Persuasion (version 4)

Eight years ago, Anne Elliot loved a young naval officer with nothing to offer but ambition. Her family and her trusted mentor Lady Russell convinced her such a match would be beneath her. She let him go. Now Anne is twenty-seven, her bloom faded, her prospects dwindling. Her father is a vain baronet who has squandered the family fortune. When Captain Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic Wars wealthy and accomplished, Anne must watch him court the young and brilliant Louisa Musgrove a reminder of everything she surrendered. The past and present collide at every turn, and Anne must decide whether to remain the prudent, resigned woman she has become or reclaim the passionate girl she once was. Austen's last completed novel is also her most emotionally raw. Persuasion aches with the pain of second chances, the terror of having waited too long, and the quiet courage required to trust one's own judgment over the wisdom of society. It is a love story written by a woman who understood that some decisions cannot be undone, only lived with.