Persuasion

Persuasion, Jane Austen. Penguin Classics (ISBN: 9780141439686) 2003, first published 1817.

Summary: Will Anne Elliot retrieve the missed opportunity of a broken engagement with Captain Wentworth eight years later?

The plotline of this story was set up in its first pages. Anne Elliot, youngest daughter of Baronet Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall becomes engaged to an ambitious young naval officer, Captain Frederick Wentworth. But those around her do not consider him worthy of a Baronet’s daughter by either measures of class or wealth, of which he has little. Although her father and oldest sister Elizabeth disapprove, Lady Russell is most persuasive. She is a distant relative who has become Anne’s closest confidant since the death of her mother. Because of her disapproval, Anne breaks off the engagement, against the inclinations of her heart.

Eight years pass. In the intervening period, Sir Walter, with no Lady Elliot to check him overspends his means. To pay off debts and reduce expenses, the family decides to rent Kellynch Hall and move to Bath. Bath offers a social circle enticing to both Lord Elliot and Elizabeth. Anne prefers her old neighborhood but has no choice. Then she learns that the new tenants are Admiral Croft and his wife Sophia. Sophia is Captain Wentworth’s sister!

Anne is able to stay nearby with her sister Mary’s family which include her husband Charles and sisters Henrietta and Louisa. Then Captain Wentworth returns for a visit with her sister. In the intervening years, he has made a fortune and is ready to marry and settle down. He’s formally courteous, and in some instances seems attentive. But Anne, the girl in her full bloom of beauty at nineteen is somewhat faded and worn at twenty-seven. And Wentworth seems attracted to Louisa, who returns his interest.

During a visit to the seaside resort of Lyme Regis, Louisa suffers severe injuries while “daring” the Captain to catch her. Anne offers to stay but both Mary and the Captain stay instead, although Anne would have been the better nurse. Anne rejoins her family in Bath, and expects to hear both news of Louisa’s recovery and her engagement to Wentworth.

Meanwhile an Elliot cousin, heir to Kellynch Hall reconciles with Sir Walter after an estrangement of many years. He sets his sights on Anne, who does not trust him, despite the efforts of other family members to persuade her this is a good match. Then startling news come. Louisa is engaged, but to another naval officer. And Wentworth is in Bath, but remains aloof, seeing Elliot’s attentions.

I found myself thinking throughout this novel that if Anne and Wentworth could have fifteen minutes alone, they could sort things out! But then what would happen to the romantic and dramatic tension?

There is the great irony in Sir Walter’s social pretensions and the reality of his straitened circumstances, requiring him to rent Kellynch Hall to (ugh!) a naval officer, and brother-in-law of Captain Wentworth.

Finally, there are a number of “persuasions” in the story–of Lady Russell, of Cousin Elliot with Sir Walter, of Mrs. Clay, who has insinuated herself into the family circle, and of the family with Cousin Elliot. All of these go against the wisdom of the heart and we hope that the Anne of twenty-seven will be wiser than the girl of nineteen.

This was Austen’s last novel, published posthumously. I like the process of maturing in Anne but thought other characters like Elizabeth or even Lady Russell lacked substance. The interest of Anne and Wentworth seemed obvious enough to this reader that the plotting just drew out the obvious while seeming to leave things up in the air. I didn’t think it Austen at her best.

Emma

Emma, Jane Austen. Penguin Classics (ISBN: 9780141439587) 2003 (first published in 1815).

Summary: A beautiful, rich young women with no interest in marriage makes a series of disastrous assumptions in matchmaking for her friend.

I went through most of this work viewing Emma Woodhouse as a most unlikable character–rich, class-conscious, and with an exaggerated estimate of her ability to understand others. As it turns out, that was Austen’s intent. Before beginning to write, she wrote, “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” On that count alone, Austen succeeds.

Emma Woodhouse is the younger daughter of Henry Woodhouse, a wealthy but frail (or at least he believed himself to be) and fussy old man. Emma’s mother died when she was young. Her older sister Isabella is married to John Knightly and they live in London with their five children. Emma is the lady of Hartfield, wealthy and lacking for nothing and attentive to her father. She insists she is content to remain single.

She also thinks she played an important role as matchmaker with her former governess, Ann Taylor, who marries a widower, Mr. Weston. As a married couple, they live nearby and visit regularly. Mr. Weston has a son by his first marriage, Frank Churchill, raised by his uncle and aunt at Enscombe. The latter plays a controlling role in his life, keeping him close by through her ill health. However, when he finally visits, he manages to stir up trouble.

But Emma does well enough on her own account. She becomes a mentor to Harriet Smith, who supervises younger girls at Mrs. Goddard’s boarding school. The daughter of a successful tradesman, she is attractive, winsome, but untrained in the ways of society. While boarding, she stayed for a summer at Abbey Mill Farm, at the invitation of Elizabeth Martin, one of the students. During this time, she became acquainted with Elizabeth’s brother Robert, who took a liking to her.

Robert Martin was a young, hardworking farmer, well-esteemed by those who knew him. For someone like Harriet, it would have been a good match and he proposed. Enter Emma, who has befriended Harriet. Before Emma tries to make a match for Harriet, she helps break one, influencing Harriet to believe she could do better. That is, she could marry a higher class of person. So, she turns down the match.

