Read-along – Persuasion (2 of 4)
Chapters 8-12 – and 'real beauty at Lyme'
Dear Persuasion readers,
Wishing you a very happy Valentine’s Day!
And many congratulations on reaching the end of Volume One. Here are my thoughts:
Do let me know your reactions and observations as a comment below.
For those who haven’t visited Lyme Regis, it’s a small coastal town on the southern coast of England. It sits on the Dorset-Devon border with views in each direction along the Jurassic Coast and out across Lyme Bay.
The town is dominated by its serpentine, slanting harbour wall, known as The Cobb, which was first constructed in the middle ages, extended in the 1690s, and had been recently rebuilt in 1793, following storm damage, just ten years before Jane Austen visited Lyme with her parents in 1804.
‘The remarkable situation of the town, the principal street almost hurrying into the water,’ she recalls in Persuasion, ‘the walk to the Cobb, skirting round the pleasant little bay, which, in the season, is animated with bathing machines and company; the Cobb itself, its old wonders and new improvements, with the very beautiful line of cliffs stretching out to the east of the town, are what the stranger’s eye will seek; and a very strange stranger it must be, who does not see charms in the immediate environs of Lyme, to make him wish to know it better.’
Alfred Lord Tennyson visited Lyme in 1867, ostensibly to see where the Duke of Monmouth landed in 1685. ‘Don’t talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth,’ he is said to have cried. ‘Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell!’ He was more interested in finding the steps on the Cobb where Louisa falls and is ‘taken up lifeless!’
The steps usually associated with Louisa’s fall are this treacherous flight of projecting stones known as ‘Granny’s Teeth’. Sadly, Granny’s Teeth were installed after Austen visited Lyme – and after Persuasion was published – so Lydia must have been climbing a different set of steps – perhaps the ones in the photograph above.
I particularly enjoyed rereading the Lyme episode, because my parents live in Charmouth, one village to the east of Lyme. As Austen says: ‘Charmouth, with its high grounds and extensive sweeps of country, and still more, its sweet, retired bay, backed by dark cliffs, where fragments of low rock among the sands, make it the happiest spot for watching the flow of the tide, for sitting in unwearied contemplation.’
I’m looking forward to starting Volume Two! We’ll read chapters 13-20 this week –(Volume II, Chapters 1-8) – and discuss them next Friday 21st February.
Here are links to our previous Persuasion posts:
The Schedule (8 January)
Jane Austen (24 January)
0. Dissuading Fanny Knight (31 January)
1. Chapters 1-7 – and Debrett’s Baronetage (7 February)
Also, a reminder to paid subscribers that this coming Wednesday 19th is our monthly Wednesday Watch-along, when we watch a classic film together. We’ll be watching Brazil by Terry Gilliam (1985) on its 40th anniversary. All the details are here.
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I keep wondering how the same family produced the three Elliott sisters. Somehow I find the Bennett sisters more understandable, maybe because I come from a family of six very different siblings. All this to say that I wish someone had shoved Mary in the carriage so Louisa could have had a worthwhile nursemaid. I am a big Austen fan, and realized how often she uses illness or injury (Jane Bennett’s cold, Marianne Dashwood’s ankle, Louisa’s fall) as a plot device. Women of the era were already dependent, and this makes them even more so. It often gives the male characters a chance to see a new side of the women.
Anne is the extreme introvert in this small society composed of extroverts, who suck all the energy out of every outing and event. I don't blame them, they have to make the most entertainment out of the closed environment they are in. I love that we see what she sees - I agree with Henry that Mrs. Croft taking the reins has opened Anne's eyes to a different way of living. There's life out there, Anne!
I loved the Lyme chapters, poor Louisa's misadventure being the exception. New people and new sites have given Anne a burst of energy and, I hope, purpose.
I was sure of Captain Wentworth up until now. He seemed extremely rigid, which probably worked for the naval life. I don't know how it translates to human relations. Someone with such high standards would be extremely trying to live with! On the other hand, he was willing to catch Louisa off that precarious wall, which signals he can adjust to the circumstances when required. I bet he doesn't want to do it all the time, though.
I'm done rambling. As a Jane Austen newbie, I am enjoying this novel immensely. It was a good place for me to start as a more mature, classic reader. Looking forward to Volume II.
Thank you for the guidance, Henry.