Summary
Summary of Ann Veronica: A Modern Love Story
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Ann Veronica wants her own life
Ann Veronica Stanley is a bright biology student who wants to study, earn her own money and choose whom she loves. In her tidy London suburb, the expectations are different: wait, stay quiet and marry well. Her family has plans that leave little room for her own wishes.
H. G. Wells sets her story against the public fight for votes for women. Ann Veronica’s decision that waiting is not enough brings that wider struggle into the choices of one young woman.
Key idea 2
Comfort can still be a cage
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Key idea 3
A forbidden dance exposes the conflict
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Key idea 4
Leaving home makes freedom practical
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Key idea 5
A cause cannot supply everything
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Key idea 6
Prison changes her view of protest
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Key idea 7
Help can hide a claim
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Key idea 8
Freedom includes the right to desire
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Key idea 9
Independence needs resources and personal judgment
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love social novels, the early suffrage years and stories of a young person breaking away from family. It also welcomes fans of Wells beyond science fiction.
What this book is
A girl in a tidy London suburb is told to wait, to be quiet and to marry well. Ann Veronica does not want to wait. H. G. Wells, famous for The Time Machine, publishes this novel in 1909, while the fight for votes for women is loud in the streets. Ann Veronica Stanley is a bright biology student who wants to study, earn her own money and choose whom she loves. Her family has other plans. Wells follows what happens when she decides that waiting is not enough.
In this summary
- 1A suburban house that feels like a cageFree
- 2A wish to learn and a forbidden dance
- 3Three men who each want something from her
- 4She leaves home and takes London on alone
- 5A furnished room and a feminist circle
- 6The suffrage cause and a night in prison
- 7Dangerous attentions and a deeper pull
- 8What the book argues about freedom and desire
- 9How Wells tells it and why it was talked about
Key point 1 of 9
A suburban house that feels like a cage
Ann Veronica lives in Morningside Park, a respectable London suburb, with her father and her aunt. Mr Stanley is anxious, proud and sure that a father decides what is best for his unmarried daughter. He gives her board and a small allowance, and in return he expects obedience.
The house is comfortable, and that makes it harder to complain about. She feels the weight of it in the hours she must keep and the questions she may not ask. Nobody at dinner speaks of what a woman might do with her life.
Wells makes his point early. A cage can be soft and still be a cage. Ann Veronica does not yet know how to leave, but she has begun to see that she wants to.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does the forbidden ball become more than a disagreement about a party?
Right. “A grown woman is told she may not go to a party, and she cannot make her father listen to her reasons.”Not quite. “A grown woman is told she may not go to a party, and she cannot make her father listen to her reasons.”
What does Ann Veronica recognize about politics after prison?
Right. “But she sees that politics does not touch the whole of what she wants.”Not quite. “But she sees that politics does not touch the whole of what she wants.”
What makes Mr Ramage's help dangerous for Ann Veronica?
Right. “He believes his help gives him a claim on her love.”Not quite. “He believes his help gives him a claim on her love.”
Questions about Ann Veronica: A Modern Love Story
What is Ann Veronica about?
It tells of a young woman in Edwardian England who leaves her strict father's suburban home for London. She studies biology, joins the suffrage movement and searches for love and independence on her own terms.
When was Ann Veronica written and is it a true story?
H. G. Wells published it in 1909. It is a work of fiction, though it draws on the real suffrage campaign and on debates about marriage and women's freedom that Wells followed closely.
Why was Ann Veronica controversial?
Its heroine acts on her own desires and defies her father, which many readers of 1909 found improper. Some critics and libraries objected to its frank treatment of love and independence.
Who is Capes in Ann Veronica?
Capes is the biology demonstrator at Ann Veronica's college. He respects her mind, argues with her as an equal and becomes the man she cares about most as the story develops.
Is Ann Veronica hard to read?
No. The prose is clear and lively, with humour and sharp observation. The story keeps moving and is easy to follow.
