Age
We’re told she’s “nearly thirty.”
Family and Situation
Miss Anne Steele is the elder sister of Miss Lucy Steele. As their home base appears to be in Exeter, we can that they are likely natives of Devonshire.
We never hear mention of the girls’ parents but instead they appear to spend time with friends and relatives across the country, including their uncle Mr. Pratt, who lives in Longstaple, Devonshire and relations (who may be the Richardsons) who live in London.
Mrs. Jennings seems to think that Mr. Steele is living but that both Steele and Pratt would probably try to kick in money when Edward and Lucy are inevitably trying to survive on a curate’s salary.
Connections
Is some kind of relation to Mrs. Jennings, though she doesn’t seem to know it until running into the sisters at Exeter around the holiday season. Later, we’re told ironically that Sir John encourages the Dashwoods to come meet the Steeles at Barton because “It was painful to him even to keep a third cousin to himself.”
Has a cousin in Bartlett’s Buildings, Holborn, London with whom she stays.
After Lucy’s marriage, Nancy runs back to a Mrs. Burgess in Exeter. Presumably this is who they were staying with the first time around.
There is a Dr. Davies who accompanies the Steele sisters to London. Mrs. Jennings begins to tease Anne about it but she demurs, saying: “everybody laughs at me so about the Doctor, and I cannot think why. My cousins say they are sure I have made a conquest; but for my part I declare I never think about him from one hour's end to another….The Doctor is no beau of mine."
Anne mentions Martha Sharpe, Miss Sparks and Miss Godby all as friends with whom she shares gossip while in London.
Appearance
Of the Steele sisters we are told “their appearance was by no means ungenteel or unfashionable. Their dress was very smart, their manners very civil.” However when the Dashwoods finally meet her, we’re told they find her to have “a very plain and not a sensible face, nothing to admire”.
Character
The Steele girls feel their social inferiority keenly and are eager to overcome it through admiration of their betters. When they first arrive at Barton, we are told the Steeles “were delighted with the house, and in raptures with the furniture, and they happened to be so doatingly fond of children that Lady Middleton's good opinion was engaged in their favour before they had been an hour at the Park.” Elinor later observes that “their manners were particularly civil, and Elinor soon allowed them credit for some kind of sense, when she saw with what constant and judicious attention they were making themselves agreeable to Lady Middleton,” before describing the specifics of their praise.
Anne is the less elegant of the two sisters. She uses slang such as “monstrous happy” with some frequency and often over-shares about her personal life. From Elinor’s point-of-view, we are told that “the vulgar freedom and folly of the eldest left her no recommendation,” later reinforced when the narrator describes her as “not even genteel.” Mrs. Jennings later describes Nancy as “a well-meaning creature, but no conjurer,” suggesting she’s a little dim.
