"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant." -- Jane Austen Persuasion

When I first read Jane Austen's novels, Pride and Prejudice was my favorite. I loved the characters, the romance, the wit. But as the years have progressed, I have come to absolutely love Persuasion. Austen's last book has a maturity of characters and story. Our heroine is older, wiser, but still stuck with the conventions of the day and her family's status. I adore Anne Elliott, but even more I love Captain Wentworth. Such a man!