编辑推荐
Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a
man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the
Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and
consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused
into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant
of the earliest patents.
内容简介
Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion is a delightful
social satire of England's landed gentry and a moving tale of
lovers separated by class distinctions. After years apart,
unmarried Anne Elliot, the heroine Jane Austen called "almost too
good for me," encounters the dashing naval officer others persuaded
her to reject, as he now courts the rash and younger Louisa
Musgrove. Superbly drawn, these characters and those of Anne's
prideful father, Sir Walter, the scheming Mrs. Clay, and the
duplicitous William Elliot, heir to Kellynch Hall, become
luminously alive--so much so that the poet Tennyson, visiting
historic Lyme Regis, where a pivotal scene occurs, exclaimed:
"Don't talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth. Show me the exact spot
where Louisa Musgrove fell " Tender, almost grave, Persuasion
offers a glimpse into Jane Austen's own heart while it
magnificently displays the full maturity of her literary power.
作者简介
Though the domain of Jane Austen’s novels was as circumscribed
as her life, her caustic wit and keen observation made her the
equal of the greatest novelists in any language. Born the seventh
child of the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775,
she was educated mainly at home. At an early age she began writing
sketches and satires of popular novels for her family’s
entertainment. As a clergyman’s daughter from a well-connected
family, she had an ample opportunity to study the habits of the
middle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy. At twenty-one, she
began a novel called “The First Impressions” an early version of
Pride and Prejudice. In 1801, on her father’s retirement, the
family moved to the fashionable resort of Bath. Two years later she
sold the first version of Northanger Abby to a London publisher,
but the first of her novels to appear was Sense and Sensibility,
published at her own expense in 1811. It was followed by Pride and
Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815).