Harvard University Press has done it again and wowed us with a superb annotation of a Jane Austen novel! Persuasion: An Annotated Edition, edited by Robert Morrison is slated to be released in November. This large edition hardback is a mouthwateringly scrumptious book that contains 102 color illustrations (some of which are included in this review), notes on the original text, a 21-page introduction by Dr. Morrison, the text of Persuasion and annotations placed in the far margins, the original ending of Persuasion, (which Jane Austen abandoned), biographical notice of the author by her brother Henry Austen (written shortly after her death), and further recommended reading. Annotator, Dr. Morrison, describes the book as the most profound novel that Jane Austen has written, containing “her most compelling and adult love story.”
1808 evening dresses, August issue of Le Beau Monde.
I found every part of this book worthy of reading. In his foreword, Dr. Morrison sets up the novel in context of the Napoleonic Wars and Jane Austen’s experience with her sailor brothers and knowledge of how the wars changed the British class system, allowing self-made men like Admiral Croft and Captain Wentworth to rise in the world, while those who clung to traditional conventions, like Sir Walter Elliot and his daughters Elizabeth and Mary, to become increasingly anachronisistic. Dr Morrison explains in an interview for Harvard Press:
“Austen, on the other hand, is a novelist, and the emphasis when editing her is frequently on her immensely insightful views on social structures, sexual politics, economic pressures, and individual obligations and aspirations. Editing her means developing a very clear sense of the difference between riding in a barouche and riding in a curricle, of what it means to command a frigate as opposed to a sloop.“ – Interview with Robert Morrison, Harvard Press
Between Lyme Regis and Charmouth, by John White Abbot
The star attractions of this book are the annotations, which are liberally sprinkled in the sidebars of each page. Dr. Morrison chose information that would appeal to seasoned readers of the novel as well as those who are reading it for the first time. He discusses naval rank, the various reasons why Anne’s family pressured her to not marry Wentworth, descriptions of the duties of apothecaries and surgeons, inheritance laws, the streets and buildings in Bath, descriptions of Lyme Regis, letter writing, and more. He explained in an interview for Harvard Press:
“Knowing my prose was going to appear right beside Austen’s really did change the way I approached writing my commentary. I have tried to use the commentary to illuminate the text as often as I can, and from as many different angles as I can, and to emphasize both what I believe to be central in Persuasion, and what the finest critics from Austen’s day to ours have written about it. I have attempted to produce a commentary that is in immediate and active dialogue with her text, rather than in a relationship that is more distant and intermittent.” – Interview, Harvard Press
Sea bathing at Scarborough
I find it hard to read a novel smoothly while referring to the annotations, which I regard as interruptions, so I generally read the annotations alone. I then refer to the sections of the novel that are described. After going through the annotations, I will sit down and read the novel again. That second reading is much enriched because of the additional information. (I am curious to know how others tackle reading an annotated book!)
The White Hart Inn
Professor Morrison ends his interview with Harvard Press by comparing the radical change in Anne from a faded to a blooming woman to the transformation in Jane Austen’s novels: “[Persuasion] signals a radical change from what she has written in the past, and throws searching light on the world that is to come.”
Francis Austen, Jane Austen's sailor brother.
Persuasion, an annotated edition will sit proudly on my bookshelf next to last year’s edition of Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition by Patricia Meyer Spacks, also from Harvard University Press. I give this book five out of five Regency teacups.
Dr. Robert Morrison. Image @Galit Rodan
About the author: Robert Morrison, is an English professor and world-class scholar of Romantic and Victorian literature at Queen’s University, Ontario, Cananda. He is the author of the acclaimed biography of Thomas de Quincey entitled The English Opium Eater.
Hardcover: 360 pages, 102 ills.
Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Annotated edition
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0674049741
Jane Austen's World 
This is my favorite Jane Austen book and I look forward to reading this new annotation with illustrations.
Thanks for the review posting.
