Originally published in December 1817, just five months after Jane Austen died at the age of 41, Persuasion was her last completed novel. Released with Northanger Abbey as a four-volume set, its publication marked the first time Austen was acknowledged as the author of these and her previous four novels.
Persuasion begins eight years after Anne Elliot' s love affair was thwarted by her well-meaning mentor, Lady Russell. Now Anne must endure being thrust into company with her former fiancé , as he courts another, younger woman. Persuasion is not only one of Austen' s most popular novels, it is her most mature.