A 'first return to the sea' in Persuasion

The structure of reunion makes Persuasion unusual among Jane Austen's novels: whereas Mans field Park (1814) and Emma (1815) depict the process by which two people gradually come to realise their mutual affection,Persuasion begins belatedly, years after the more familiar procedure has been tried unsuccessfully. From the outset, Austen's lead characters are alienated not just fromeach other, but from the forms of development traditionally offered by the romantic plot of a novel.