The last novel completed by Jane Austen and widely seen as its most mature work, Persuasion is set during the Napoleonic Wars and several of its characters are, like two of Austen’s own brothers, officers in the Royal Navy. It is, of course, a love story, but the heroine is no longer a very young girl. The novel is best remembered for its use of free indirect speech as well as for its attention to contemporary historical events. This edition is accompanied by close to one hundred explanatory notes. Author Biography Jane Austen is one of the most popular English-language novelists of all time.