IN A STATE OF ALTERATION, PERHAPS OF IMPROVEMENT: FORM AND FEELING IN PERSUASION

It has long been recognized that Jane Austen's last complete novel, Persuasion, published posthumously at the end of 1817, concerns the transitional world of the 1810s more directly than her previous fictions do, and also explores issues of the senses, sadness and loss in a way new to her fiction. Through a series of readings of individual scenes and passages, this essay shows how the transitional world and the emotional subjectivity of the heroine Anne Elliot are related, and in particular how a new emphasis on the senses-particularly those of sight, sound and touch-contributes to the powerful poignancy of the novel.