In this episode, we talk about Lyme, the connection between Anne and Captain Benwick, whether these chapters make us wonder if Anne will end up with someone other than Captain Wentworth, and Louisa’s fall from the steps.
The characters we discuss are Captains Harville and Benwick. In the historical section, Ellen talks about romantic poetry, and for popular culture Harriet discusses the 2022 Netflix film adaptation of Persuasion.
Things we mention:
General discussion:
- Janet Todd and Antje Blank [Editors], The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen: Persuasion (2006)
- Samuel Johnson, The Rambler (periodical, published 1750-1752)
- Dr John Gregory
- Hester Chapone
- Stairs on the Cobb
- Google map of the steps on the Cobb
Historical discussion:
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads (1798)
- The Foster-Mother’s Tale (Coleridge)
- Goody Blake and Harry Gill (Wordsworth)
- Simon Lee, the old Huntsman (Wordsworth)
- We are Seven (Wordsworth)
- Other poems by Wordsworth
- My Heart Leaps Up (1807)
- Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood (1807)
- I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1807)
- Works by Scott
- Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field (1889) – includes the tale of Young Lochinvar
- The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)
- The Lady of the Lake (1810)
- Waverley (1814)
- Poems by Byron
- Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818)
- The Giaour (1813)
- The Bride of Abydos (1813)
- The Corsair (1814)
- Susan Allen Ford, What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why) (2024)
Popular culture discussion:
- Netflix, Persuasion (2022) – starring Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis
- Louisa’s fall (this YouTube video shows the same scene from four different adaptations of Persuasion)
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.
I completely agree with you about the adaptation. I almost feel angry when I think about it! 🙂 That’s two hours of my life I will never get back.
I wondered whether the people involved in creating the movie had ever actually read the book.
I’m sorry to say, but I really liked the adaptation.
I like it as a film, the open approach of the book. Just like the 2005 pride prejudice film, where there is love between the Bennets, where its not in the book.
I like it when a adaptation takes liberties and provides new insights and possibities.
You mentioned many times that you disliked the missing of the kid jumping on anne. I liked this solution.
I liked the diverse casting, i can agree that wentowrth wasnt the best.
But i liked Anne, even though everything You said about her changed character is so true.
But just face it: persuasion is Janes best book… so best to read the original.
Don’t apologise for liking the adaptation – it would be a very boring world if we all liked the same things 🙂
Hi! When can we expect the next episode of Persuasion?
Hopefully within the next week! Apologies for the delay.
Thanks Harriet for your review of recent Persuasion. I’m glad that you saw the humor in all the non-Anne Elliot family characters. I really loved that aspect. And I appreciated the color blind casting. I certainly see how many viewers felt betrayed by this adaptation, but I enjoyed it and I kept thinking that Jane would have LOL at many of the scenes. She wrote for the laughs of her family as she read them the pages for an evening’s entertainment. Regarding this adaptation, as soon as I saw Anne wearing lipstick in the opening scene, I knew that that was not a faithful adaptation and I so I prepared myself appropriately for the ride. And then I enjoyed it enormously. And I really feel for the people that spent so much time making this production only to be bombed by the purists. All that said, I hated Anne painting jam on her face only to meet Wentworth thus decorated. (Producers: Lose the rabbit.)