Persuasion

Persuasion by Jane Austen
It only took me a year to finish this book. To be fair to myself, I will say I maybe spent a month total out of that year to actually sit down and hold the book. When I started it a year ago, I was really enjoying it, but I don't think I enjoyed it quite as much this time around. This year I originally thought Anne Elliot was a push over, but once allowed for her to fictionally exist in her century and not in 20th or 21st Century, I gave her a little more credit. Sir Elliot and the sisters were extremely annoying to me, but I assuming Austen wrote them that way on purpose. Her sister Mary, it a stunning example that depression sometimes comes on out of pure laziness (yes I know sometimes, it has other cause it too, like chemical imbalances.) By the time I got to the end I did end up loving the store which is what I knew would happen. But the question I have is, Austen wrote that the oldest sister was the prettiest, but yet all the men wanted Anne. I didn't quite understand that paradox. Was it that the men liked her personality better, or was it that just Sir Elliot thought the eldest was prettiest?

The book made me think about social classes we impose on ourselves, and the ones other impose on us. The US may be officially a classless society, but we sure impose plenty on ourselves.

The best part about reading this book, was while finishing the last few chapters, I had the song Clair de Lune in my head, (thanks to my son always turning on the music for his sister in her Graco Baby swing. My son loves classical music.) It made for a very enjoyable back drop to the end of a romance novel, even if Debussy is the wrong time period for Austen.