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I can think of nowhere else to start this review other than to say I love this book, and I learn to love it better with every reading. It is emotionally complex and nuanced in a way that feels modern, while still displaying the charm and stylistic frustrations incumbent on a book of its time. The story itself is very straight-forward. A young girl is persuaded, against her personal inclinations, to give up an engagement to an undistinguished man by her family and friends. Eight years later they find themselves awkwardly thrown together. She’s essentially an old maid but he’s now a very eligible captain in the navy � after some flirtations with teenagers and interest from a villainous cousin, they find their way back to each other.

Anne Elliot is heroine in the best Austen mold (which is to say that Anne and Elinor Dashwood would be best friends if they lived in the same book). She is a capable of acting for the good of others even when it contradicts her own happiness when she genuinely believes it to be the right thing to do. When she decides that it’s not right, she asserts her will and gets her man. I think that’s terribly interesting. Modern sensibilities celebrate the latter of these traits more than the former, but there is also something a bit depressing about how selfish we all are. Anne isn’t a doormat, she just follows what she perceives to be her duty the whole way through no matter how difficult it might be.

Captain Wentworth is a delight to read. He’s not really a white knight figure, although he is scrupulously polite and gentlemanly. He’s understandably conflicted by Anne’s presence. She disappointed him and profoundly hurt his feelings; her family made him feel unworthy and Anne ultimately didn’t take his side. I love that Austin allowed her hero to be a genuinely good man but also a bit petty in a perfectly human manner at the same time. It never seems cruel or directed at Anne, but he and his male ego do seem to be very comfortable soaking up the attention of the Misses Musgrove, even though he thinks they’re both a little stupid. I don’t know if I heard a tone of “look what you gave up� in his voice when he talks around her because Anne is thinking it so loudly or because he’s actually doing it, but it all seems very genuine. I liked his story arc, and the two of them are so darn cute with their umbrellas and sidestepping of one another that I can hardly stand it.

Please go read this book. It’s the best.