Austen's last completed novel returns to Bath with a more mature and melancholy eye. Anne Elliot, reunited with the man she was persuaded to reject years earlier, navigates the social terrain of the city's streets and drawing rooms. The Bath of Persuasion is less glittering than in Northanger Abbey — the city is a place of reduced circumstances, cramped lodgings, and uncomfortable social encounters.
The novel's Bath scenes are sharply observed and often biting. Austen clearly knew the city intimately, and her descriptions of Camden Place, Milsom Street, and the Pump Room are precise enough to follow on a modern map. If you only read one book before visiting Bath, make it this one.