Persuasion (Collins Classroom Classics)

Persuasion Jane Austen

…there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.

This Collins Classroom Classics edition includes an introduction and glossary to support students, written by an experienced teacher.

ISBN 978-0-00-837183-8

£3.00

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Persuasion 9 780008 371838

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Introduction A royal stamp of approval may be something to aspire to, unless the monarch is of questionable character. George, Prince of Wales, acted as regent during George III’s illness from 1811, but his dissolute ways – mistresses, extravagant spending, debts – attracted contemporary criticism, and Jane Austen was mortified to learn that he kept copies of her novels in his library. Still, she was enough of a realist to recognise the value in dedicating Emma (published in 1816) to ‘His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent’.1 However, she did not pursue the connection. In a letter to the Prince’s librarian, Austen rebuffs his suggestion that she write a ‘Historical Romance’2 in the style of her contemporary, Walter Scott, to win more royal favour: ‘I could not sit seriously down to write a serious Romance under any other motive than to save my Life, & if it were indispensable for me to keep it up & never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first Chapter.’3 Even as she wrote this, Austen had begun the first draft of what was to be her last completed novel, Persuasion.4 The novel is not what Austen refers to as a ‘serious Romance’, where a hero embarks on testing adventures, winning a ‘deserving’ female as a reward for his courage; but it can surely be seen as a romantic novel in the modern sense of the word, in its focus on a heroine’s emotional journey towards a fulfilling romantic relationship. Of all of Austen’s novels, in its exploration of love it draws closest to Shakespeare’s description of true love as ‘an ever-fixèd mark’5 that v

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withstands the passing of time through its heroine, Anne Elliot, who, ‘forced into prudence in her youth, […] learnt romance as she grew older’ (pp.31–32).

Persuasion takes as a key theme the influence of others – for good or ill – on our actions. Anne is persuaded not to accept an early marriage offer by a dear and valued older friend; Sir Walter is persuaded by the subtle manipulation of his agent to accept a rearadmiral as tenant, thus setting off the plot of the novel; many characters are persuaded of a person’s value by their rank. Yet Austen explores other themes – fidelity, sacrifice, memory, friendship – with equal interest, and her own working title, The Elliots, might have been just as fitting for a novel that probes the complex relationships of one family through the eyes of the quiet, watchful Anne.

Austen’s writing Narrative style: interior world Persuasion offers an absorbing exploration of one woman’s emotional life. This is largely due to Austen’s pioneering use of the narrative technique now called ‘free indirect style’, where the third-person narrative ‘takes on the habits of thought or even speech of a particular character’.6 We experience the novel’s events almost entirely through Anne Elliot’s self-conscious (but not always self-aware) mind. John Mullan, for instance, notes how Austen suggests Anne’s selfrepression by avoiding the use of Wentworth’s name to minimise pain, which makes it almost shocking when her feelings burst free, for instance in exclamations and uncharacteristically vehement language – ‘exquisite’, ‘misery’, ‘evil […] incalculable’ (p.219). 7 We are witness vi

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Introduction

to Anne’s every thought, in a style that almost meets stream of consciousness in places; look, for instance, at how Austen emphasises Anne’s discomfort at meeting Wentworth again in Volume I, Chapter 7, by using a dizzying sequence of short phrases (pp.65–66).8 Elsewhere, Austen conveys Anne’s experience by describing her physical sensations. When Wentworth rescues her from a troublesome nephew (p.89), Anne’s sense of ‘being released from’ the little boy reveals her mixed emotions (relief, embarrassment) as well as her intense, physical awareness of Wentworth’s presence.

As readers, we are often reliant on Anne’s interpretation of character and situation; at other times, the voice seems more sharply Austen’s (‘Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot’s character’ (p.2)). Occasionally, however, the narrative steps into another character’s thoughts; for instance, note how it shifts to Wentworth’s perspective at the end of Volume I, Chapter 7: ‘Her power with him was gone for ever’ (p.68). Here, Wentworth’s viewpoint contrasts with Anne’s confusion by echoing the decisiveness on which he prides himself; yet it also hints that his certainty is merely a form of ‘self-persuasion’.

Characterisation What did Austen want us to feel about Anne? Is she, as the title suggests, too compliant, enduring poor behaviour and preferring to inhabit the background? It is through silence that Austen conveys most about her main character, suggesting Anne’s solitude amidst the ‘ceaseless buzz’ of others (p.210): Anne withdraws both to understand her own emotional responses and to shield herself from unkindness or indifference. Perhaps it is this that has led some critics to see in Anne ‘as vivid vii

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CHAPTER 1

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; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which the favourite volume always opened: Elliot of Kellynch Hall Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married, July 15, 1784, Elizabeth, daughter of James Stevenson, Esq. of South Park, in the county of Gloucester; by which lady (who died 1800) he has issue Elizabeth; born June 1, 1785; Anne, born August 9, 1787; a still-born son, November 5, 1789; Mary, born November 20, 1791.

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Precisely such had the paragraph originally stood from the printer’s hands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of himself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary’s birth – ‘married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset,’ and by inserting most accurately the day of the month on which he had lost his wife.

Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectable family, in the usual terms: how it had been first settled in Cheshire; how mentioned in Dugdale – serving the office of High Sheriff, representing a borough in three successive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baronet, in the first year of Charles II, with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; forming altogether two handsome duodecimo pages, and concluding with the arms and motto: ‘Principal seat, Kellynch Hall, in the county of Somerset,’ and Sir Walter’s handwriting again in this finale: ‘Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq., great grandson of the second Sir Walter.’

Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot’s character; vanity of person and of situation.

He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did; nor could the valet of any new made lord be more delighted with the place he held in society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion.

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volume i chapter 1

His good looks and his rank had one fair claim on his attachment; since to them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to any thing deserved by his own. Lady Elliot had been an excellent woman, sensible and amiable; whose judgement and conduct, if they might be pardoned the youthful infatu­ ation which made her Lady Elliot, had never required indulgence afterwards. – She had humoured, or softened, or concealed his failings, and promoted his real respectability for seventeen years; and though not the very happiest being in the world herself, had found enough in her duties, her friends, and her children, to attach her to life, and make it no matter of indifference to her when she was called on to quit them. – Three girls, the two eldest sixteen and fourteen, was an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath; an awful charge rather, to confide to the authority and guidance of a conceited, silly father. She had, however, one very intimate friend, a sensible, deserving woman, who had been brought, by strong attachment to herself, to settle close by her, in the village of Kellynch; and on her kindness and advice, Lady Elliot mainly relied for the best help and maintenance of the good principles and instruction which she had been anxiously giving her daughters.

This friend, and Sir Walter, did not marry, whatever might have been anticipated on that head by their acquaintance. Thirteen years had passed away since Lady Elliot’s death, and they were still near neighbours and intimate friends, and one remained a widower, the other a widow.

That Lady Russell, of steady age and character, and extremely well provided for, should have no thought of a second marriage, needs no apology to the public, which is rather apt to be unreasonably discontented 3

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Glossary Some common words with archaic spellings, for example ‘chuses’ for ‘chooses’ (p. 222), have not been glossed where the meaning is clear from the context.

Volume 1 Chapter 1 1 Somersetshire: county in southwest England (now called Somerset), where the novel is set 1 the Baronetage: This was a published list of the baronets of Great Britain. A baronet is a hereditary title awarded by the Crown to a commoner (that is, someone who is not noble); they are addressed as ‘Sir’.

1 patents: here, used to refer to ‘titles’ 1 creations: new titles 1 leaf: page of a book 1 Esq.: short for ‘Esquire’, a courtesy title for men of higher social rank (above gentlemen) 1 county of Gloucester: Gloucestershire, the county bordering Somersetshire 1 issue: children 2 Cheshire: northern county of England 2 Dugdale: Sir William Dugdale was a 17th-century English historian; his Baronage of England recorded the origins of the oldest noble families in the country.

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High Sheriff: ceremonial officer for a county of England or Wales

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dignity of: been awarded the title of

2 Charles II: King of England (1660–85), whose reign represented the ‘Restoration’ of the monarchy after the English Civil War (1642–51) and Interregnum (1649–60), when England was governed as a republic 2 duodecimo: old book page size

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2 arms and motto: a family’s coat of arms and short saying by which they were known 2 valet: male servant and personal attendant 3 an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath: The implication here is that the responsibility of raising daughters into good prospective wives (traditionally a mother’s role) is too heavy a burden for a father (Sir Walter) to bear.

4 Sir Walter’s continuing in singleness requires explanation: Since women regularly died in childbirth, widowers often remarried (especially to secure a male heir).

4 consequence: importance 5 worsting: getting worse 5

crow’s foot: wrinkles in outer corners of eyes

5

chaise and four: closed carriage with four horses

6 heir presumptive: person entitled to inherit, but whose position could be displaced (for example, by the birth of a new heir, here, to Sir Walter) 7 Tattersall’s: auctioneer of racehorses in London 7 lobby of the House of Commons: Sir Walter refers to a meeting-place for the well-to-do and powerful in the British Parliament. Before the Great Reform Act of 1832, most members of parliament were landed gentry such as Sir Walter.

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wearing black ribbons: a public sign of mourning

8 agent: manager of his land 9 retrench: reduce spending 9 alienable: transferrable to new ownership Chapter 2 12

our first families: the most important noble families

12 singular: unusual, extraordinary 12 expedition: here, speed 12 the decencies even of a private gentleman: those

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Glossary

things that even a non-titled man of leisure would expect to have in order to live comfortably 13 Bath: fashionable English spa resort in Somerset; people came originally to ‘take the waters’ for their health, but by Austen’s day the city had become a fashionable place to be ‘seen’ 14

at school there: at a boarding school for girls

15 intimacy: close friendship 15 quite out of place: unsuitable (because of the difference in class) 16 complaisance: polite willingness to please Chapter 3 17

the present juncture: this moment in time

17 This peace: The peace of 1814 (the first Treaty of Paris) ended the Napoleonic Wars between France and the Allies (Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sweden and Portugal) following Napoleon’s exile to Elba.

17

our rich naval officers: During wartime, naval officers could make money by capturing enemy ships.

17 gentlemen of the navy: officers, rather than ordinary sailors 17 liberal: here, generous or unprejudiced (rather than in a political sense) 18 one part of the world… the other: the actions of the well-off are always of interest to those lower down 18 consequence has its tax: there is a price to pay for being important 18 shrubberies: secluded garden walk between larger bushes and shrubs 19 the privileges to be annexed to it: the access included in the tenancy 19 The park would be open… restrictions… on the use of the pleasure-grounds: Open parkland surrounding a large house would already be accessible to the public; the landscaped (private) gardens close to the house would not.

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