~Persuasion~

Well it's official. I just finished my first Jane Austen novel, Persuasion... and I LOVED it!

A portrait of Jane Austen

Persuasion

Anne Elliott and Fredrick Wentworth were once lovers 8 1/2 years ago.  Anne was young and persuaded by those around her that they should not marry due to his lack of fortune.  Of course, 8 1/2 years later, Fredrick comes back into her life as Captain Wentworth and with a handsome fortune... but are those feelings still there? Could he ever forgive her for letting the persuasion of others separate them?

SPOILER ALERT: This is the best part of the book. Captain Wentworth writes Anne a letter declaring his feelings... ah it's so good!

"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach.  You pierce my soul.  I am half agony, half hope.  Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever.  I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own that when you almost broke it, eight yeas and a half ago.  Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.  Unjust I may have been, weak, and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.  You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan.  Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others.  Too good, too excellent creature! You do justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men.  Believe it to be most fervent and most undeviating in F.W. (Fredrick Wentworth)

I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible.  A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never."

I'm personally a sucker for love letters.  There is nothing better than being able to read and re-read the feelings of someone who loves you. There are things that come out on paper that sometimes aren't spoken through mouth. It's so much more sentimental that someone took the time to WRITE to write their feelings down.

 

"Who can be in doubt of what followed? When any two young people take it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely to be necessary to each others ultimate comfort."

True love is out there people, and I'm just so happy I found it. And if you haven't read Jane Austen yet, go pick up one of her books (along with a dictionary because she sure uses some fancy words!)