In this episode we look at the published version of Chapter 22. We talk about how proactive Anne is in these final chapters, the arrival of Charles, Mary and the Musgrove clan, Louisa’s change in personality, how the Musgroves all want Anne to be with them, and the first time Wentworth actually refers to the time he and Anne were together.
The characters we discuss is are Charles and Mary Musgrove. In the historical section, Michael talks about the shooting, and for popular culture Harriet looks at two books that retell Persuasion from the point of view of another character.
Things we mention:
General discussion:
- Janet Todd and Antje Blank [Editors], The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen: Persuasion (2006)
- Sheila Kaye-Smith and G.B. Stern, Talking of Jane Austen (1943) and More Talk of Jane Austen (1950)
Historical discussion:
- E. W. Bovill, English Country Life, 1780-1830 (1962)
- ‘The Thing About Willoughby’s Pointers with guest Dr. Stephanie Howard-Smith‘, The Thing About Austen podcast, Episode 73
Popular culture discussion:
- Amanda Grange, Captain Wentworth’s Diary (2007)
- Dorothea-Sofia Rossellini, Mrs Clay: The Austen Expert’s Companion to ‘Persuasion’ (2016)
- Diana Birchall, In Defense of Mrs Elton (1999)
Creative commons music used:
- Extract from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata No. 12 in F Major, ii. Adagio.
- Extract from Joseph Haydn, Piano Sonata No. 38. Performance by Ivan Ilić, recorded in Manchester in December, 2006. File originally from IMSLP.
- Extract from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata No. 13 in B-Flat Major, iii. Allegretto Grazioso. File originally from Musopen.
- Extract from George Frideric Handel, Suite I, No. 2 in F Major, ii. Allegro. File originally from Musopen.
- Extract from Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major. File originally from Musopen.
Thank you for your wonderful podcasts – I have only recently stumbled across them & have been listening back to back, now waiting with bated breath for the final episode. I hope it comes soon.
One thing that puzzles me is- why did they rename Fanny Harvill Phoebe in the 1995 film of Persuasion. It’s a little thing but I do still wonder about it. What do you think?
Hi Roma
I’m so glad you are enjoying the podcast.
The final Persuasion episode is recorded, but I (Harriet) have been flat out with work and other commitments so I haven’t finished recording it. But it will come!
My theory as to the renaming of Fanny Harville is to avoid distracting people with the modern usage of the word ‘fanny’. (When we autogenerate a transcript of the recording, the name ‘Fanny is often asterisked out!) This isn’t something I think anyone would do with an adaptation of Mansfield Park (although I note in the upcoming film of The Faraway Tree, Fanny has become Fran) but with such a minor character who doesn’t even appear they probably thought it was worth avoiding controversy.
I’ve been enjoying your podcasts so much, that this month I would like to enter the conversation in defence of the book ‘Mrs Clay’. Confession: It helps that I wrote it!
It’s true , and you’re quite right, that there’s a lot of silliness in the book, which was hugely enjoyable to write but quite indefensible— ah well… but I do want to argue about two points that were in fact intended to be quite serious. They both arise from Harrriet’s feeling that the book tries to get us to dislike both Anne and Wentworth.
Regarding Anne: It isn’t the book, but the Narrator (who explicitly introduces themselves in Chapter One as “the Narrator”) — this is the voice who lays into Anne. But the Preface has already warned us against the Narrator, and asked us— in Austen, is anyone who starts out claiming they are a Universal Omniscient Narrator, *really* going to make it to the end of the book unscathed??? Of course, the Narrator is humbled eventually, and specifically, they … reluctantly, angrily….are forced to acknowledge they are deeply wrong about Anne.
In fact, there are two characters in ‘Mrs Clay’ who experience major development. There’s Mrs Clay, who slowly learns to assert herself (paralleling Anne’s development, of course)… and there is that annoying, thoroughly-21st-century, Universal Omniscient Narrator, who, by volume 3, has been forced to publicly renege on Anne, and on almost everything else that they start off so confidently asserting!
The second point is about Wentworth. In ‘Mrs Clay’, we hear that as a youngster in the West Indies, he had tried out-drinking his friends, had had sex with available women in port, and had sometimes picked up STDs in the process.
Now, the voice ‘speaking’ this information is a bitter and jealous George Clay, who is resentfully speculating on the reason for Wentworth’s sudden (and successful) change in behaviour— so the way we’re told all this is as ugly as George Clay can make it. But the ‘facts’ do stand. Prior to entering Austen-land, Wentworth had done this. Is the book trying to get us to dislike Wentworth?
Or is it trying to get us to considering the wider historical world that surrounds Austenland, and the reality of Regency norms of masculine behaviour?
And here I have a question for Michael.
Yes, one of Austen’s brothers was famous as ‘the officer who knelt in church’. What does that tell you about the rest of them? And was a lively, energetic boy such as Frank Wentworth conducting his teenage years like the adult Captain Francis Austen?
Sent off, alone, at 12 or 13, to live exclusively among sailors, in about 1795; living that late eighteenth century life and embedded in those norms— what would a very spirited teenager be doing? Would such a boy say “ drink shall not pass my lips save in moderation “? Would he fold his hands over his fifteen year old crotch and declare “I will go to my wedding bed a virgin”?
Or would he — like lively boys of ANY era— be throwing himself into competition with his friends here, as everywhere else?
‘Mrs Clay’ gives Wentworth a character development that precedes the action of ‘Persuasion’. We see that his rejection by Anne made him completely rethink his behaviour, and by implication, what it means to be an admirable naval officer and man.
It was, in fact, the making of him.
Discussions like yours have shown me that, as an author, I probably need to flag this kind of thing *much* more clearly in the text. I’ll do better next book!
Meanwhile I’ll continue to enjoy your podcast and learn from your reflections.
Argh! Not Frank— Frederick! I’m getting all those Francis/ Frank/Freds mixed up…,