I’ve been patiently waiting for this edition to be published since I found out about it approximately 6 months back. Just wondering how you get your hands on it before it is released. Is it because of your academic work in university?
Like you, I also own the P&P annotated edition by Patricia Spacks. I read the text first until the word where it is annotated and then read the annotations and if I don’t understand, I’ll re-read the text. It is very time-consuming so I take my own sweet time to complete P&P.
Luthien, I receive review copies. I place the disclaimer on my sidebar, but I suppose it is not obvious. I am a little early in my review, but saw that the book was available on Amazon US for those who want to purchase it now.
I think that you will not be unhappy with your purchase.
That sounds rather good! Thank you. I’ll look for the annotated edition!
How can I resist? Even if my stash of Austen-related books is overflowing from the shelf, I know I shall find the room for this one too.
Thank you for this review! Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen novel. Your description of this annotated version has persuaded (!) me that I have to have it… pre-order placed.
I shall read it the way you do (especially as I know and love the book already). If I were reading the book for the first time, I’d try to read the authoor’s text and only refer to an annotation when I had to, because didn’t understand the original text. I’d then read through the annotations and re-read the book, knowing that, even though one always sees more in a good book on a re-read, the added perception will be enhanced by the annotations.
Thank you, HJ. Let me know how you like my method!
Although the release date is November, I found a copy of this new annotated version in a bricks & mortar B&N store two weeks ago (first week of Oct). So it may be available now for readers who are interested.
Cheers,
jmc
I definitely must get this to add to my collection!!
I am excited to get my hands on this book! I have great appreciation for the Spacks P&P. I don’t usually read an annotated edition until I am fairly familiar with the novel. So I go directly to the study mode where I read the text stopping for each annotation and rereading the text as necessary. If it takes a long time, so be it because it is such a delicious process.
Bonnie, I like your method too. I simply do not have the ability to stop, read the annotation, and continue, but admire your ability to do so. I love your description of your method as being a delicious process!
I am so all over this one. I am glad it was so good!
Hi Vic. This sounds like a very good edition. i would like to read Dr Morrison views.
It does sound rather a shame the annotations are next to the text. That format is very often useful in an academic text but not I would have thought in a work of literature. Off putting to say the least.
I have just read “To The Lighthouse,” by Virginia Woolf. She is often likened to Austen because of her drawing room dramas and the focus on the interaction between individuals. I found many comparisons to Autsen in this novel. This version, published by Oxford World Classics, had footnotes too. They were signalled in the text by an asterix but the notes were at the back. Some were useful, in making references to her own family history and in her choice of names for the characters and the links through the names with philosophers and politicians and as such shedding further light on to the meaning of the text. However some notes were not really necessary like telling us who Balzac was or what Trafalgar Square is.They were just points of interest that the reader could look up if they wanted to anyway. Footnotes can be useful and shed further light into the text but sometimes they are superfluous. And yes keep them hidden away from distracting the reader from a good read.
Hi Vic,
Very beautiful and interesting post!
Thanks for sharing!
Have a good evening!
Thanks for the review. I need to check this out asap!
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen novel. How can I pass up a mouthwateringly scrumptious book? I must read it.
I am curious as to your thoughts on the propriety of a gentleman joining a Jane Austen book club. My local group happens to consist solely of ladies. Perhaps that is why the organizer has ignored my enquiries into the membership guidelines. Thank you in advance.
Our book club has a male member whose presence is most appreciated for his singular point of view and his ability to make unforgettable martinis!
[…] at Jane Austen’s World recently posted a review of this new Annotated version . . . and I bought it right away (some of […]
This edition of Persuasion looks impressive. The illustrations also look not bad.
[…] Inguiring readers, I literally SWOONED when I received a review copy of Emma: An Annotated Edition edited by Bharat Tandon. Readers of this blog know how much I have cherished this annotated series of Jane Austen’s novels by Harvard University Press. Click here for my review about the Annotated Pride and Prejudice and here for the Annotated Persuasion. […]