Persuasion is the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen during her own life. It was published posthumously in 1818, one year after her death. It is a story concerning the courtship and marriage of a young woman, Anne Elliot, being raised by a widowed father while under the persuasive influence of an aristocratic friend and neighbor of the family. Austen completed the novel before commencing upon another new novel titled Sanditon of which she completed only the initial opening chapters. Persuasion illustrates a central theme which reflects upon the largely ill-effects exerted upon Anne Elliot when she was young and impressionable, and still excessively sensitive to the advice of others. In particular, the novel traverses the space of several years between a rejected first proposal she receives from a suitor after she is persuaded to decline the proposal. She eventually receives a second proposal from the same suitor several years later which she gladly accepts without outside interference or unsolicited persuasion.
