I had high hopes for this book after reading Emma (several times). I love Austen’s writing style.

Read: Sep 15 – Sep 18, 2024

Genre: Classic, Romance
Audience: Young Adult
Book contains: misogyny, classism, physical injury, death of a parent

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A Decent Read

It has been eight years since Anne Elliot broke off her relationship with Captain Wentworth, on the advice of her close family friend, who claimed she could make a much better match. She hasn’t found anyone since, and as he reappears in her life, she is convinced she can rekindle their love.

After reading and loving Emma, I was super excited to read more of Jane Austen’s work. This one didn’t quite match up to that book, unfortunately, but I still found it an excellent read and great research for capturing the air of the time period (for my own writing).

This book is written in third person limited, mostly following the main character of Anne Elliot, though the beginning starts with her family history—specifically her father. Like other novels of the time, there is a lot of exposition and meandering dialogue woven into each scene.

I mostly listened along to the Classic Audiobook Collection version I found on Spotify. At times, I was just listening without the physical book in front of me, and I’d like to reread—or at least relisten to—this book to catch anything I may have missed.

Anne is a decent main character, though I wish I could connect to her more. She wasn’t very conniving; rather, she was a polite and well-skilled girl that was either hated or highly praised by those around her. It was an odd mix to be sure. The characters around her were your typical cast of Victorian high-class society, obsessed with their social standing, money, and keeping up appearances. There was also the slight problem with the fact that there were so many characters I often forgot who was who.

Anne’s interactions with the many different characters were interesting. The family dynamics are somewhat hostile between herself and her eldest sister and father, whereas she seemed to be the only person who truly likes her middle sister. It’s fun to watch her interactions with Lady Russell, the matchmaker that persuaded Anne to leave her one true love in the first place.

Of course, the interactions are somewhat long winded, and no one really says what they mean, as is typical for the genre and era. It’s a bit of a slog to get through and to read between the lines to traverse the rules of high society, but I’ve had a bit of practice with Emma, so it was fun to come up with theories as I watched the different romantic pairings between the characters.

That said, the pacing of this book was a bit slow. The overall plot wasn’t very much, but there were a lot of other things going on, and the descriptions (though beautiful) were longer than in contemporary works, so it took much more time to get where we were inevitably headed.

Nonetheless, I very much enjoyed reading this book, and I look forward to reading it again in future to catch anything I missed and to become more familiar with the story.

Related Reviews:

Persuasion by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens