Mellow Jane Austen

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 662, 14 March 1952, Page 11

Mellow Jane Austen

PERSUASION was the last book Jane Austen completed. She began to write it in 1815, the year in which she finished Emma, probably her finest novel. "The contrast between the two books is remarkable," wrote H. Oldfield Box, whose radio adaptation of, Persuasion is now to be heard in New Zealand. "Emma is high-spirited, mischievous, satirical, exhibiting all Jane Austen’s old delight in the absurdities of her fellow creatures. Persuasion is, for the most part, a gentle, tender story-mellow where Emma is acid." There were two reasons for the difference between the books. For one thing, the character of the heroine, Anne Elliot, and the circumstances of her broken romance dictated the mood of the story. And Jane Austen herself had greatly changed. Family cares and failing health had softened the quality of her writing. When he discussed Persuasion in the Radio Times before it was broadcast by the BBC last year, Oldfield Box said that the book did not perhaps contain any of Jane Austen’s most memorable

characters, but in : none of her books were they brought into three-dimension-al being with greater finesse, and in none were they so cleverly contrasted. Persuasion (he said)

was a charming and moving love storyand an answer to those who held that | Jane Austen’s writing lacked emotional strength. New ‘Zealand listeners are to hear a transcription of the BBC production. The story is told in dramatised form in three parts, each lasting an hour. It will | start from 4YC at 8.0 p.m. on Wednesday, March 19, and from 3YC during next month. Later other stations will play it. The production is by Mary HopeAllen (whom listeners will remember especially for her work on The Cherry | Orchard in the World Theatre series) | and the cast is headed by Michael Deni-_ son and Dulcie Gray, as Captain Wentworth and Anhe Elliot.