I just...I can't...*sigh*See, it's like this: I'm a third of the way through this book. I already know I don't like it. If finish it, review it, and rate it as I see fit, you'll all get mad. You'll say that I just didn't understand the book. Or, you'll express bewilderment at my "strange" reaction and then show concern. We'll compare Austen to the Brontës. I'll drag Rebecca into this, and then someone will drag Virginia Woolf into it too. I'll say something like, "This isn't prose. It's an instruction manual. A bitter, bitter instruction manual." And, that will make you even more angry. People I've never even spoken to before will appear from nowhere and start heckling me. I'll break a chair over someone's back...No, let's not do that. Let's just pretend that ill-fated trip to the library never took place.Up next: Vita!

I'm sorry, I just can't. I loved Pride and Prejudice. Sense and Sensibility was a pleasant surprise. This, however, was a letdown. The characters are unlikeable, the plot is about as interesting and compelling as a cooking show. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I just can't appreciate fine literature anymore. Lately I've been enjoying crappy books/music/movies. *puts hand dramatically to forehead* Oh ok, it's not that bad. My taste isn't that bad. I'll pretend this never happened. I am still a person of great taste in books. Right?

Persuasion is said to be the best work of Jane Austen. While I have certain reservation on that conviction, I do see why it is said so. By all means Persuasion is different to her preceding work that I have read: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. In all these work mentioned, her writing is light and glow with "sparkle and spirit". But in Persuasion, her spirited and sparkle writing is replaced by more mature writing. It is still light but there is more warmth and emotion in her writing as well as more depth and colour. In short, Jane Austen has written Persuasion with so much of feeling so as to make it stand tall among all her other work. The main female protagonist, Anne Elliot, is a mature heroine who have lost her "youth and bloom" over the years as a result of her pinning for a lost love. She is unloved and neglected by the family except by the dear friend Lady Russel. But she is courageous and has a superior, cultivated mind so as to bear all indifference and to endure her loss without resentment. Anne reminded me of Cinderella; only difference was that she had an indifferent father instead of a wicked step mother. Anne is strong. She is self-made, kind and has a keen intelligence. She secures her own happiness more or less by her own means supported by circumstances rather than any support rendered by family or friends. Anne stands out from most of Austen heroines. Perhaps she is equal in stamina to the much loved Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. And I don't know if it is because of my own partiality and obsession with Elizabeth Bennet over the years, but I couldn't help feeling that Anne is sort of a mature version of Elizabeth, only that Elizabeth would not have been easily persuaded. Captain Wentworth is yet another beloved hero and could easily be placed in line with Darcy, Knightley and Colonel Brandon. I'm amazed at Jane Austen's ability to create these heroes and heroines who are felt so real and who would undoubtedly occupy a place in all reader hearts. No Austen hero or heroine is ever forgotten and for centuries they have survived to become "immortal". Like in all Jane Austen work, Persuasion too have a sweet love story. But unlike in others, it is a mature love; one that was found, lost and found again; one that has endured an eight and half years of separation. And what is more striking is Austen's excellent and emotional writing of Anne's feelings: her pain and suffering for having given up the man she loved; her painful situation at having to meet him after eight and half years; her pain at his cool reception of her; her agony in watching of him pursue another woman very much younger than her; her knowledge that her once pretty looks and youth have been robbed over and she would no longer be attractive in his eyes.; her knowledge that she has lost her chance to be happy again; and above all the her profound realization that she still loved him deeply and dearly. All these emotions are detailed and beautifully and touchingly expressed that they almost broke my heart. And as the case in all Jane Austen work, in Persuasion too, Austen's social commentary and criticism and realism is preserved. Through the characters of Sir Walter, Elizabeth and Mary, she exposes the vanity of the titled and mocks them for their air of superiority. At the same time she gently hints at the decline of superiority maintained by the titled class through the declining in wealth of Sir Walter, and shows the emergence of a new wealthy class in Naval Officers who would gradually elevate their position in the society with their wealth, gaining respect and admiration. Two brothers of Jane Austen were Navy officers and perhaps, this was her tribute to them. Overall, it is a beautiful book. I loved every minute of reading it. And for the first time I found another Austen work equal to her Pride and Prejudice.