'You pierce my soul'

We could all do with a little more love in this bleak midwinter season... so here is one of the most fervent love letters in literature to make your heart beat faster

Dec 15, 2023

The Story So Far…

Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot were in love eight years ago, but she was wrongly dissuaded from marrying him due to her family’s snobbery. The pair have met again in Bath by accident, rekindling old flames, yet neither is sure of how the other feels. Finally, Captain Wentworth pours forth his love for Anne in a letter.

Now read on (or listen down below on audio)

‘Sinking into the chair which he had occupied, succeeding to the very spot where he had leaned and written, her eyes devoured the following words:

“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. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in
F. W.
“I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.”

Such a letter was not to be soon recovered from. Half an hour’s solitude and reflection might have tranquillized her; but the ten minutes only which now passed before she was interrupted, with all the restraints of her situation, could do nothing towards tranquillity. Every moment rather brought fresh agitation. It was overpowering happiness.’

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Geskel Saloman, ‘The Love Letter’ (Public Domain)

About the author…

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was the author of six published novels and several unfinished and minor works focusing on life in the early 19th century, particularly the plight of genteel but financially dependent young women seeking husbands to give them both love and security. She is famous for her wit, her perceptive, sharp insights into social mores and the marriage market, and for her sympathy with women’s thwarted intellectual capacity and limited options in life.

You can enjoy more of her work in a previous LitHits newsletter here.

Louis Hersent, ‘Sophie Crouzet’ (Cleveland Museum of Art, public domain)

Warm thanks to today’s audio reader, Professor Nicholas Perkins. And please let us know if you enjoy having the option to listen to, as well as read, our texts—we love hearing from our readers!

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