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emilyakers11821's review against another edition
5.0
Anne has never been the center of her family. She is always the last considered and basically an outlier. The only man she has ever been interested in she was swayed to break things off with. Now 8 years later he's back and looking for a wife. Everyone though is pushing all available women on him except her. Anne has never been forward and tends to think of herself as unworthy of good things happening to her. With no one to prioritize Anne, how will anything ever go right for her?
I was rooting for Anne the entire book. I continued to get annoyed when people kept walking all over her and not even considering her wanting to have her own happily ever after. This book lead on for so long making the end so satisfying. I was beginning to think she was going to be left to someone not good enough for her.
I was rooting for Anne the entire book. I continued to get annoyed when people kept walking all over her and not even considering her wanting to have her own happily ever after. This book lead on for so long making the end so satisfying. I was beginning to think she was going to be left to someone not good enough for her.
monkeelino's review against another edition
5.0
Amidst a large and often comical set of characters, where Austen really shines in this tale is how much she conveys in such short scenes or sparse exchanges (a glance, a gesture, a common act of consideration or assistance). She uses these sparingly and manages to squeeze an incredible amount of tension and expectation from them. Anne almost seems like a Cinderella figure in this tale except it's her biological family who treat her as an afterthought. While not abusing her, they frequently take her for granted and place their own concerns and interests far above hers. She, in turn, exemplifies the beauty and virtue to be found in a person of steady and dependable qualities.
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WORDS TO STILL LOOK UP
cavil | barouce | éclat | landaulette
“... no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.”
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WORDS TO STILL LOOK UP
cavil | barouce | éclat | landaulette
ellzell's review against another edition
5.0
I'm sorry but reading the words, "You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope." has forever altered me.
I just cannot believe how much I loved this book.
I just cannot believe how much I loved this book.
joselynmartin's review against another edition
5.0
The official line is that pride and prejudice is my favorite Jane Austen novel, but in my Secret Heart of Hearts I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this one is the best. It’s subtle and beautiful and deeply emotional. If you read this book and don’t enjoy it or don’t really get why it’s so great, please do contact me so that I can attempt to change your mind. Because I take that shit real personal.
murdy's review against another edition
5.0
Re-read since the new movie came out! I know it’s difficult to make a quiet/shy lead “interesting” in film. Everyone wants an Elizabeth Bennet because it’s easy to portray that. But I’d love to see a movie do Anne justice one day. Also Fredrick Wentworth deserved better. He isn’t a pouty Darcy, he has all his own faults but pouty isn’t one of them!
This was always one of my favorite books. Anne is less lively and witty but kinder and more grown up than most of Austen’s heroines. I cannot say I’d be as forgiving as she is about the past, but I find the concepts of this novel very true to today. Finding one’s own mind and opinions, and having faith in them isn’t something a 19 year old should necessarily be expected to know. I found this book so relatable, painful, funny…a lot painful but as sweet as I remember.
This was always one of my favorite books. Anne is less lively and witty but kinder and more grown up than most of Austen’s heroines. I cannot say I’d be as forgiving as she is about the past, but I find the concepts of this novel very true to today. Finding one’s own mind and opinions, and having faith in them isn’t something a 19 year old should necessarily be expected to know. I found this book so relatable, painful, funny…a lot painful but as sweet as I remember.
saraspock's review against another edition
5.0
I just don’t think it can get much better than Persuasion.
rbk28's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.75
mmorabu's review against another edition
5.0
Sigh, this is for the delusional girlies but also it's some of Jane Austen at her best. It's funny, has her signature irony, social commentary on women's roles in society, and I really like that rumination re love towards the end. Also the letter, everyone loves the letter, I love the letter, and I think we need to bring love letters back:
"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan."
Like I'm sorry she really wrote this and thought I'd be okay?? I will say, on this read when Anne clocked that Wentworth may still be into her, the cynicism in me really jumped out (and I'm also like damn what happened to me??) and I was like, ok sure but it's a fluffy romance! Don't know why she keeps pairing cousins together, and yes I am aware it wasn't as weird back then.
"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan."
Like I'm sorry she really wrote this and thought I'd be okay?? I will say, on this read when Anne clocked that Wentworth may still be into her, the cynicism in me really jumped out (and I'm also like damn what happened to me??) and I was like, ok sure but it's a fluffy romance! Don't know why she keeps pairing cousins together, and yes I am aware it wasn't as weird back then.