Anna Walker

This is our final episode of Jane Austen's paper trail for the year, but we'll be back in early 2026 with a special bonus episode where we're putting your questions about Jane Austen to a panel of experts.

So if you've got something you've always wanted to ask about Austen, her world or her work, please send us an email or a voice note to podcast at theconversation.com.

Now, on with our final episode.

There is a new element in persuasion, the novelist Virginia Woolf wrote in 1925.

Jane Austen is beginning to discover that the world is larger, more mysterious and more romantic than she had supposed.

She is seeing it through the eyes of a woman who, unhappy herself, has a special sympathy for the happiness and unhappiness of others.

Persuasion is often described as Austen's most melancholy novel.

It centres on Anne Elliot, who seven years ago had been persuaded to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a naval officer with uncertain prospects.

At the ripe old age of 27, Anne is now considered past her prime and lives a quiet life overshadowed by regret.

When her family relocates to Bath, she crosses paths with Wentworth again, now a wealthy and distinguished captain.

With the past between them, Anne is offered a precious second chance at happiness.

But what does that really mean?

I'm Anna Walker, Arts and Culture Editor at The Conversation in the UK, a platform partnering journalists with academics.

You're listening to Jane Austen's Paper Trail.

In this podcast, experts uncover the real Jane Austen to celebrate 250 years since her birth.

Book by book, we'll take you inside her work to help you understand her life.

Welcome to episode six, Was Jane Happy?

Later in the episode, I sit down with two experts and a copy of Persuasion to muse on Jane's state of mind.

But first off, my colleague Jane Wright and PhD researcher Nada Sadawi head to Lyme Regis in Dorset on the south coast of England.

It's an important setting in the novel and Austen's own favourite holiday destination.