I'm sure that Anne's speech about women loving longer than men is one of the more famous in JA's novels. I know I've seen it brought up more than once when JA was mentioned at all, probably because most of her readership agreed with Anne: that women *do* stay attached to the men they love longer than men do to women, even after death. However (and it took me a while to realize this!), JA's point was the *opposite* of Anne's speech. IMO, she was saying that a *real* man, a man worth having, would be just as faithful to the one he loved as any woman, and JA wouldn't let one of her heroines settle for anything less (or settle for anything less herself, perhaps?) ;-)