classics, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

'In Persuasion, Jane Austen is beginning to discover that the world is larger, more mysterious, and more romantic than she had supposed' Virginia Woolf

Jane Austen's moving late novel of missed opportunities and second chances centres on Anne Elliot, no longer young and with few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she was persuaded by others to break off her engagement to poor, handsome naval captain Frederick Wentworth. What happens when they meet again is movingly told in Austen's last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, and a mature, tender love story tinged with heartache.

Edited with an Introduction by Gillian Beer

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jane Austen, the daughter of a clergyman, was born in Hampshire in 1775, and later lived in Bath and the village of Chawton. As a child and teenager, she wrote brilliantly witty stories for her family's amusement, as well as a novella, Lady Susan. Her first published novel was Sense and Sensibility, which appeared in 1811 and was soon followed by Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. Austen died in 1817, and Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously in 1818.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

'In Persuasion, Jane Austen is beginning to discover that the world is larger, more mysterious, and more romantic than she had supposed' Virginia Woolf

Jane Austen's moving late novel of missed opportunities and second chances centres on Anne Elliot, no longer young and with few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she was persuaded by others to break off her engagement to poor, handsome naval captain Frederick Wentworth. What happens when they meet again is movingly told in Austen's last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, and a mature, tender love story tinged with heartache.

Edited with an Introduction by Gillian Beer

Aus dem Klappentext

Her last completed novel, marrying witty social realism to a 'Cinderella' love story, Jane Austen's "Persuasion" is edited with an introduction by Gillian Beer in "Penguin Classics". Anne Elliot, twenty-seven and still single, seems destined for spinsterhood. In her youth, she broke off an engagement to penniless Captain Wentworth at the insistence of her friend Lady Russell, acquiescing to the demands of her class at the expense of her happiness. But when Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic wars rich and famous, Anne finds her affection rekindled - even though Wentworth seems more interested in Anne's friend Louisa Musgrove. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, "Persuasion" is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities. In her introduction, Gillian Beer discusses Austen's portrayal of the double-edged nature of persuasion and the clash between old and new worlds. This edition also includes a new chronology and full textual notes. Jane Austen (1775-1817) was extremely modest about her own genius but has become one of English literature's most famous women writers. Austen began writing at a young age, embarking on what is possibly her best-known work, "Pride and Prejudice", at the age of 22. She was the author of "Sense and Sensibility", "Pride and Prejudice", "Emma", "Persuasion", "Mansfield Park" and "Northanger Abbey". If you liked "Persuasion", you may enjoy George Eliot's "Middlemarch", also available in "Penguin Classics". "The most perfect artist among women, the writer whose books are immortal". (Virginia Woolf).

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter I

Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who,for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage;there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in adistressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration andrespect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents;there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairschanged naturally into pity and contempt. As he turned overthe almost endless creations of the last century—and there,if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own historywith an interest which never failed—this was the page at whichthe favourite volume always opened:

ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH HALL.

Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married, July 15, 1784, Elizabeth,daughter of James Stevenson, Esq. of South Park, in the county ofGloucester, by which lady (who died 1800) he has issue Elizabeth,born June 1, 1785; Anne, born August 9, 1787; a still-born son,November 5, 1789; Mary, born November 20, 1791.

Precisely such had the paragraph originally stood from the printer's hands;but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information ofhimself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary's birth—"Married, Dec 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of CharlesMusgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset,"—and by inserting most accurately the day of the month on whichhe had lost his wife.

Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectable family,in the usual terms: how it had been first settled in Cheshire;how mentioned in Dugdale—serving the office of High Sheriff,representing a borough in three successive parliaments,exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baronet, in the first yearof Charles II, with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married;forming altogether two handsome duodecimo pages, and concluding withthe arms and motto:"Principal seat, Kellynch Hall, in the countyof Somerset," and Sir Walter's hand-writing again in this finale:

"Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq., great grandson ofthe second Sir Walter."

Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character;vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsomein his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man.Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did;nor could the valet of any new made lord be more delighted withthe place he held in society. He considered the blessing of beautyas inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot,who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respectand devotion.

