‘I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.

Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago.

Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.’

– Taken from ‘Persuasion’ by Jane Austen

‘Persuasion’ was originally published in 1818 only six months after Jane Austen’s death. This was the last novel completed by Jane Austen.

In Persuasion, like many of Jane Austen’s other novels, Sense and Sensibility,  Pride and Prejudice, and Emma, she tells the stories of young women fighting against the obligations and expectations of family and social expectations. Yet, the love story in Persuasion offers romance and optimism, developing a story that is sure to appeal to lovers of romance and the challenges we are willing to face for a second chance at love.