John Mullan

So, you know, when they were first published, I think quite a few Austen fans were a bit disappointed because where are the great thoughts of the author?

By the time she writes Persuasion, she's become extremely sophisticated with this technique.

So we sort of share Anne's insights, but also her delusions, her mistakes.

And to some extent, what I think some readers have thought of as her sort of masochism, her self-punishment, because she's sort of trying to make the best of the fact that she meets again this man, Captain Wentworth,

who she was persuaded to reject eight years earlier.

For a little capsule example of how brilliantly free and direct style works in Persuasion, after they've met again, Anne gets told by her very tactless, inconsiderate sister Mary that Captain Wentworth, after the meeting, has said to Mary that Anne...

eight years on, was so altered he would not have known her again.

She's lost her bloom.

She's scrawny and tired and spiritless.

And she replays these words in her head.

And of course, it's, you'd think, very painful.

And then it says this extraordinary thing.

She soon began to rejoice that she had heard these words.

They were of sobering tendency.

They allayed agitation.

They composed and consequently must make her happier.

Now, that's not Jane Austen saying they must make her happier.

That's sort of Anne in her head saying, yes, this is great.

He doesn't find me attractive anymore.

I may fancy him still, but he doesn't fancy me.