Anna,
a woman of reserve and integrity, lives with her tyrannical and selfish
father. Courted for her money by the handsome and successful Henry
Mynors, Anna defies her father’s wrath–with tragic results. Set in the
Potteries against a background of dour Wesleyan Methodism, Anna of the
Five Towns is a brilliantly perceptive novel of provincial life in
Victorian England.
The plot centres on Anna Tellwright, daughter
of a wealthy but miserly and dictatorial father, living in the Potteries
area of Staffordshire, England. Her activities are strictly controlled
by the Methodist church. The novel tells of Anna’s struggle for freedom
and independence against her father’s restraints, and her inward battle
between wanting to please her father and wanting to help Willie Price
whose father, Titus Price, commits suicide after falling into bankruptcy
and debt. During the novel, Anna is courted by the town’s most eligible
bachelor Henry Mynors, and agrees to be his wife, much to her young
sister Agnes’ pleasure. She discovers in the end, however, that she
loves Willie Price, but does not follow her heart, as he is leaving for
Australia, and she is already promised to Mynors.