This revised Norton Critical Edition is based on the first edition text (dated 1818 but likely
issued in late 1817). The editor has spelled out ampersands and made superscript letters
lowercased. The novel which is accompanied by revised and expanded explanatory annotations is
followed by the two canceled chapters that comprise Persuasion’s original ending. Backgrounds
and Contexts” collects contemporary assessments of Jane Austen as well as materials relating to
the social issues of the day. Included are an excerpt from William Hayley’s 1785 Essay on Old
Maids” Austen’s letters to Fanny Knight which reveal her skepticism about marriage as the key
to happiness Henry Austen’s memorial tribute to his famous sister assessments by
nineteenth-century critics Julia Kavanagh and Goldwin Smith who viewed Austen as an unassuming
sheltered and feminine” rural writer and the perspective of Austen’s biographer Geraldine
Edith Mitten. The Second Edition emphasizes current critical scholarship reflecting enormous
shifts in our comprehension of Austen’s achievement and opening the door to new ways of
thinking about Persuasion and its author. For the first time we can think complexly about
Austen living through the Napoleonic Wars on the Continent and experiencing their political
repercussions at home - the same as everyone else in England at that time. Four new essays - by
Linda Bree Sidney Gottlieb John Wiltshire and David Monaghan - speak to these new
perspectives those by Gottlieb and Monaghan expand the conversation into film adaptations of
the novel. A Chronology of Austen’s life and work new to the Second Edition is included along
with an updated Selected Bibliography.