His good looks and his rank had one fair claim on his attachment;since to them he must have owed a wife of very superior characterto any thing deserved by his own. Lady Elliot had been an excellent woman,sensible and amiable; whose judgement and conduct, if they might bepardoned the youthful infatuation which made her Lady Elliot,had never required indulgence afterwards.—She had humoured,or softened, or concealed his failings, and promoted his realrespectability for seventeen years; and though not the very happiestbeing in the world herself, had found enough in her duties, her friends,and her children, to attach her to life, and make it no matter ofindifference to her when she was called on to quit them. —Three girls, the two eldest sixteen and fourteen, was an awful legacyfor a mother to bequeath; an awful charge rather, to confide tothe authority and guidance of a conceited, silly father.She had, however, one very intimate friend, a sensible, deserving woman,who had been brought, by strong attachment to herself, to settleclose by her, in the village of Kellynch; and on her kindness and advice,Lady Elliot mainly relied for the best help and maintenance ofthe good principles and instruction which she had been anxiouslygiving her daughters.

This friend, and Sir Walter, did not marry, whatever might have beenanticipated on that head by their acquaintance. —Thirteen yearshad passed away since Lady Elliot's death, and they were stillnear neighbours and intimate friends; and one remained a widower,the other a widow.

That Lady Russell, of steady age and character, and extremelywell provided for, should have no thought of a second marriage,needs no apology to the public, which is rather apt to be unreasonablydiscontented when a woman does marry again, than when she does not;but Sir Walter's continuing in singleness requires explanation.—Be it known then, that Sir Walter, like a good father, (having met withone or two private disappointments in very unreasonable applications)prided himself on remaining single for his dear daughters' sake.For one daughter, his eldest, he would really have given up any thing,which he had not been very much tempted to do. Elizabeth had succeeded,at sixteen, to all that was possible, of her mother's rightsand consequence; and being very handsome, and very like himself,her influence had always been great, and they had gone on togethermost happily. His two other children were of very inferior value.Mary had acquired a little artificial importance, by becomingMrs Charles Musgrove; but Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetnessof character, which must have placed her high with any peopleof real understanding, was nobody with either father or sister;her word had no weight, her convenience was always to give way;—she was only Anne.

To Lady Russell, indeed, she was a most dear and highly valuedgod-daughter, favourite, and friend. Lady Russell loved them all;but it was only in Anne that she could fancy the mother to revive again.

A few years before, Anne Elliot had been a very pretty girl,but her bloom had vanished early; and as even in its height,her father had found little to admire in her, (so totally differentwere her delicate features and mild dark eyes from his own);there could be nothing in them, now that she was faded and thin,to excite his esteem. He had never indulged much hope, he had now none,of ever reading her name in any other page of his favourite work.All equality of alliance must rest with Elizabeth; for Mary had merelyconnected herself with an old country family of respectability andlarge fortune, and had therefore given all the honour and received none:Elizabeth would, one day or other, marry suitably.

It sometimes happens, that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine thanshe was ten years before; and, generally speaking, if there has beenneither ill health nor anxiety, it is a time of life at which scarcely anycharm is lost. It was so with Elizabeth, still the same handsomeMiss Elliot that she had begun to be thirteen years ago; and Sir Waltermight be excused, therefore, in forgetting her age, or, at least,be deemed only half a fool, for thinking himself and Elizabethas blooming as ever, amidst the wreck of the good looks of every body else;for he could plainly see how old all the rest of his family andacquaintance were growing. Anne haggard, Mary coarse, every facein the neighbourhood worsting; and the rapid increase of the crow's footabout Lady Russell's temples had long been a distress to him.

Elizabeth did not quite equal her father in personal contentment.Thirteen years had seen her mistress of Kellynch Hall, presiding anddirecting with a self-possession and decision which could never have giventhe idea of her being younger than she was. For thirteen years hadshe been doing the honours, and laying down the domestic law at home,and leading the way to the chaise and four, and walking immediately afterLady Russell out of all the drawing-rooms and dining-rooms in the country.Thirteen winters' revolving frosts had seen her opening every ballof credit which a scanty neighbourhood afforded; and thirteen springsshewn their blossoms, as she...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Classics
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2003
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0141439688
• ISBN 13: 9780141439686
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Herausgeber: Beer Gillian
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: SC; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/; ; CL MODESTO LAFUENTE 41; Madrid; Madrid; Spanien