Persuasion & Prayers Read-Along :: Days 1 & 2

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I'm participating in a read-along of Jane Austen's Persuasion as well as The Prayers of Jane Austen. Fun, right?! Click over to Amber's blog for more info  and also just in case you decide you'd like to join us. We'd love for you to join in! :)

I am severely behind and I'll probably stay that way. Unfortunately I don't have the ability to post every single day of the read-along. So y'all will get one or two big posts each week (hopefully). Anyway! I hope you enjoy. And if you care to gush about Persuasion or Jane Austen with us, please feel free to do so. Because I am all about the gush when it comes to this wonderful story! :D

{Also, for any who have not read the book, there will be spoilers. So beware!}

Day 1 :: Persuasion Chapters 1-2

Quote to Ponder:

"It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before; and, generally speaking, if there has been neither ill health nor anxiety, it is a time of life at which scarcely any charm is lost."

Observation:

For a story that centers on our heroine, Anne is severely overlooked in these first two chapters. Which is kind of brilliantly done, now that I'm thinking about it. What better way to get the reader to realize just how insignificant Anne is to her family and friends than by hardly mentioning her at all? With so little introduction to her (and that little bit mainly talks about how poorly everyone around her thinks of her), the reader immediately develops compassion and sympathy for her. (Or at least, I did.) Her family is truly awful to her! And I'm sorry, but I just don't like Lady Russell, no matter what good intentions she has. She overlooks and outright ignores Anne's opinions and feelings.

Question :: If you were an adviser to the Elliot family, what would you recommend they do about their debts? (Live more frugally and stay in their own home despite the discomfort and blow to their pride? Move to a smaller house in the country so they can stay close to their own home and acquaintances? Or move to Bath as Lady Russell recommends, where they would be far away from gossip and the sorrow of seeing their home inhabited by someone else?)

Okay, so as much as Lady Russell ignores Anne's wishes on this subject, I do have to agree that she probably has a good point. Getting Sir Walter and Elizabeth away from the gossip and sorrow is most likely a good idea. Yet for Anne's sake, I so wish that they could have stayed in the country!


Day 2 :: Persuasion Chapters 2-3

Quote to Ponder:

"They knew not each other's opinion, either its constancy or its change, on the one leading point of Anne's conduct, the subject was never alluded to; but Anne, at seven-and-twenty, thought very differently from what she had been made to think at nineteen."

Observation:

We go from Sir Walter's foppishness and self-importance to a lovely and introspective look at Anne's past. As sad as Anne and Captain Wentworth's early love story ended up being, I love how we get a great explanation of how that situation changed Anne. It forced her to search her heart and come to understand herself. She became much stronger through the subsequent eight or so years. Have I mentioned how very much I love Anne Elliot? For all that she's "lost her bloom" at 27, she's also found her true self. She's become more comfortable in her own skin, so to speak. I know this will become more true as the story goes on, but I just love how she starts out sure of herself (even if it's only in her own mind because she does have more growing-of-a-backbone to do in regards to her family and Lady Russell! :). Also, that quote to ponder above, I love that it states "...what she had been made to think at nineteen."

(Additionally, I'd love to have met a young Frederick Wentworth! "He was brilliant, he was headstrong." What an intriguing description, yes? :)

Question: Do you believe Anne was unwise in breaking her engagement? (Going deeper: How much should someone rely on the well-intended advice of family and trusted friends in matters of the heart? Do you believe it's possible for two people to be right for each other while the timing and maturity levels are all wrong?)

First, I absolutely do believe it's possible for two people to be right for each other while the timing and maturity levels are all wrong! Some people need the chance to grow up or just have some freedom to become who they truly are before they're ready to settle down.

Second, I flop back and forth on whether Anne was unwise or not. Because of course I so want Anne and Wentworth to be happy together! (But then, we wouldn't have this beautiful story, would we? ;) Yet, just going by chapter four alone, there was so much that may not have happened if they had gotten together the first time. Anne wouldn't have had as much chance to come to understand herself and form her own opinions, and Wentworth perhaps would not have advanced as far as he did in the navy. Of course, that's only speculation, but I can imagine that (as he was described as "headstrong") he may not have been as committed to his job if he knew he had a lovely wife to distract him. Does that make sense?

Third, I think it's good to get advice from people we trust. But their opinions are just that,  their opinions. They aren't actually in our particular situation which makes it much easier to be objective, but also they can't truly understand exactly what we're going through either. So ask their opinions, yes, but take them with a grain of salt.

(Also! What a fabulous question, Amber! I am loving how much you're making me really think about this story. :)