Persuasion

Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one.

Second-chance romance architecture: Anne Elliot's eight-year-old refusal tested by Captain Wentworth's return — Kellynch leased to Crofts, Bath season, Lyme Regis, the letter — compact 24-chapter plot with no sub-plot waste, so plot scores 86.

be the conclusion of the present suspense good or bad, her affection would be his for ever. Their union, she believed, could not divide her more from other men, than their final separation.

Anne Elliot the mature, overlooked heroine, Captain Wentworth the wounded pride, Sir Walter the vain baronet, Lady Russell the well-meaning persuader, the Crofts the model naval couple — a smaller cast than Austen's other novels but each precisely calibrated, so cast scores 90.

Ah! she was a dear old Asp to me. She did all that I wanted. I knew she would. I knew that we should either go to the bottom together, or that she would be the making of me.

The shortest Austen novel (24 chapters) with no middle slack — Kellynch displacement, Uppercross visit, Lyme, Bath season accelerate toward the letter and the Union Street walk, so pace scores 88.

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.

Mature Austen at her most lyrical — 'You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope' — and the free indirect discourse of Anne's consciousness bookend a perfected style, so prose scores 92.

Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one.

Kellynch Hall, Uppercross, Lyme Regis, Bath — a narrower geography than Emma or P&P, but the naval society (Crofts, Wentworth, the Asp) introduces a professional class absent from earlier Austen, so world scores 84.

for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect.

Ch.I's Baronetage opening — Sir Walter reading his own entry for consolation — establishes vanity as theme before the romance begins; less instantly grabby than 'handsome, clever, and rich' but more psychologically penetrating, so hook scores 86.

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.

The age/experience romance: a 27-year-old heroine, a second attachment after refusal, autumnal tone throughout — the letter as climax device influenced every subsequent epistolary revelation, so innov scores 88.

And there, as they slowly paced the gradual ascent, heedless of every group around them, seeing neither sauntering politicians, bustling housekeepers, flirting girls, nor nursery-maids and children, they could indulge in those retrospections and acknowledgements.

The Union Street walk — 'heedless of every group around them' — and Anne 'gloried in being a sailor's wife'; the quiet triumph of mature choice over youthful persuasion is Austen's most satisfying closure, so ending scores 92.