Persuasion

Persuasion begins seven years after the heroine, Anne Elliot, has jilted her lover, Fredrick Wentworth, upon the request of a most beloved mother figure.

Although at the time of the refusal the man seems an inadequate match, the tables are now turned: as in most Austen novels--the girl is poor, the boy is rich.

To add insult to injury, Anne's father is going bankrupt and must rent his house to none other than Fredrick's sister and brother-in-law, bringing Anne and Fredrick in contact again.

Through twists and turns of jealousy, romance, poetry, rumors and a serious head injury, Anne and Fredrick always find themselves in uncomfortable situations that brew up old feelings (that were probably never lost).

As Jane Austen's last completed novel, some critics dismiss it as her darkest; however, others see it as her most honest and universal.

Whatever your opinion, the whole novel is worth reading just for the letter (correspondence) in chapter twenty-three: it will make you melt.