Persuasion (version 2)

Jane Austen lived from 1775 to 1817, and Persuasion was the last novel she completed. It was published just after her death, together with Northanger Abbey. Where her earlier novels often follow young women at the beginning of their adult life, Persuasion looks at a woman who is already past the usual age of marriage and who has had to live with a decision she may have come to regret. The book has an autumnal tone, with a particular feeling for memory, time and constancy.

The novel also carries an interest in the navy, which was then a path to fortune for men without inherited property. The Napoleonic wars had ended, and officers who had made money were returning to civilian life, a shift that Austen uses to unsettle the old social order. Her portrait of the vain and snobbish Sir Walter Elliot, who prides himself on his rank, gives a sharp edge to the comedy, and the contrast with the simple qualities of the sailors is part of the book’s argument.

Persuasion has a strong place in the affections of Austen’s readers, many of whom regard it as her most moving work. This recording is described as version 2, which means that another reading exists in the LibriVox catalogue. It has 24 chapters and lasts about eight hours, all read by one volunteer. The measured pace of the novel suits listening well, and the final chapters are especially rewarding for the listener who has stayed with the story. The book’s understated emotion gives it great force, and the unhurried voice of a single reader allows Austen’s irony and her tenderness to come through together.