Austen’s mature work

What’s your favourite?

For anyone who is hoping to read English at university, a typical interview question may be to ask which your favourite texts are and why. (Handy hint for those who will be facing interviews next term, or who might encounter them in clearing: the interviewee hopes you are going to have engaged with more than just the works you studied for A Level!)

When I was applying to study English, my response about favourites would at some point include the works of Jane Austen. I had read them all over the years and particularly enjoyed Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, though struggled with the passivity of Fanny in Mansfield Park.

But which, questioned the interviewer on one occasion, did I think might have been Austen’s personal favourite? Hmmm.

Austen’s favourite?

Doubtless she was proud of all her output, but it seemed to me then, as it does now, that Jane Austen would most favour the endeavors of Anne Elliot in Persuasion. Anne, who is overlooked, has lost her dreams and is getting to the critical position of being ‘on the shelf’ in Regency society, yet who is wise, generous, quiet fun and astute in her assessment of others.

Anne is surrounded by the family from hell yet makes the best of it. She is fussed over by good friends but not taken in by them. She knows that she’s losing the charm of youth yet sees through the flattery that someone else in her situation might cling to.

Above all Persuasion is a story of hope and romance, played out by characters who have ‘been around the block’ and know what is worth holding on to. It is conjectured that Austen herself was engaged in a romance with a family connection, Tom Lefroy, that ultimately faltered. Persuasion could be seen as a literary re-write: one where the heroine does not have to sacrifice her personality in order to wine society’s prize: a story that allows a gentle - yet perceptive, under-confident - yet radiant, older woman to finally attain the man of her dreams.

Why not remind yourself?

This month’s Persuasion revision plan release from Crossref-it.info will guide you through Austen’s slim novel. If you think you remember it well, why not try out your skills on the quiz? Alternatively, you might be trying to gather together the thoughts and notes from a year of studying and would really benefit from seeing how it all fits together in a variety of essay plans. However you approach it, why not try Persuasion for yourself and see if you agree that Austen might have liked it best?