PERSUASION concerns the story of Anne Elliot, intelligent daughter of a spendthrift baronet, and her love for Frederick Wentworth, a young naval officer.

She is persuaded however, to refuse his proposition of marriage and spends seven unhappy years before he reenters her life.

Austen's satire takes a milder form in this, her last novel and there is a tradition that a love-story of her own is reflected in Anne Elliot's.

In her Introduction, Gillian Beer writes 'with its overwhelming sympathy with one person, Anne Elliot, is - despite its many scenes of social comedy and prudential realism - drenched in romance'.