Persuasion

The novel opens with one of Austen's finest first scenes: when Sir Walter Elliot is bored, he reads only one book — the Baronetage of England, and always his own family's page. That single sentence exposes the whole character: vanity, emptiness and attachment to the past. Austen then introduces the family one by one: Elizabeth, who resembles her father and is uneasy at still being unmarried at 29; Mary, married into the wealthy Musgrove family and forever complaining of illness; and Anne, “clever and sweet-natured, but of no consequence” in the eyes of her father and sister.

The satire of the first chapters is very fine. Sir Walter would rather let his house than economise to pay his debts, yet he cannot bear to hear the word “advertise”. He openly states his dislike of naval officers: the navy brings “persons of obscure birth” into undue distinction and ages a sailor before his time. Mrs Clay's reply — lawyers, doctors and even clergymen are worn down by their work too — is an ironic counter-blow. Admiral Croft's taking of Kellynch nicely captures the shift from the old landed aristocracy to the newly rich naval officers.

Chapter four reveals the novel's central tragedy. In 1806, nineteen-year-old Anne and the young, clever and bold Frederick Wentworth fall deeply in love, but the captain has neither connections nor fortune. Lady Russell sees the engagement as throwing a life away on a man with an uncertain future and persuades Anne to break it off. Austen judges no one here: Lady Russell means well but is “a little blinded” by prejudices of rank. Eight years later, Anne, now 27, reflects that she was forced into prudence in her youth and learned romance as she grew older.

The Uppercross chapters show Austen's comic mastery. Mary and her mother-in-law each complain to Anne about the other in private — one about the spoiling of the grandchildren, the other about the daughter-in-law's way with children. Every household pours its troubles out to Anne, who listens patiently to all. The fashionable Musgrove girls, Henrietta and Louisa, and their old parlour crowded with a harp and pianoforte — with the ancestral portraits seeming to stare in astonishment — are among the loveliest moments of Austen's prose.

Once Wentworth arrives, the tension rises. His first meeting with Anne lasts a few seconds, and inside her the words repeat: “It is over! The worst is over!” Then Mary carelessly passes on the captain's remark: “so altered he should not have known her again.” The sentence lands in Anne as a silent, deep mortification. Austen never overplays these emotional moments — all the drama hides in glances, unfinished sentences and the coldness of good manners.

A separate note on this edition: Tutku Yayınevi published the book under the marketing title “Aşk; Her Şeye Rağmen” instead of “İkna”, and the back cover presents Wentworth as a handsome young man from a humble family. The translation has long, tangled sentences and some inaccuracies, Turkish letters are missing in many places. Our rating for the novel is high, but first-time readers should look for a more reliable translation.

• Austen's subtlest irony (Sir Walter and the Baronetage)
• Quiet, inner drama — feelings hidden behind glances and manners
• Social observation of new naval wealth versus old aristocracy