from 'A Fine Brush on Ivory' by Richard Jenkyns.

'...When Anne Elliot talks to Captain Harville- in the interchange overheard by Wentworth, which leads him to propose to her- we realise we are hearing something rare in literatire: an intelligent, equal, and entirely erious conversation between a man and a woman. Almost any other writer would ahve had them talk about literature and politics(...), but JAne Austen is content to demonstrate the herione's intelligence- and able to bring the demonstration off- in a conversation simply about human relations.'