Persuasion

Eight years before this story begins, Anne Elliot was nineteen, and she fell in love.The young man was Frederick Wentworth, a naval officer — clever, confident, and full of life.He had no fortune and no important family, but he was sure he would soon make his own way in the world.

Anne loved him completely, and when he asked her to marry him, she said yes.For a short time she was perfectly happy.But her father, Sir Walter, thought the match beneath her and gave it no real support.

Worse, Lady Russell — the wise older friend who had been like a mother to Anne — was firmly against it.She believed Wentworth was too poor, his profession too uncertain, and the engagement a risk that would only bring Anne years of worry.She urged Anne to give him up, for her own good and for his.

Anne was young and gentle, and she trusted the people who loved her.Believing she was being wise and unselfish, she broke off the engagement.Wentworth did not think it wise; he felt wronged and abandoned, and he left in anger.

The parting cost Anne her happiness and, for a while, her health and her looks.In the years that followed, she met no one who was his equal, and no other man ever touched her heart.At twenty-seven she was still unmarried, quieter now, and privately sure she had made a mistake.

Wentworth, meanwhile, had gone to sea, won honour and a fortune in the war, and risen to captain — but he had not married, and he had not forgiven her.Now his sister had rented the Elliots' house, and Captain Wentworth was coming back into Anne's quiet life.