Not her best in my opinion (spoilers)

Let me preface this by saying that Jane Austen is my favorite author, ever. Persuasion in my opinion was not her best work, and we all know that Pride and Prejudice is considered her best, but this was not even close the top in my head. While her other stories had an air of probability to them, although her greatest really did not, (but we will forgive it that) this story just bounced around so quickly that I did not enjoy any true character growth. It is all well and good that the lovers end up together in the end, but what was really stopping them in the first place (after their reunion of course)? Why, when the captain returned did he not immediately pursue Anne? We all know from the very beginning that she has never gotten over him. I know that Austen wants us to believe that Anne is very docile and bows down to others expectations, but honestly she takes it a little too far. The whole story of their getting together is shrouded in secrecy, which I believe is the reason it takes them so long to get together in the end. Another thing that bugs me is that he is blatantly hitting on her friends in front of her, which is a total jerk thing to do. I mean he waited all that time to get married and now suddenly he feels he has to somehow test her by trying to make her jealous in a cruel way? Altogether it is far from the worst book ever, but I just had my problems with it.