Prepare to be Persuaded

"She had seen him. They had met. They had been once more in the same room." (Chapter 7)

What do lost love, raging teenage hormones, drama in a town of extravagance, and the seaside add up to? Answer, an awesome romance novel with the perfect balance of classy soirées and unplanned meetings.

Persuasion is the story of Anne Elliot, the oldest of the Austen heroines, and the one that you cannot help but pitying and cheering at the same time. She looses the love of her life when her family and friends persuade her that it is a bad match. To add to the chaos is the fact that her family has depleted their savings, and as a result are forced to move. In order to stay near her family home, she temporarily moves in with her sister, a die-hard hypochondriac. When her lost love turns up several years later, still unmarried, and now wealthy, she realizes that she is ready to fall in love with someone... just not her. What will happen when she moves to Bath, and an eligible suitor appears to pledge his own troth to her?

Anne is a unique character, and though I sometimes feel like yelling at her because she lets people walk all over her, perhaps she is like Fanny Price, and her value lies in patience and consistency; or maybe I know this because I know the ending to the story. It would be really interesting to go back a few years in time, and read Austen with fresh eyes. I love Austen, but I cannot for the life of me remember how it started.

In one chapter, I forget which one, Austen employs the word "unpremeditated." What a great word! I mean, you can use "not previously decided," or "not considered before," but why would you not want to use the one word that perfectly describes it? Persuasion itself might persuade me to widen my vocabulary!

I've been procrastinating a little, but in the time that I have taken to write this post, I have been feeling more inspired. Austen does seem to be penetrating my life though, kind of in odd ways to. Last night I dreamed that the cast of the Francis O'Connor's version of Mansfield Park were drinking tequila shots in church, and some people from my class ran around asking if I could set up investment portfolios for them. I have no idea why. Perhaps my REM sleep will be better when this project ends.