Anne Elliot, then a lovely, thoughtful, warm-hearted 19-year-old girl, accepts a proposal of marriage from the handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth. He is clever, confident, and ambitious, but poor and with no particular family connections to recommend him. Sir Walter, Anne's fatuous, snobbish father and her equally self-involved older sister Elizabeth are dissatisfied with her choice, maintaining that he is no match for an Elliot of Kellynch Hall, the family estate. Her older friend and mentor, Lady Russell, acting in place of Anne's late mother, persuades her to break the engagement.

Now 27 and still unmarried, Anne re-encounters her former love when his sister and brother-in-law, the Crofts, take out a lease on Kellynch. Wentworth is now a captain and wealthy from maritime victories in the Napoleonic wars. However, he has not forgiven Anne for rejecting him and while publicly declaring that he is ready to marry any suitable young woman, who catches his fancy, privately resolves that he is ready to become attached to any appealing young woman except for Anne Elliot.Now 27 and still unmarried, Anne re-encounters her former love when his sister and brother-in-law, the Crofts, take out a lease on Kellynch. Wentworth is now a captain and wealthy from maritime victories in the Napoleonic wars. However, he has not forgiven Anne for rejecting him and while publicly declaring that he is ready to marry any suitable young woman, who catches his fancy, privately resolves that he is ready to become attached to any appealing young woman except for Anne Elliot.

Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. In many respects Persuasion marks a break with Austen's previous works, both in the more biting, even irritable satire directed at some of the novel's characters and in the regretful, resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot, in the first part of the story. Anne Elliot, heroine of Austen's last novel, did something we can all relate to: Long ago, she let the love of her life get away. In this case, she had allowed herself to be persuaded by a trusted family friend that the young man she loved wasn't an adequate match, and that Anne could do better. But then the guy she never stopped loving comes back from the sea and she's still alone.

Jane Austen (16 December 1775—18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism and biting social commentary has gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.

Jane Austen's final novel continues to fascinate readers. This love story contains Austen's most pointed social commentary, recognizing the rising status of the professional class and respecting the aristocrats with their inherited lands and titles. —Nancy R. Ives (Library Journal 20111126)

Jane Austen's last work, published posthumously in 1817, is her deepest and most introspective. Austen's view of the drawing apart and coming together of Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth is both wintry and warm. (Globe and Mail 20111205)