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Description
Austen's last novel is the crowning achievement of her matchless career. Her heroine, Anne Elliot, a woman of integrity, breeding and great depth of emotion, stands in stark contrast to the brutality and hypocrisy of Regency England. Includes a new Introduction by Margaret Drabble, famed... read more
Cast of Characters/Important People
- Anne Elliot: The timid daughter of Sir Walter Elliot who was persuaded to decline the suit of Captain Wentworth eight years before the start of the book. Anne regrets her decision and is heartbroken by Wentworth's treatment of her upon his reappearence in her life. Anne is fond of poetry and has resigned herself to taking care of spoiled sisters and vain father.
- Sir Walter Elliot: The vain and conceited father of Anne who refuses to surround himself with anyone not of the right birth, station, or beauty equal or superior to his own.
- Lady Russell: A dear friend of Anne's late mother who holds great affection toward and influence over Anne. She is the one who persuaded Anne that Captain Wentworth was not worthy of her hand in marriage.
- Captain Frederick Wentworth: Wentworth is a successful member of the Royal Navy who found great fortune at sea during the Napoleonic Wars. He was once briefly engaged to Anne but she was persuaded not to continue her relationship with him. Eight years later, he has returned to Somersetshire intent on finding himself a bride. He professes to want only someone strong of character and not easily influenced by others--forcing Anne to pull herself out of the picture.
- William Elliot: The estranged heir of Sir Walter Elliot who appears to Anne in Lyme and later, again, in Bath. He is reunited with the family there and old troubles seem to be buried in the past.
Memorable Quotes
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“There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved.”
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“All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.”
Anne Elliot
First Sentence
SIR WALTER ELLIOT, of Kellynch-hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt, as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century-and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed-this was the page at which the favourite volume always opened: 'ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH-HALL.
Table of Contents
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