Somewhere in Somerset

Wentworth: pleads an “appeal” to Anne; shows her “deference”; is a sailor aka knows all about knots for a living; is framed as the penetrated (“a heart pierced, wounded…”)

Anne and Wentworth: both use as their model for marital relationships (“most attractive picture of happiness”) the Crofts’ marriage, where the Admiral is happy to be “called to order by his wife”

thank you @berries-and-nova for letting me know about the 1821 French edition of Persuasion, translated by Swiss novelist and translator Isabelle de Montolieu! like I said it’s got a lot of extra stuff not in the original novel so I’ll post my reading of it here and transcribe the “new” stuff! Some of it I’ll paste the translated english, some of it I’ll leave untranslated (volume 1, volume 2, volume illustrations above)

Volume 1:

There’s a brief biography of Austen here. I’ll just paste (badly) translated excerpts that I liked, starting with:

She wrote for as long as she could hold a pen, and when holding a pen became too painful, using a pencil. The day before her death, she composed a few stanzas full of energy and feeling; it was an eternal farewell to her family and friends. Her last words were expressions of gratitude to her doctor; he asked her, a few moments later, if she needed anything. “The only thing I lack is death,” she said with a smile, and there it was, approaching. Indeed, she died a few minutes later, on July 18, 1817, in the arms of her sister, who had cared for her throughout her illness with tireless zeal. …in a letter from the dying woman, written a few weeks before her death: “I no longer move from my sofa except to take a walk from time to time, from one room to another, leaning on the arm of my dear and tender sister, the most zealous, the most careful, the most tireless of nurses; I trembled that her care and vigils would not overwhelm her health; but, praise be to God! her strength seems to increase with the decline of mine. “What I owe to her friendship, to the affection of my beloved family, is a thousand times greater than (what can be expressed), but not the feeling that fills my heart and makes me happy despite my lady’s condition which overwhelms me. If I survive, my entire existence must be dedicated to… gratitude… (to) Almighty God, etc. "Thank you for the blessing of having such parents, bless them and comfort them! etc.”

;_; Then the author says: “Without resorting to slander or malice, her conversation was brilliant and lively; she never went off from his mouth a hasty judgment, a misplaced or cutting expression; in short, her heart was in accord with her spirit to lend each other an inconceivable charm.” I wonder what she would’ve thought of Austen’s private letters. anyway I love this part:

She rarely changed my mind about books or men, so much so that her first judgment on them was reasonable.

now, onto the actual story: (long post below)

Showing Wentworth's brother-in-law as a man who would accept direction and correction from his wife, and Wentworth's sister as a woman who expects that sort of respect from her husband, is no small thing! He was raised with a sister who expects respect, suggesting that their father respected and cared for their mother. He had the good example of Admiral Croft for a significant part of his military career. His brother was married and a clergyman. Despite lack of inherited wealth or living parents, he comes from a "good family".

p. 85: “Her eye half met Captain Wentworth’s, a bow, a curtsey passed; she heard his voice;” Wentworth’s first on-page appearance in the present. Anne and Wentworth haven’t even met until about a fifth to a quarter of the way through the novel.

p. 105: Wentworth often visits Uppercross, accompanied by the Crofts sometimes

p. 130: “everything now marked out Louisa for Captain Wentworth”

p. 152: Anne “was looking remarkably well; her very regular, very pretty features, having the bloom and freshness of youth restored…” Anne has recovered much of her spirits from being around the sea (though she still has a lower sense of self-esteem compared to what it should be perhaps) and hanging out with the Harvilles (“the picture of repose and domestic happiness”) and Wentworth is pleased to see Anne looking well and herself again :’)

p. 161: Louisa’s fall at the Cobb

p. 239: Mary tells Anne that Louisa is engaged to Benwick

So pages 85-161 encompass the whole of Anne & Wentworth’s on-page “perpetual estrangement” - that’s about a fifth of the whole book - and pp. ~130-239 are Wentworth and Louisa’s perceived “entanglement” - about a quarter to a third. Then for Anne and Mr. Elliot:

p. 152: again, Mr. Elliot first sees Anne at Lyme

p. 206: they are reacquainted in Bath (“Anne, smiling and blushing, very becomingly shewed to Mr Elliot the pretty features which he had by no means forgotten”)

p. 232: Lady Russell tells Anne that Mr. Elliot is discreetly trying to court her and she’s convinced they’d suit, “and was beginning to calculate the number of weeks which would free him from all the remaining restraints of widowhood”

p. 258: Mr. Elliot escorts Anne away from Wentworth with “the air and look and manner of the privileged relation and friend. He came in with eagerness, appeared to see and think only of her, apologised for his stay, was grieved to have kept her waiting, and anxious to get her away without further loss of time and before the rain increased; and in another moment they walked off together, her arm under his, a gentle and embarrassed glance, and a “Good morning to you!” being all that she had time for, as she passed away.”

p. 327: news of Anne’s supposed attachment to him is in full swing (“Her distress returned, however, on perceiving smiles and intelligent glances pass between two or three of the lady visitors, as if they believed themselves quite in the secret. It was evident that the report concerning her had spread…”)

p. 354: Anne reconciles with Wentworth after his letter, and as he asks, “a look” from her signals thus: “The cheeks which had been pale now glowed, and the movements which had hesitated were decided. He walked by her side.”

p. 366: the last page before the epilogue, which tells us about Anne and Wentworth’s wedding and what happened to much of the cast. This takes place during the evening party at Camden Place, and Anne/Wentworth haven’t announced their engagement yet, so no rumors about her have been dispelled: “Mr Elliot was there; she avoided, but she could pity him … with Lady Russell, attempts at conversation, which a delicious consciousness cut short;”

If we count either pp. 258-354 or 232-366 as encompassing the perceived attachment between Anne and Mr. Elliot (depending on how we’re defining it), that’s about a quarter to more than a third of the book, similar to Wentworth and Louisa’s. In-universe (using this calendar), Anne and Mr. Elliot’s supposed attachment would be about 2 months (right after Christmas to late February), as approximately was Wentworth and Louisa’s (mid-November to late January*).

(*Outsiders might have had more reason to believe Anne and Mr. Elliot were together than Wentworth and Louisa), and Louisa was presumably in a sickbed for >6 weeks of that November-Jan period while Wentworth was away, visiting his brother - “I was six weeks with Edward,” said he, “and saw him happy…” - and I guess people around Louisa saw her getting attached to Benwick in that time, but I’m counting it anyway.)

Tangentially, it’s interesting that immediately after Wentworth finds out Anne rejected Charles Musgrove (“Do you mean that she refused him?”) and he helps Anne into the Crofts’ carriage, we find out he’s left for Lyme to go visit the Harvilles. There’s no on-page interactions between him and Louisa (though he does show “bright eyes” and “glowing” glances at Anne) until she asks him to jump her from the steps. Maybe that was subconsciously the reason for his sudden departure in the first place, he left to gather his thoughts and emotions despite not fully realizing he’s in love with Anne yet; as Wentworth explains:

“…one encouragement happened to be mine. I could never doubt that you would be loved and sought by others, but I knew to a certainty that you had refused one man, at least, of better pretensions than myself; and I could not help often saying, ‘Was this for me?’”

Anne wondered whether it ever occurred to him now, to question the justness of his own previous opinion as to the universal felicity and advantage of firmness of character; and whether it might not strike him that, like all other qualities of the mind, it should have its proportions and limits. She thought it could scarcely escape him to feel that a persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character. 

The mistress of a very pretty laundaulette - some one was taking him from her - he carpentered -

thank u thank u!! you inspired me to draw them the other day <3