Book Reviews - Review 326

Anne Elliot, daughter of a snobbish Somerset baronet, falls in love with the naval officer Captain Wentworth. Wentworth proposes, but the disapproval of her father and of an old friend, Mrs. Russell, persuades Anne to relinquish the attachment. Seven years later, Wentworth reappears, rich and successful, but makes clear to Anne his resentment of the perceived slight, and Anne is left in agonies over the reawakening of past passion. The two former lovers pussyfoot around each other, their continuing love unspoken, and things complicated by events and machinations in their social circle that lead to the usual Austen misunderstandings.

That's as much as one can relate of the story without giving everything away, since it is heavily plot-based. It is well thought-out, intricate and detailed; but a consequence of that is a lack of space for richness of prose or characteristation. There are lots of descriptions of trips away and gatherings at people's houses in rural Somerset and Bath, much of the narrative given over to involved explanations of how it's decided who will attend what social function and with whom, who will go out, who will stay at home to look after this or that ailing relative, etc. Perhaps some readers enjoy this kind of fine-grained exposition, but I found it confusing and tiresome.

As usual, Austen's overriding interest is the abstract notion of romantic love and the obstacles that stand in its way. It's emotions that interest her, rather than character, atmosphere or ideas. Anne is honest, dutiful and perceptive, and Captain Wentworth is proud but diffident; but neither of them is particularly interesting except in terms of their relationship to one another. In the world of Austen's making, love triumphs over all, including personality flaws and, one might say, life as it is really lived. There are a dozen or so other main characters (rather a lot for a shortish novel), who, while not being caricatures, never really engage or intrigue the reader. This is partly due to the paucity of vivid description; "good-looking" is about as precise as Austen gets with regard to anyone's appearance, "well-mannered" about as precise as she gets with regard to anyone's behaviour.

All that is not to say this is an entirely sentimental novel; but it is definitely an expression of Austen's own preoccupations more than a penetrating study of all human life.

Meanwhile, the writing itself isn't particularly meticulous. Conversations are launched without any scene-setting - sometimes we don't even know whether a discussion is taking place indoors or out of doors. Characters enter conversations after a few paragraphs, when we didn't even realise they were present at the scene. As I mentioned, there is a striking lack of physical description. Of course not every writer can have the observational genius of Thomas Hardy, but, at least in this novel, Austen's lack of interest in the physical world of her characters makes the tone rather colourless. If she is interested in the relationships between people more than in people as individuals, then that is no doubt a sign of her admirably outward-looking view of human affairs; but one yearns for just a touch of severity in her writing. Even the minor rogues of Persuasion end up getting paired off to their own satisfaction.

There is less wit in this novel than in Pride and Prejudice or Emma. The first dozen pages are easily the funniest, in which Austen describes sardonically the decline in fortunes of the pompous but profligate Baronet Elliot, reduced, after much soul-searching, to renting out his Somerset mansion and moving to rooms in Bath. Thereafter, however, the writing descends to a more pedestrian level, competent but rarely sparkling.

Persuasion certainly has its charm, but it's not a work of greath depth, breadth or polish. I wish I could describe it as something more than a competent romance.