A Psychoneuroimmunological Reading of Jane Austen's Persuasion in the Context of Bodily Aging

Jane Austen normally avoids discussing appearance throughout her works. Persuasion con‑ stitutes the exception to the rule, as the story focuses on the premature aging experienced by her protagonist, Anne Elliot, seemingly due to disappointed love. Much has been writ‑ ten about Anne's 'loss of bloom,' but never from the perspective of psychoneuroimmu‑ nology, the feld that researches the interrelation between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems. In this paper, we adopt a perspective of psychoneuroim‑ munology to argue that Austen established a connection between psychological distress, specifcally lovesickness, and the development of early senescence signs, and vice versa, since the recovery of love is associated with happiness and physical glow. From a gender perspective, we discuss how Austen brightly refected these interrelationships through the story of Anne, when the latest psychoneuroimmunological research has actually shown that women age earlier than men as a consequence of psychological turmoil.