“She had been forced into caution in her youth, she learned romance in her old age—the natural consequence of an unnatural beginning.” Anne Elliot seems to have given up on present happiness and resigned herself to living on her memories. More than seven years earlier, she had done her duty: convinced that the match was unwise and unsuitable, she broke off her engagement to a naval captain with no fortune, no lineage, and no prospects. However, when peacetime arrives and brings the navy home, and Anne meets Captain Wentworth once more, she begins to believe in second chances. Persuasion celebrates romantic constancy in an age of turbulent change. Written at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the novel explores how a woman can both remain true to her past and continue moving forward into the future.