{"product_id":"mrs-clay-the-austen-experts-companion-to-persuasion-paperback","title":"Mrs Clay: The Austen Expert's Companion to 'Persuasion' - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eDorothea-Sofia Rossellini\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMrs Clay: The Austen Expert's Companion to 'Persuasion'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn unusual comedy, in which modern wit and nineteenth-century story-telling blend with a serious reassessment of Austen's final novel, \u003cem\u003ePersuasion\u003c\/em\u003e, and the state of mind of its author when she cut it short, to spend her last creative burst on \u003cem\u003eSanditon\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike any decent nineteenth-century novel, \u003cem\u003eMrs Clay\u003c\/em\u003e delivers vividly-drawn characters to like and loathe, pauses for moral reflection, and a satisfying Wildean conclusion: \"The good end happily, the bad, unhappily: that is what 'fiction' means.\" Behind the humour, though, is a passionately-argued reworking of \u003cem\u003ePersuasion's\u003c\/em\u003e themes of endurance, choice and responsibility-- and behind them, the figure of Austen herself as she wrote her last novel: already ill, with family finances vanishing, and existing-- like \u003cem\u003ePersuasion's\u003c\/em\u003e heroine, and \u003cem\u003eMrs Clay\u003c\/em\u003e's own-- in a climate of \"ethical fashion\" as judgemental as it was changeable, where their few choices (so hard to make, so painful in regret)-- were in any case only between one indeterminate destination and another.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Show less...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLanguage\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 430\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.96 x 8.27 x 5.83 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 14, 2017\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42128901406855,"sku":"9780995379084","price":38.88,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/67c3fc596290d70a4ad942c6a9f1bd4e.webp?v=1732598939","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/mrs-clay-the-austen-experts-companion-to-persuasion-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}