Point of View

All That Life Can Afford is told entirely from Anna’s perspective, using a first-person voice that is both intimate and limited. This choice immerses readers in her consciousness, making London feel at once thrilling and precarious. At the same time, it restricts what we know to Anna’s perceptions, creating suspense and ambiguity around other characters’ motives.

Anna’s narration is subjective and sometimes unreliable—not because she lies, but because her judgments are clouded by insecurity, longing, and literary imagination. She repeatedly compares her experiences to heroines like Lizzie Bennet or Isabel Archer, interpreting her world through the lens of books rather than reality. This habit shows both her deep attachment to literature and her tendency to misread people, particularly in the early chapters with the Highgate set.

The consistency of the first-person voice charts Anna’s growth. Early on, her narration is...