Persuasion
by Jane Austen 1775–1817
The book, and the century it came out of.
Eight years ago Anne Elliot was persuaded to refuse a naval officer with no fortune. He returns a captain with prize money, and she must watch him court someone else while her family’s debts close in. Austen wrote it as her health failed and did not live to see it published; it is the quietest of her novels and the one her admirers reread. Illustrated with 55 full-page plates — paintings by Turner, Luny and Swaine among them.
Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage[1]; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant…
Persuasion, by Jane Austen, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Love & Society
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 256 pages
- Reading time
- about 5 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486417436
55 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
Written 1815–16, published after her death
The war was over, and the Royal Navy was paying off its officers and putting its ships in reserve. Captains who had made fortunes in prize money came ashore rich and unemployed, and country families that had lived on land and rank suddenly found themselves outranked by men who had earned their money at sea. That reversal is the engine of the novel.
Austen’s own brothers were naval officers. She wrote it while she was ill, finished it in 1816, and did not live to see it published; it appeared in 1817 with her name on it for the first time.
This book in culture: 5 versions
Most people meet a book like this one on a screen first. Here is what was made of it — and none of these is the book.
The whole afterlife of Persuasion — screen, stage and beyond →
- 1960 Persuasion
- 1971 Persuasion Howard Baker miniseries
- 1995 Persuasion Roger Michell TV film
- 2007 Persuasion Adrian Shergold TV film
- 2022 Persuasion Carrie Cracknell
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
Persuasion, first published 1817, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Love & Society shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486417436, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of Persuasion?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Jane Austen's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 256 pages, which is roughly about 5 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
