English Pronunciation Audio

The last novel completed by Jane Austen before she died at 41, Persuasion is often thought
to be the story of the author's own lost love. Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hallhas three daughters: Elizabeth,
who shares his haughty vanity and, at twenty-eight has found no one good enough to marry; Mary, who has, with
some condescension, married the son of the local squire; and admirable Anne who "was nobody with either father
or sister."

This is the story of a second chance, the reawakening of love between Anne Elliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth,
whom eight years earlier she had been persuaded not to marry, due to his lowly station in life. Wentworth returns
from the Napoleonic Wars with prize money and the social acceptability of naval rank. He is now an eligible suitor
acceptable to Anne's snobbish father and his circle, and Anne discovers the continuing strength of her love for him.
The happy ending is a contrast to the real outcome of Austen's own romantic aspirations.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born at Steventon, England, and later moved to Bath. She began to write early for her own and her family's amusement. Her novels, set in her own English countryside, depict the daily lives of provincial middle-class families with wry observation, a delicate irony, and a good-humored wit. She is now considered by many scholars to be the first great woman novelist.

Nadia May has been nominated as an AudioFile Golden Voice five years running and is a winner of thirteen AudioFile Earphones Awards. She is the co-founder of TheatreFirst, a theater company in the San Francisco Bay Area where she currently lives.