CLASSIC FICTION (PRE C 1945). Jane Austen's last and most melancholy novel was published posthumously in 1818. In PERSUASION, Austen creates a strong, mature, and independent heroine, Anne Elliot. Having foolishly broken off an engagement eight years earlier to Frederick Wentworth, a penniless naval officer, Anne at the age of 27 has remained unmarried--and secretly devoted to Wentworth. Living with her vain, self-absorbed, and (of course) ridiculous father, Anne is sinking gently into a resigned spinsterhood when Wentworth, who has gained wealth and a name for himself, comes back into her life. Set in 1814 and 1815, PERSUASION was written in 1816, when Jane Austen was already ill; perhaps her decline left its mark on the novel. PERSUASION, however, while more serious in tone than Austen's other works--and, interestingly, more attuned to landscape and the beauties of nature--retains her gift for satire and her sometimes mordant wit.