by Jane Austen
ages 14+

I was going to be good, and just read a chapter or two of this book in the evenings before bed. I thought that I could be patient, drawing out the story of Anne and Captain Wentworth for a couple of weeks. Not so, my friends. I managed that for a couple of nights, and then I was just sucked in. There are so many things to love about this little book, and I found that I just couldn’t put it down.

It’s not as funny as some of her books, and it lacks the popularity that others have. Everyone wants to hear about Darcy and Lizzy, or even Elinor and Marianne, but Anne’s plight? She’s not often given much thought. (Which is actually her lot in the book.) But this one: it’s my personal favorite.

Sure, Anne’s a bit of a pushover — she’s so incredibly kind and sweet and her family is so snobby and crass and mean to her — but she comes by her nature honestly. She borders on the annoying (really, how wonderful can a person be?) but I don’t think she quite gets there. She’s honsetly good-natured. And she’s honestly sweet. And I honestly feel for her, especially when she’s at Uppercross and Wentworth shows up, the first time in 8 years that she’s seen him. The last time being when she dumped him, on the advice of her dead mother’s friend, Lady Russell. Austen so perfectly captures the awkwardness of the situation: Anne being all nervous and fidgety — she still loves him after all, and has no idea what he thinks of her; he, all cold and aloof — his pride was wounded after all, and he thinks he’s over her.

But what really makes this book for me is the end. Austen penns the most romantic letter — from Captain Wentworth to Anne — ever written. It makes no sense out of context, but every time I read it (and it’s been quite a few), it makes my heart flutter, and I have to keep reading until the very satisfying conclusion. It’s raw pent-up emotion, it’s desire, it’s heartache, it’s hope… all in two paragraphs on page 214. It gets me every time. This book is the best one of Austen’s because it’s a re-finding of love lost, it’s the rekindling of hope, rather than the blush of first love. Anne and Wentworth were torn apart — by pride, prejudice, situation, class… all of which are Austen themes in her other books — and yet they overcome all in order to be together.

It’s beautiful.