It's a Hardback Life

From page 473 (in reference to the multiple locale changes throughout Persuasion):

That there's been such narrative and thematic unity through these discordant settings has been due to Austen's handling of her heroine, Anne Elliot, certainly the soundest, sanest, most self-contained member of the cast, whose point of view accommodates rapid shifts in locale and personnel without losing her own moral or ethical footing. She doesn't sparkle, our gal Anne, but she burns with a low, steady flame.