
Persuasion
Jane Austen · 1817
Austen's most emotionally raw novel. A second-chance love story about Anne Elliot, who was once persuaded out of love and has spent years regretting it. The letter Captain Wentworth writes ("I am half agony, half hope") is the most romantic passage in English literature. A quieter Austen, and her most devastating.
Romance · the Pro canon
The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.