Of all Jane Austen’s great and delightful novels, Persuasion is widely regarded as the most moving. It is the story of a second chance.

Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish Sir Walter Elliot, is woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. When she was nineteen she fell in love with—and was engaged to—a naval officer, the fearless and headstrong Captain Wentworth. But the young man had no fortune, and Anne allowed herself to be persuaded to give him up. Now, eight years later, Wentworth has returned to the neighborhood, a rich man and still unwed. Anne’s never-diminished love is muffled by her pride, and he seems cold and unforgiving. What happens as the two are thrown together in the social world of Bath—and as an eager new suitor appears for Anne—is touchingly and wittily told in a masterpiece that is also one of the most entrancing novels in the English language.

简・奥斯丁(1775―1817),英国十九世纪初期杰出的现实主义小说家。她出生在英格兰汉普郡一个乡村牧师的家庭,从小没有上过正规学校,只在父母的指导下阅读了大量古典文学作品和流行小说。她终身未婚,二十岁左右开始写作,先后写出六部反映英国乡绅生活的长篇小说。一八一一年,匿名发表了《理智与情感》,受到好评,以后又接连出版了《傲慢与偏见》(1813)、《曼斯菲尔德庄园》(1814)、《爱玛》(1815)。她逝世后的第二年,《诺桑觉寺》和《劝导》同时问世,并且第一次署上作者的真名。