Persuasion

by Jane Austen

In Brief

Having unwillingly foregone her only love eight years before, Anne Elliot has few prospects of marriage until Captain Frederick Wentworth – who has far exceeded his earlier humble expectations – comes back into her life. But Ann is not the only one with her eye on the dashing naval officer.

Why you should read it

Jane Austen's last completed novel is, for many, the favourite. Less famous than Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, it catches the vanity of society and the melancholy of missed opportunity to perfection.