Persuasion

"She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older— the natural consequence of an unnatural beginning."

Eight years ago, Anne Elliot drew back her consent to marry Fredrick Wentworth, the headstrong and spirited naval commander of a yet-certain career or established fortune, in the conviction that she acted for his own good. Forbearing, selfless, and pensive, she would as yet have married him against the wishes of her vain and rank-obsessed father, Sir Walter of Kellynch Hall— were it not for the persuasive arguments of her closest friend, Lady Russel, on whose judgment she relied. It was thereafter expected that Anne would go on to marry well— but time brought neither such a marriage, nor the dissolution of Anne’s love for Fredrick.  The decision that wrenched both their hearts, led to the loss of her youthful bloom, and thus seemed to fate her to the life of a spinster— while Fredrick did after all do very well in the Navy. Anne reflects upon that past and regrets "that over-anxious caution which seems to insult exertion and distrust Providence." But now that the year is 1814, peace brings the naval commanders ashore— and Fredrick back among Anne’s relations. Anne knows her heart; few know their shared past; and Fredrick’s sentiments are a mystery.

The last exquisite novel penned by an authoress who has been held in high esteem by many of the great writers and intellectuals of the past two centuries, Jane Austen's Persuasion would be tragically passed by.