Brian Southam, from “Persuasion: The Righting and Re-Writing of History” [from Jane Austen and the Navy]
Brian Southam’s Jane Austen and the Navy examines Austen’s family relationships and naval records, along with her novels, to position her as a historian of the British Navy. In this chapter, Southam argues that with Persuasion Austen “set out to write a determinedly morale-boosting novel” that would show the Navy at its best. He compares the novel’s descriptions with the historical realities of the Navy, including its shifting status in popular opinion, the life of women upon ships in wartime, and naval discipline and advancement.