Persuasion Is Perfection!

by Anna Campbell

Did you know that 2013 is a big year in Romancelandia?

The book that launched a million Regency romances, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, is 200 years old this year. There are events planned to mark this momentous occasion in every corner of the world . I wouldn't be surprised if there's even a Turn Your Yurt into Pemberley day in Outer Mongolia!

There are lots of things happening in Australia to mark this anniversary. I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in the Absolutely Austen! event at Gold Coast Libraries back in February.

I've read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE more times than I can count. I always find something new in it. In fact, my very first review here at the Romance Dish was of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: http://www.theromancedish.com/2009/11/mr-collins-to-rescue.html 

So I knew I could wing it if someone asked me about P&P (especially if the question involved swooning over Mr. Darcy. Always had a crush on Mr. Darcy!), but I haven't read the other Austen books in years. Partly because, don't shoot me, I'm not a huge fan of MANSFIELD PARK, EMMA or SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.

The book I decided to read again was NORTHANGER ABBEY because there's a really lovely BBC version of it that made me want to revisit this story (haven't read it since I was standing in line for theatre tickets in London in 1985). But I couldn't find it. One of the hazards of having so many books lying around the house.

Instead I read a book I've always loved, I've read several times, but I haven't read in ages, PERSUASION.

PERSUASION often seems to be treated a bit like the redheaded child in the Austen canon, which is a pity because it's wonderful. It's much quieter than PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and the heroine has none of Lizzie's flash and sparkle. Captain Frederick Wentworth is a wonderful hero, brave and handsome and passionate, but he's not actually on the page a lot as a character although he plays a large part in the other characters' thoughts.

One of the things we love about Darcy is that he's got a hill to climb before he gets his happy ending. Wentworth on the other hand is pretty much the ideal man from the get-go. Yeah, it takes him a while to get over his huff but honestly, who could blame him? And despite our heroine's obvious qualities, he sets his sights on the wrong girl before he quickly comes to his senses. Yup, pretty much a flat character arc with the ole captain dude.

At the heart of PERSUASION is Anne Elliot. Anne is a sensitive woman of refinement and intelligence and unselfish courage. She's also a bit of a Cinderella in her horrible family. Her father, Sir Walter Elliot, is shallow and vain and a world-class social climber. Her oldest sister is a colder version of the father. Her younger sister Mary is a comic masterpiece, the sort of girl who would complain in heaven and who always feels completely hard done by.

At the age of nineteen, Anne falls passionately in love with a junior naval officer of no fortune but infinite promise (Wentworth, of course!). Because of inexperience and lack of confidence, she allows her godmother to persuade her against accepting his offer of marriage (hence the title of the book). Wentworth leaves in high dudgeon to pursue what becomes a brilliant career. Anne is left to fade into gentle spinsterhood as the family dogsbody.

The story opens when eight years later, Captain Wentworth returns to the district, rich, famous, and in search of a wife befitting his new status in the world. Needless to say, he's still angry at Anne for being so spineless. Through a series of encounters, including the famous visit to the seaside resort of Lyme Regis, Anne and Wentworth gradually find their way back to one another.

Anne is never in doubt of the quality of the man she rejected all those years ago so we feel every ounce of her pain when it's apparent that he hasn't forgiven her. Wentworth is determined not to be hurt again, but slowly he discovers that he can't find a new love when his old love still haunts him. And PERSUASION has one of the most satisfying endings anywhere. I always cry when I read it and I cried again this time. Sigh.

Anne Elliot lies at the center of this subtle story of love found, lost, then found again. There's a depth to her character that is absolutely unforgettable. Her longing and regret will break your heart. One of the joys of PERSUASION is watching Anne blossom into the warm, fulfilled woman she was meant to be.

This was Jane Austen's last completed novel and it packs an enormous emotional punch. You can't help thinking of where her genius would have taken her after this. Charlotte Bronte was always very dismissive of Austen, calling her books 'commonplace' and bloodless. CB never read PERSUASION. I wonder if the heartfelt emotions in this book would have converted her into an Austenite!

Have you read PERSUASION? How do you think it stacks up against its flashier and more popular sister PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? Wentworth or Darcy? What's your favorite Jane Austen story?

Mr. Collins to the Rescue!

by Anna Campbell

Firstly, WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!!

