'Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' Can Teach You How to Grow Up' by Brandon Taylor

As I've gotten older (only 30! Very young!) my regrets have started to pile up and I see how the choices I made shaped my life in a certain way, one that, looking back, I wouldn't have chosen. It is difficult, to realize you've picked wrong, and you're stuck.

But the reality is, it is rare that anything is stuck one way forever. That is a thesis of Persuasion, which Brandon Taylor writes about this brilliantly in his foreword to the new edition. It is a novel about regret and mistakes. But it's also a novel about hope. Because sometimes, you get another chance. You can try again, armed with everything you now know. Isn't that beautiful?

Good novel, good essay.