Liberty in Jane Austen’s Persuasion

In an age where single-author studies are rarely encouraged by publishers, Kathryn E. Davis’s concise Liberty in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” demonstrates the undoubted value of this particular genre of monograph. Instead of focusing on the verbal art of Jane Austen’s oeuvre as a whole, Davis selects Austen’s final complete novel, Persuasion (1817), for analysis. The result is a theoretically informed specialist study that adds significantly to the growing body of research on Austen’s work. It reveals its author’s skill to unravel the complex nuances of Austen’s language.... Liberty in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” is a welcome and significant addition to Austen criticism, and it offers a degree of nuance in its readings that testifies not only to Austen’s skill at crafting the novel but also to the author’s ability to decode the multifarious and often complex meanings of Austen’s work. * ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews *
Davis's highly readable, well-researched book offers a fresh view of Austen's final complete novel by placing the work's discussion of liberty and personal freedom within the context of Enlightenment philosophical debates and religious traditions deeply rooted in the past. Literary scholars and laypeople alike will find much to admire in Davis's careful reading of Persuasion. -- Roger Moore, Vanderbilt University
Refreshing, clear, and convincing. Davis dialogues graciously yet incisively with contemporary critics and positions Austen’s Persuasion as an astute response to eighteenth-century philosophical theology and political thought. Fascinatingly, Davis takes up two writers whom Austen admired—Thomas Sherlock and William Cowper—and proposes their Christian concepts of grace, diligence, and fearlessness informed Austen’s ideas about liberty of soul. Davis illustrates how, in an age of revolutions, Austen consciously defined liberty in terms of practical wisdom, spiritual fortitude, active speech, and social responsibility. The result is an illuminating examination of feminine and masculine character growth and the attendant political consequences. -- Natasha Duquette, Tyndale University College