Sunday Feature: Literary Pursuits

Sarah Dillon discovers how Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion, was written. The novel has sometimes been viewed as Austen's valedictory novel - written while she was suffering with her final illness. Sarah uncovers a more complex story: dates of revisions on the manuscripts in the British Library confirm her sister's story that Persuasion was completed almost a year before Austen's death, although it was only published posthumously. Joined by Dr Kathryn Sutherland from St Anne's College, Oxford, Paula Byrne, and writer Margaret Drabble, Sarah goes behind the scant details of Austen's life and uncovers reasons for the delay. They explore areas such as Austen's last illness, the possibly personal inspirations for the plot of the novel, the state of her finances, her creative process and the radical reaches and determination of her literary ambitions. episode 3