Persuasion: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Editions)

I found this volume to be very helpful in presenting Persuasion by Jane Austen to my book club. The text was a bit difficult to read because of the font used, but this book contained the original ending as well as the revised one. There were also a number of critical articles included which discussed the book's aspects from a scholar's point of view which were very useful --especially one which discussed Austen's work as presented through the movies that have been made on the various Austen novels.

A tight, tense, romantic balancing act. Austen's sharp eye for the nuances of human character are beautifully drawn. The essays in this edition are helpful in understanding the author's writing. I especially appreciated the addition of the "original ending."

Easy to read with cogent commentaries. The book was recommended for my wife’s course at university. Incidentally, all books purchased on our account are for my wife who is an English lit scholar.

Really loved this story. Jane Austen is a great writer!

So far so good

Again, I purchased this book for a Women Writers literature class and really enjoyed it. I recommend this book

Bought it for class. Pristine condition

Lovely prose but the print was tiny for my eyes. I wish that I had known beforehand my purchase.

It was in perfect condition.

While it's true that Norton editions are highly acclaimed for their scholarly notes and erudite critique on the contents, for some reason the publishers have chosen a typeface for this book that is so miniscule and compact, it's extremely difficult to read! Surely, the whole idea of committing something to print is for it to be legible, otherwise there's not much point, in my opinion. Publishing books is Norton's daily business and has been so for many years. How can they have got it so very wrong in this case then? That's why I'm only awarding two stars instead of five. Vintage Classics has produced an edition that's certainly kinder on the eye, albeit without the scholarly notes.

Well packaged and thoroughly enjoyed the novel. The level of critical analysis is very eloquent and of an outstanding standard

... or what first attracted you to the Millionaire Capt. Wentworth? ... or *Spoiler Alert* Reader I married him and his money.In the days when English Literature was considered a serious subject that boys might study, I had the misfortune as an A' level candidate thereto, to read this final Novel of Miss Austen: I loathed it. I found myself unable to raise any sympathy for Anne Eliot feeling more empathy for Mary; at least she had - or so she said - something to complain about. Captain Wentworth was a cardboard figure. My two Eng Lit teachers - both former pupils of the F.R Leavis - adored Austen and anything less than awestruck-regard for the Blessed Jane was regarded as Heretical, - as if in religious studies one were less than impressed by the content of The Sermon on the Mount - and thus my essays on this Novel were marked down which I think reveals that Eng Lit is not a real subject. Is it about the practice of the Drama? - No, About Language? - No, about creative or other writing? - No. it seems to be about feeling good; a secular version of The Bible with salutary moral guidance to match, or in the case of Persuasion white-knighting of spinsters.I have no cause to change my view, and thus an explanation is perhaps needed for my present interest in Persuasion; it is a sociological interest. A search at IMDB will reveal that before about 1970 there had been (I think) just one cinematic version of an Austen Novel. Since then they have come at the rate of one or more a year. The explanation for this sudden change in cinematic fortune is surely not unrelated to the rise of Feminism: in short, women are encouraged to empower themselves (i.e. imitate men) but in their hearts they want to meet a wealthy man with whom they can fall in love and marry; Feminism makes that all the harder as there are thus less Mr D'Arcy's to go round. Anne Eliot could, of course, have solved her desire for matrimony by marrying down - but this is something women never do, or want to do, for lesser men are invisible to them as they were to Anne Eliot (and probably Miss Austen). How about marrying one of the servants or one of the clerks who work for the lawyer? and why would a man of action with options and with a fortune seek out a woman who (so her character says) has lost her looks. In short Persuasion is chick-crack Lit or Emo-Porn, something which would have been the more obvious were it not for Miss Austen's elegant prose.Notice that Anne Eliot (which sounds when spoken so similar to Jane Austen - Anne and Jane both have four letters ending in N E ) is clearly a self-portrait and notice further Miss Austen's continued dislike of lowly Curates, previously Mr Wickham, but now more directly Mr Hater [Hayter - geddit] and then there is Capt. Went [abroad] Worth [Loads of money]. Austen may berate Sir Walter Eliot and Mary and Elizabeth likewise but Anne (behind her 'I am not interested in men' posturing) is even worse.I am, by the way somewhat surprised that there are so far no operatic incarnations of Miss Austen's works - there are at least two Jane Eyre's and a Wuthering Heights, to my knowledge so it cannot be that happy endings put composers off. Come on girls, (yes I am referring to you Sally Beamish and Judith Bingham) have a go. My staring is reserved not for the novel itself but the - as always - excellent Norton edition.

Norton provides it all - no better edition