It's my first review with the Dishies! Hiya Gannon, PJ, Buffie and Andrea! Not to mention my Bandita pal Trish Milburn. I'm stoked to be working with you! This site is going to become a phenomenon. You mark my words.

Long live the Romance Dish! Long may its deliciousness pervade my world!

Right, having got that off my chest, I'd better introduce myself.

I'm going to be a regular here reviewing romance classics and books I like, probably, although not necessarily, older books that you might have missed. Kind of what I used to do once a month at RNTV. Occasionally I might throw in something about a research book - I've noticed people find research books pretty interesting!

So please swing by on the 24th of each month for my Second Helping!

I thought I'd start my reviewing career on the Romance Dish at the top. Yep, I'm tackling the book that's often called the most perfect novel in the English language, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen.

Do I feel presumptuous? Yup! Is it going to stop me? Nup! Am I going to leap on this as an opportunity for some serious eye candy? Is the Pope a Catholic? Do bears sh...

What's that?

Oh, right. Reviewing the glorious and very fastidious Jane, I should remember my manners. I beg your pardon, gentle readers. There will be no further references to bears and their digestive processes in the verdant wildness of the adjacent woodland.

I first read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE when I was about twelve. I remember loving it although it wasn't much like the movie - my mother had a huge crush on Laurence Olivier so I can't tell you how many times I'd watched the Greer Garson/L.O. version with her. I've read the book numerous times since although not for about fifteen years or so now.

And in that 15 years, of course, the world has gone completely Jane Austen mad!

Movies, TV series, sequels, zombies! A poor Jane-o-phile had no idea where to look! Well, I kinda looked at Matthew Macfadyen but that's purely personal taste.

Coming back to reading the book last week, I realized that I was seeing the story through the filter of all the celluloid adaptations. One of the things I immediately noticed is that Jane's humor can be waspish and misanthropic - I'd remembered gently ironic but, no, a lot of this was firmly on the b*tchy side. The adaptations really soften Jane's judgments on her characters, even the awful ones! This time around, my first impression was that Lizzie was self-satisfied and too clever for her own good and Darcy was a humorless stick!

So is this going to be a bad review? How incredibly brave!!!!

Of course, it isn't going to be a bad review! Although I must admit the first chapters were a bit of a struggle - perhaps because I'd expected to dive in and adore the story as I had every other time I'd read it.

Do you know who saved the book for me? That most unlikely of heroes MR. COLLINS! He's such a marvelously written comic character - the scene where he proposes to Lizzie is an absolute corker and he brightens every page he ventures upon. I don't want to marry Darcy. I'm clearly nowhere near good enough for him. I want to marry Mr. Collins and live across the road from Lady Catherine de Bourgh!

Of course, Mr. Collins enters the story about the same point where I think Miss Austen's fondness for her characters starts peeping through and some warmth builds in the story. Lizzie is less all-knowing (she's going through the Wickham debacle at that stage which is definitely a lapse in judgment) and Darcy is starting to show a few cracks in his shell of invulnerable perfection. And the book just gets better and better as it charts their difficult courtship. Actually JA does a top job of proposals - Darcy's rejected proposal is another corker of a scene. And by the time Lizzie catches up with Darcy at Pemberley, I was devouring the book like I devoured the latest Liz Carlyle.

And of course, we get the lovely sigh-worthy ending. Although I'm enough of a romance reader to wish that we'd actually heard Darcy's declarations of being 'violently in love' instead of just being told about them. By the end, we know he's a true hero and man of honor, a man willing to sacrifice his dearest wishes (and his well-developed pride) for the sake of the woman he loves. So he might miss the occasional joke - we'll forgive him that after he saves Lizzie and her family from absolute disaster when Lydia elopes with Wickham.

I'm pretty sure academics would take a different view of the book. But hey, I'm a romance reader at heart! The romance is the bit that works for me the best. And while some people mightn't admit it, I suspect the romance is one of the chief reasons it's stayed in people's hearts so long. There's definitely elements of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast operating here so PRIDE AND PREJUDICE fits into my definition of classic fairytale romance!

So have you read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? How do you feel the book stacks up against the adaptations? And (this is always a favorite question!) do you have a favorite adaptation? I've included illustrations to inspire the discussion!