From Persuasion
Anne Elliot
The quiet sister • Kind and true
A kind, thoughtful young woman who always listens to others and keeps true love in her heart.
Who is Anne Elliot?
Anne Elliot is the gentle, clever daughter of proud Sir Walter. Years ago she was talked out of marrying a young sailor named Frederick Wentworth, and she has missed him ever since. When he returns, Anne quietly helps everyone around her, from caring for a hurt little nephew to staying calm in an emergency, while hoping for a second chance.
Anne Elliot is a character in Persuasion, the 1817 novel by Jane Austen, retold for ages 6–9 by Sean Lee.
What is Anne Elliot like?
- kind
- patient
- calm
Anne Elliot’s story
Anne Elliot is twenty-seven when the book begins, and she is the quiet one in a family that does not notice her. At nineteen she became engaged to Frederick Wentworth, but her godmother Lady Russell persuaded her that he was too poor and his future too uncertain, so Anne ended the engagement. She has regretted it ever since, though she never blames anyone else.
When her father rents out Kellynch Hall and moves to Bath, Anne stays for a while with her sister Mary at Uppercross. There she is the person everyone leans on, from her complaining sister to the worried Musgrove family. When Captain Wentworth returns, wealthy and respected, he is polite but distant, and Anne has to sit beside him in company and bear it. Her good sense shows most clearly at Lyme, when Louisa Musgrove is badly hurt and Anne thinks and acts while others freeze.
In Bath, Anne renews an old friendship with Mrs Smith and sees through her cousin Mr Elliot. In the end, Wentworth’s letter and a chance to speak honestly bring the two together, and Anne marries the man she never stopped loving.
“She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.”
A moment to remember
When Louisa falls on the sea wall at Lyme and everyone else panics, Anne kneels beside her, checks that she is breathing and calmly tells each person how to help.
Family and friends
- Captain Frederick Wentworth: the sailor she loves and later marries
- Lady Russell: her godmother, who advised her to end the engagement
- Sir Walter Elliot: her proud father
- Mary Musgrove: her younger sister
- Mrs. Smith: her old school friend
Talk about it
Anne stayed calm when others were scared. What helps you feel calm when something surprising happens?
Questions about Anne Elliot
- Who does Anne Elliot marry?
- Anne marries Captain Frederick Wentworth, the naval officer she was once engaged to. They are reunited near the end of the novel.
- Why did Anne break off her engagement to Wentworth?
- Anne was persuaded by Lady Russell, her godmother, that the match was unwise because Wentworth had no fortune and an uncertain future. Anne was nineteen at the time.
- How old is Anne Elliot?
- Anne is twenty-seven in the novel. The broken engagement happened eight years earlier, when she was nineteen.
Read the story in
Persuasion
Ages 6–9, 72 pages
