Persuasion

/ Rebekahrox

By Jane Austen

I’ve seen every (I think) film/series version of Persuasion and enjoyed reading the book for the first time. It was amazing how the book followed the movies. Kudos to the author, Jane Austen. I predict great things for her. It even lifted pages of actual dialogue straight from the film scripts, especially the Amanda Root version.

At first, I found the sentence structure convoluted and had to read many passages more than once to grasp the meaning. As the book went on though I got used to it and reading it got easier. It was helpful to be so familiar with the story, but wonder how much better I would have enjoyed it if I had not been so familiar with every twist and turn as it made its way to the final happy outcome.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

May 23, 2018

39 thoughts on “Persuasion”

  1. This is solely for your consumption……I really owe you. Being a major Anglophile I had appreciated Jane Austen and was peripherally aware of her significance but had only seen P&P and S&S and after exposure to your writings I watched the Amanda Root “Persuasion” and the 2009 “Emma” and fell in love and bought them both. I haven’t read the books and I’m kinda glad because I have a feeling I wouldn’t think the 2009 Emma role was one the readers of the book might imagine? But to me she was okay. I loved Persuasion so much, and thank a god for captions so I could understand what they were saying. So, that being said, here’s something to repay you. I absolutely feasted on this and I hope you haven’t seen it yet! 🙂

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      • I don’t mind it being up, I just didn’t want you to think my motivation was self aggrandizing or something. It’s such a treat to have a dialogue with someone who knows what you know. I was enthralled by that video, especially the food and the candlelit ambiance. I would have been attracted to way too many girls by candlelight. In Emma I thought Harriet Smith was perfect and I like her Daddy better every time I watch it. I think my favorite part is her visit to Ms. Bates early the next morning…..I teared up a little. Anne Elliot’s Dad was the Prime Minister in “The Girl in the Cafe”.

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      • This is impossibly sad. Susan Fleetwood, Lady Russell, died in the same year the movie came out. On the bright side, her kid brother could play drums!! 🙂

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  3. I can’t find the Claire Foy Northanger, I’d like to watch it. And I see what you mean about “the kiss” but at least they went through with it…….I kept waiting for a phone to ring! 😉 No mean feat, crying out of one eye.

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      • It would have to have been the 1995 movie and it might have been that long ago and I’ve forgotten all about it. Pride and Prejudice really caught my attention more. However, thanks to my shiny new interest, I want to try again so please let me know the best. I do love Hugh Grant. I loved that ball video, filmed in a room she was in. One of my favorite things……being at a spot someone once was. I remember reading about her dying in Cassandra’s arms and that room is still there. I think I’d go there. I’ve been to Bath but I wasn’t thinking about her….it was in the 80’s. We went to York to see Castle Howard where “Brideshead Revisited” was filmed and I wanted to see some Bronte sites but couldn’t get there. I think I’ve also read all of Evelyn Waugh’s stuff. He wrote this…..

        “Oxford, in those days, was still a city of aquatint. In her spacious and quiet streets men walked and spoke as they had done in Newman’s day; her autumnal mists, her grey springtime, and the rare glory of her summer days – such as that day – when the chestnut was in flower and the bells rang out high and clear over her gables and cupolas, exhaled the soft airs of centuries of youth.

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        • Of course the Emma Thompson movie is excellent. I love it most for Alan Rickman. As for the long versions both the 2008 version and the 1981 version are excellent. I would recommend the 2008 production before the 1981.

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      • I watched Sense and Sensibility just now and I enjoyed it a lot. If I hadn’t learned all I have learned in the last few weeks I wouldn’t have cared very much about it. I’ve watched 5 now during your tutorials and the one thing I have learned for sure is that in Regency England contractions were apparently outlawed. 😉 Emma Thompson’s relief when she finds out that Edward is not married is the realest thing I’ve seen in any of them……it was soooo perfect!! The little sister Margaret actress surely has had a productive life since. This has been so enlightening and so much fun. If you ever get to watch Firelight, think Jane Austen on steroids. I’m glad I watched the movies in the order I did I think. Oh, and I thought the ball scene in this one was well done.

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        • I did watch Firelight on your recommendation and enjoyed it very much. The scene where Elinor learns he is not married is probably my favorite scene in any Jane Austen movie. Closely followed by Darcy and Elizabeth’s surprise meeting at Pemberley.

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    • So cute…..and so Emma Thompson too I guess? I hope you watched this video. I don’t think anything I’ve read about back then registered like picturing them playing Snap Dragon in that very hall 215 years ago. It’s easy to imagine how filled with magic that moment would have been for the participants, especially the little nieces and nephews. If you’ll start at 12:00 you too may be enthralled. 😉 I wish I didn’t see that kiss scene. Somebody should have told the director that a 440 would be sufficient, no need for a 5k.

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    • I want to slip this in on you…..it’s way better than you probably think it’ll be!! 🙂 I thought at first oh no just identifying people in paintings but there’s lots of show and tell. I wish I could find one dealing with the period we’ve been discussing, this is 2 to 3 hundred years before.

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  5. I understand. I have the exquisite luxury of unlimited time. All my life I’ve wanted to know everything there was to know…….and if the internet hadn’t arrived 40 years too late I just might have done it. 😉

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  6. Oops. See what you’re dealing with? 🙂 Just the two minutes from 12:00……I don’t ask much 😉 I do apologize, I forget how many books you read and that does take time.

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      • You can imagine how excited the kids would be, there just wasn’t that much to get excited about back then. I love trying to picture what stuff was truly like and about all I’m good at is imagining how bad they must have smelled. 🙂 But I can picture the dark room and the blue flame flickering and the children freaking out and and Jane Austen there in that very room at Chawton that’s shown in the P&P Ball video way up at the top of this thread. I think I might read Caroline’s book.

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  8. Oh God you are going to treat me with such contempt!!! I got 18 minutes into Northanger Abbey and paused it. I was so drawn into Emma and Persuasion, I was there and feeling it and loving it….it was real… but this seems totally contemporary or something???? I hate myself for this. I’m exposed. I do feel that Felicity Jones is the most wonderfully appealing heroine at least. I understand that the only fair way to judge is to read the books and now I’m exposed as a dilettante.

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      • Uh let me begin anew. I loved it!!!!! I really loved it. Before I restarted, I read and watched a lot about it so I knew what was going on and I thought it was wonderful. When they got to the Abbey I instantly begin getting serious “Rebecca” vibes though. I do wish it was much longer. I have a feeling this adaptation would be Jane Austen’s least favorite. Poor Carey Mulligan; have you seen “An Education”? At least she wasn’t cast as Lydia. 🙂 I ordered the Austen Memoir by her nephew.

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    • Yes, I would recommend starting with P&P or Emma. I’ve read them all except for Sense and Sensibility. I listened to Northanger Abbey, but it was abridged. I don’t care to read S & S. But hope to read NA in its entirety soon.

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  9. Whew, so glad you enjoyed Firelight…..I was worried I’d overstepped my bounds. I agree with you totally re your two favorite scenes!! (I’m remembering the 2005 P&P one and I think I’m remembering an audible gasp when she’s peeking through the door?) Prior to Emma Thompson’s wonderful wonderful reaction, throughout all the movies there had been nothing but decorum and I was totally shocked. This has all been soooooo much fun plus quite an education about the first two decades of the 19th century. Thank you!!! 🙂

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