Persuasion and Poems

To celebrate 200 years since Jane Austen completed her last novel, Alison Larkin—a witty and always original voice—brings Persuasion and a delightful selection of lesser-known poems by Jane Austen to a new audience. Persuasion Seven years after Anne Elliot rejects the man she loves after a family friend persuades her that he isn’t a good enough match for her, Captain Frederick Wentworth returns to England looking for a wife. Poems Austen did not take herself seriously as a poet but she did write occasional, mostly comic verses to entertain family and friends. Selected and introduced by Alison Larkin, the poems range from lines found on a piece of paper inside a tiny bag Austen gave to her niece—to “When Winchester Races”—a poem she wrote just three days before she died.