CLASSIC FICTION (PRE C 1945). Jane Austen’s last and most melancholy novel was published posthumously in 1818. In PERSUASION, Austen creates a strong, mature, and independent heroine, Anne Elliot. Having foolishly broken off an engagement eight years earlier to Frederick Wentworth, a penniless naval officer, Anne at the age of 27 has remained unmarried–and secretly devoted to Wentworth. Living with her vain, self-absorbed, and (of course) ridiculous father, Anne is sinking gently into a resigned spinsterhood when Wentworth, who has gained wealth and a name for himself, comes back into her life. Set in 1814 and 1815, PERSUASION was written in 1816, when Jane Austen was already ill; perhaps her decline left its mark on the novel. PERSUASION, however, while more serious in tone than Austen’s other works–and, interestingly, more attuned to landscape and the beauties of nature–retains her gift for satire and her sometimes mordant wit.