Persuasion
Classic Fiction · No. 73 — The second chance eight years in the coming.
- Classic Fiction
- 28 min
- Ages 10–14
- 6 chapters
About this audiobook
Anne Elliot lives overlooked by her vain father and elder sister, carrying the memory of Captain Frederick Wentworth, whose proposal she refused eight years earlier on the advice of her beloved mentor Lady Russell. When the indebted Elliots rent Kellynch Hall to Wentworth's sister and move toward Bath, Anne and Wentworth meet again. He is wealthy, admired, and apparently determined to marry someone else, while Anne quietly proves her steadiness amid family foolishness. At Lyme Regis, Louisa Musgrove's reckless leap ends in a serious fall, and Anne's calm action makes Wentworth reconsider the difference between firmness and stubbornness. In Bath, Anne is courted by her polished cousin Mr. Elliot, but her old school friend Mrs. Smith reveals his selfish designs. Wentworth overhears Anne defending the constancy of women's love and writes the letter he cannot say aloud: he is half agony, half hope. Anne, older and surer of her own judgment, chooses him freely.
Why it's worth a listen
At nineteen, Anne Elliot was persuaded to give up the naval officer she loved because he had no fortune. Eight years later he returns a celebrated captain, while her proud family is losing the estate it values more than kindness. Quiet, autumnal, and finally thrilling, Austen's last completed novel asks whether a decision can be both understandable and wrong — and whether two people changed by time can still recognize one another.
A question to keep
When should you trust wise advice, and when must you trust your own judgment?
Chapters
- The Baronet’s Mirror and the Quiet Daughter
- The Return of the Captain
- The Hazel-Nut and the Cobb
- The Shadows of Bath
- Half Agony, Half Hope
- A Question to Keep