Persuasion [with Biographical Introduction]

by Jane Austen

whatever esteem Mr. Elliot may have for his own situation in life now, as a young man he had not the smallest value for it.

if baronetcies were saleable, anybody should have his for fifty pounds,

my first visit to Kellynch will be with a surveyor, to tell me how to bring it with best advantage to the hammer.

peace, which may be a decent equivalent for the reversion. He is worse than last year.

Question

She was obliged to recollect that her seeing the letter was a violation of the laws of honour,

no private correspondence could bear the eye of others,

what he is now wanting, and what he is now doing. He is no hypocrite now. He truly wants to marry you.

Colonel Wallis."

Colonel Wallis has a very pretty silly wife, to whom he tells things

Mrs. Rooke

whole history,

had a double motive in his visits there.

your sister's friend,

Mrs. Clay? Question

Colonel Wallis

time had worked a very material change in Mr. Elliot's opinions as to the value of a baronetcy.

such a footing in the family as might give him the means of ascertaining the degree of his danger, and of circumventing the lady if he found it material.

Concerned that if Walter marries, he might have a son and heir.

the family; and there it was his constant object, and his only object (till your arrival added another motive), to watch Sir Walter and Mrs. Clay.

Anne,

There is always something offensive in the details of cunning.

Mrs. Wallis has an amusing idea, as nurse tells me, that it is to be put into the marriage articles when you and Mr. Elliot marry, that your father is not to marry Mrs. Clay.

Mr. Elliot is evidently a disingenuous, artificial, worldly man, who has never had any better principle to guide him than selfishness."

Good summary. Haha

Mr. Elliot had led his friend into expenses much beyond his fortune.

the Smiths accordingly had been ruined.

Mr. Smith had appointed him the executor of his will; but Mr. Elliot would not act,

Through my delay in the administration of dad’s estate, I ended up giving the beneficiaries an extra $10,000 from my portion of the estate, and did not take a customary executor’s fee.

It was a dreadful picture of ingratitude and inhumanity;

Anne could perfectly comprehend the exquisite relief, and was only the more inclined to wonder at the composure of her friend's usual state of mind.

She had no natural connexions to assist her even with their counsel, and she could not afford to purchase the assistance of the law.

Anne's refutation of the supposed engagement changed the face of everything;

left her at least the comfort of telling the whole story her own way.

No need for quotation, it’s already Anne’s p.o.v.

Anne

Anne

Captain Harville,

though nearer to Captain Wentworth's table, not very near.

with a quivering lip he wound up the whole by adding, "Poor Fanny! she would not have forgotten him so soon!"

"It was not in her nature. She doted on him." "It would not be the nature of any woman who truly loved."

On the constancy of women: https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/volume-39-no-1/editors-note-constancy/ https://jasna.org/publications-2/essay-contest-winning-entries/2018-essay-contest/avery/

We certainly do not forget you as soon as you forget us. It is, perhaps, our fate rather than our merit.

it must be nature, man's nature, which has done the business for Captain Benwick."

I believe in a true analogy between our bodily frames and our mental; and that as our bodies are the strongest, so are our feelings;

Man is more robust than woman, but he is not longer lived; which exactly explains my view of the nature of their attachments.

Captain Wentworth's hitherto perfectly quiet division of the room.

Anne

Aha - Anne’s p.o,v., but is she accurate? Might she be hoping he could / could not overhear?

I am only ready whenever you are. I am in very good anchorage here,"

Haha - my phrase (ready when you are), plus an addition (good anchorage). Mee too

But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men." "Perhaps I shall.

Haha. Chaucer was made to write The Legend of Good Women by the God of Love and his Queen: For thy trespas, and understond hit here: Thou shalt, whyl that thou livest, yeer by yere, The moste party of thy tyme spende In making of a glorious Legende Of Gode Wommen, maidenes and wyves, That weren trewe in lovinge al hir lyves; And telle of false men that hem bitrayen, That al hir lyf ne doon nat but assayen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Good_Women

I will not allow books to prove anything."

We never can expect to prove any thing upon such a point. It is a difference of opinion which does not admit of proof.

all that a man can bear and do, and glories to do, for the sake of these treasures of his existence!

God forbid that I should undervalue the warm and faithful feelings of any of my fellow-creatures! I should deserve utter contempt if I dared to suppose that true attachment and constancy were known only by woman.