Persuasion (Wisehouse Classics - With Illustrations by H.M. Brock). Jane Austen

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       PERSUASION

       PERSUASION

       by

      Jane Austen

       Illustrated by H.M. Brock

       W

       Wisehouse Classics

      Jane Austen

       Persuasion

       Illustrated by H.M. Brock

       Cover painting: Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, circa 1713-75 - Joshua Reynolds, 1765

       Executive Editor Sam Vaseghi

      Published by Wisehouse Classics – Sweden

      ISBN 978-91-7637-181-7

      Wisehouse Classics is a Wisehouse Imprint.

      © Wisehouse 2016 – Sweden

       www.wisehouse-classics.com

      © Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.

       Contents

       VOLUME I

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

       CHAPTER 8

       CHAPTER 9

       CHAPTER 10

       CHAPTER 11

       CHAPTER 12

       VOLUME II

       CHAPTER 13

       CHAPTER 14

       CHAPTER 15

       CHAPTER 16

       CHAPTER 17

       CHAPTER 18

       CHAPTER 19

       CHAPTER 20

       CHAPTER 21

       CHAPTER 22

       CHAPTER 23

       CHAPTER 24

       VOLUME I

       ji

CHAPTER 1

      SIR WALTER ELLIOT, OF KELLYNCH HALL, IN SOMERSETSHIRE, WAS A MAN who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which the favourite volume always opened:

       “Elliot of Kellynch Hall.

       “Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married, July 15, 1784, Elizabeth, daughter of James Stevenson, Esq. of South Park, in the county of Gloucester, by which lady (who died 1800) he has issue Elizabeth, born June 1, 1785; Anne, born August 9, 1787; a still-born son, November 5, 1789; Mary, born November 20, 1791.”

      Precisely such had the paragraph originally stood from the printer’s hands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of himself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary’s birth—“Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset,” and by inserting most accurately the day of the month on which he had lost his wife.

      Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectable family, in the usual terms; how it had been first settled in Cheshire; how mentioned in Dugdale, serving the office of high sheriff, representing a borough in three successive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baronet, in the first year of Charles II, with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; forming altogether two handsome duodecimo pages, and concluding with the arms and motto:—”Principal seat, Kellynch Hall, in the county of Somerset,” and Sir Walter’s handwriting again in this finale:—

       “Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq., great grandson of the second Sir Walter.”

      Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot’s character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did, nor could the valet of any new made lord СКАЧАТЬ