George Knightly thinks Emma has misguided her friend. George, who is called Mr. Knightly throughout, is a leading figure in Highbury and owns Donwell Abbey, a large estate. Abbey Mill Farm is part of the estate and so he knows and thinks highly of Robert Martin. He believes Robert would have been a good husband to Harriet. Throughout the novel, Knightly is a friend to Emma, the kind who sees more wisely than she, though it will take some time for her to accept that.

Much of the novel unfolds the successive misguided schemes of Emma to make a match for Harriet. First there is Reverend Elton, who Knightly correctly realizes wants to marry into money, which Harriet doesn’t have. Then there is Frank Churchill, who instead seems to flirt with Emma. Finally, because he acted kindly toward her, Harriet thinks Mr. Knightly might care for her, which Emma supports until she discovers that Mr. Knightly loved another.

In addition to failing her friend, the appearance of two other women give Emma her comeuppance. One is Augusta Elton, who is even more unlikable, arrogantly so, than Emma, who is gracious and pleasant if misguided. Emma gets a brutal lesson in class pretensions when she sees Harriet heartlessly “cut” by the Eltons. The other is Jane Fairfax, who arrives on the scene at the same time as Frank Churchill. She is distinctively attractive, intelligent, and a far more talented musician than Emma.

Emma is young and the novel turns on whether she will go the way of Augusta Elton or become a humbler, better person. And her insistence that she will remain single? Here as well, she will face the chance to know herself better.

The issue of class pretension runs throughout the novel, particularly in the tension between Emma and Mr. Knightly. It’s also subtle, but there is nothing spiritual about the minister, who even “comes on to” Emma during a carriage ride. He only seems concerned with status. Is Jane Austen conveying her low opinion in general of clergy?

In sum, Austen’s title character, unlikable as she comes off, keeps us wondering, and reading, to find out if she will “get a clue” that will enable her to see others, and herself, in a truer light.

Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen. Penguin Classics (ISBN: 9780141439808) 2003 (first published in 1814).

Summary: Fanny Price moves from poverty to live with rich cousins in Mansfield Park, maturing amid their whirl of social relationships.

This is my second Jane Austen novel in my year-long Jane Austen reading goal. It struck me as a version of the ugly duckling who becomes the beautiful swan–that ugly duckling being Fanny Price. Fanny grew up in Portsmouth in a large and impoverished family. At ten her mother arranged for her to go to live with her sister’s family at Mansfield Park. She’s escorted by Aunt Norris, the imperious wife of a clergyman, who makes it a point to emphasize how indebted Fanny is to her and the family for their good offices.

And so begins an uncomfortable and socially awkward existence at Mansfield Park. Her uncle, Sir Bertram is distant. Lady Bertram is a pampered and self-absorbed woman who, seemingly can do nothing for herself. Fanny becomes her sewing companion, and an extra maid. Tom, her oldest cousin, is a spendthrift who barely notices. Maria and Julia, the two daughters, are caught up in their own social life. Only Edmund, the second son, destined for the clergy even notices her and becomes her confidante, and eventually she, his.

Marrying well, to financial advantage is everything. Aunt Norris, now bereaved and removed from her husband’s living, arranges a match between Maria and James Rushworth. While he has an extensive estate, he’s personally unimpressive. Then enter Henry and Mary Crawford. They are related to the new incumbents to the living, the Grants, and come for a visit. Henry has wealth and is a ladies man. On a visit to the Rushworth’s estate, he flirts with both Maria and Julie, favoring the elder. Fanny quietly looks on.

Then, while Sir Thomas is away attending to business in Antiqua, Mansfield Park brings all these remaining young people together in a play at the behest of an actor friend of Henry’s. Edmund, despite his opposition, ends up playing opposite Mary. While Rushworth struggles to learn lines, Henry pursues a dalliance with Maria. Julie, jealous of Maria, eventually elopes with the actor. And Fanny? She quietly supports the effort behind the scenes, her thoughtful demeanor and growing beauty gaining notice. Yet it all comes to naught when Sir Thomas returns. But this futile effort sows the seeds of so much of what unfolds.

Despite the dalliance with Henry, Maria marries Rushworth. Edmund and Mary are drawn to each other but Edmund’s calling poses a problem. He actually takes it seriously rather than as just a source of income–not the life Mary envisioned. And Henry finally notices Fanny and sets out to win her affections. He arranges the promotion of her brother William. But all his good offices and attentions, and the pressures of others, refuse to convince Fanny. She’s seen his flirtatious character and cannot bring herself to trust him. Again, she and Edmund confide in each other.

As it turns out, character matters as both Edmund and Fanny learn. The more puzzling thing is why it took two such perceptive young people so long to realize that they were the ones they were seeking? Perhaps it was the first cousin relationship. Marriage between first cousins, while not common, was permitted. All I can figure is that it made for good story, though Austen spends precious little of it telling us how they awakened to their love for each other. But I suspect most readers saw this coming from early on in the story.

The story is a fascinating commentary on the conventions of love and the considerations of wealth. Edmund upsets the convention of the convenient living in which a clergyman did little. Maria’s loveless, and ultimately failed marriage to Rushworth portrays the folly of marrying only for money. (I wonder if the relationship of the Bertrams is another version of this). By contrast, Fanny rises in stature through her character, which also becomes a measure of the character of others. One thing is for sure, Austen creates in her a figure for which we all root and wish the best.