The Annotated Persuasion

My book club, a group with very diverse reading tastes, decided to read Persuasion. We take turns choosing, and have read a David Beckham biography, the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Overstory," and NY Times bestsellers. I knew some of us would find Austen a little challenging, so I went looking for an annotated version to help out. This was the perfect choice: inexpensive, and the footnotes were easy to navigate in Kindle. I'm looking forward to the other Austen annotated books.

I love Jane Austen's books, and an annotated and edited version by Dr. David M. Shapard is a must. I have annotated versions of all of Austen's works by Dr. Shapard, and I read and reread them often, and I learn something new each time. I just wish I knew about Shapard's annotated versions when I first began reading Austen. He explains old English phrases, words, ways of thinking 200+ years ago, grammatical and spelling back then. Wonderful insights. I just wish he did Bronte, Hardy, Fielding ...

Jane Austen needs no defense. This edition, with explanatory comments on every page, makes the whole novel much more accessible to modern readers.

If as an adult, you are going to read Jane Austen, and I have only read Austen as an adult, you should do yourself a favor and read Austen with the aid of the Annotated versions edited by David Shapard.Here in Persuasion we have a great amount of detail to add to this rather short tale. It makes the reading that much more enjoyable having at hand what otherwise would have required a full 100+ volume library to understand much of what Austen took or granted when writing this 200 years ago.The story, is perhaps one of my favorites, for here we have love placed on hold and when our protagonists meet, can they act like adults and remember that they have got on with their lives. Or is there still some fire left in them for each other.A true love story of course has the latter, but the journey is handled with a deft hand and with depth. We do not see the Hero's thoughts until the end, and that may have made the journey much more rounded. Still, with that we see through the annotated version, we get a full look at these thoughts and reflections. We also see how Jane finally gets the war that was prevailing into the tales. She had her brothers away as Naval officers and she honors them with this tale.A worthy read and reread.

This is the second of Mr. Shapard's Annotated Austen series I have read (see his The Annotated Pride and Prejudice: A Revised and Expanded Edition), and again he does an excellent job of making Jane's novels contemporary to the modern reader.It's been a while since I've read Persuasion and some passages fairly jumped out at me, as inLady Elliot [Anne's mother] had been an excellent woman, sensible and amiable; whose judgement and conduct, if they might be pardoned the youthful infatuation with made her Lady Eilliot, had never required indulgence afterward...Mr. Bennet, anyone? He, too, married a pretty face and lived to regret it. Lady Elliot, it seems, at least in Lady Russell's hindsight, coped better with the price of her bad choice. On this passage Shapard annotatesHer duties, as the wife of a baronet, would have centered around managing the household, which included purchasing what was needed, keeping the household budget, planning meals, and most of all, supervising the servants and their various labors.At least she wouldn't have been bored. This time I am reminded of Charlotte Lucas, who marries Mr. Collins and arranges her household so that she and her husband never have to spend any time in each other's company. I read Jane Austen: A Life and I thought then that Jane's mother might have informed the character of Mrs. Bennet. I wonder who else in Jane's life is being pilloried here.In that seminal conversation with Mrs. Smith, Anne's invalid schoolroom friend, where Anne's opinion of Mr. Elliot is confirmed, Anne says, "A sick chamber may often furnish the worth of volumes." Mrs. Smith replies"Yes," said Mrs. Smith, more doubtingly, "sometimes it may, though I fear its lessons are not often in the elevated style you describe. Here and there, human nature may be great in times of trial, but generally speaking it is its weakness and not its strength that appears ina sick chamber; it is selfishness and impatience rather than generosity and fortitude, that one hears of it.Shapard writesThis whole issue had a particular poignancy for Jane Austen, for it while finishing this novel that she came down with the illness--possibly Addison's disease, a failure of the adrenal glands--that killed her. Based on the testimony of family members and some letters from that time she seems to have demonstrated uncomplaining fortitude, even as her pain worsened and the possibility of recovery became more remote.In several places Shapard speculates how she might have edited Persuasion had her body granted her the time to do so.Shapard extensively annotates Anne's conversation with Harville and Wentworth's letter to Anne[Wentworth] is obviously writing this while listening to her last statement during the exchange with Captain Harville. He naturally focuses on her avowed belief that men can also be constant, rather than her final claim of greater female constancy in certain unenviable circumstances.I wonder. As seen in Tomalin's biography, Jane's brothers and cousins wear out their wives with 13, 14, 15 children, and after the wives understandably die, of among other things I imagine exhaustion, their husbands immediately remarry and have another 13, 14 or 15 children with the new wife. Doesn't exactly ring of constancy, does it.Jane did turn down Harris Bigg-Wither, when that marriage would have meant a life of ease and comfort for herself (if she didn't die in childbirth), and a comfortable old age for her parents and her sister Cassandra. Which could have had something to do with her previous broken relationship with Tom LeFroy. As could Wentworth's (in the end, anyway) constant love for Anne.I have long thought that Persuasion was the most realistic of all Jane's books. Anne maddens a lot of readers with her inability to act, but maybe Anne is an exemplar of her kind and class and time. If so, I'm glad I live now.

While I have knowledge of the time period, I still learned a lot from the annotations. The book is printed with the text on the left page and the annotations on the right page.

I have loved and studied Austen since college, and as a literature teacher, I find the annotations very illuminating. Persuasion is my favorite of her novels, and this version is excellent. I’ve read Persuasion several times, but reading this version has added to my understanding of Austen and Persuasion. I’ve read the annotated Pride and Prejudice as well and plan to read Emma as well. I love the annotations and illustrations.

I really like this story. Of the Jane Austen novels, Mansfield Park is my favorite. But this one is definitely in my top 3.The annotated version is great. But best if you've already read the novel. I had NOT, and had trouble going back and forth. Easily fixed by borrowing the audiobook for the story. Then I went back and reread with the extra notes. :)Annotations contain: Lots of historical facts to clarify and give a picture of the times. Also, some interesting literary commentary.