Persuasion

A quiet, funny, slow-burning novel that builds to one of the best second-chance endings in a classic. Little happens in the first half, but the Lyme chapters and the last fifth carry it. Four and a half out of five (draft). Read it if: you like second-chance love stories with restraint; you enjoy social comedy about vain, grasping families; you want a short, gentle classic with a strong ending. Skip it if: you want a fast plot: the first half is mostly conversation; long regency sentences wear you out; you need the lovers on the page early: wentworth is absent for the opening chapters.

Our ending explained covers the final chapters in full, with spoilers. Persuasion ending explained: two overheard conversations, one letter, the gravel walk and the last chapter. Do Anne and Wentworth end up together? Full spoilers. Persuasion Ending Explained →

Persuasion summary, chapter by chapter, tracking every push on Anne Elliot: Lady Russell, the hazel nut, Lyme, Bath and the ending. Full spoilers. Persuasion Summary: Chapter by Chapter, Who Pushes Anne →

Anne Elliot, 27, is the overlooked middle daughter of a vain baronet. Years earlier she was talked out of marrying a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth. When his sister rents her family's house, he comes back into her life, now rich and unforgiving, and the story follows Anne from the Somerset countryside to Lyme and Bath.

The Project Gutenberg text, ebook number 105, has 24 chapters. By our count it is about 84,000 words. The story opens in the summer of 1814, according to the text.

Mostly in three places: Kellynch Hall and the nearby village of Uppercross in Somerset, the seaside town of Lyme, and the city of Bath, where Sir Walter Elliot moves after letting his house.

Anne Elliot, the middle daughter of Sir Walter Elliot. By our count her name appears 496 times in the Gutenberg text, more than twice as often as the next name, Wentworth, at 218.