vainly

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to give me your considered opinion concerning the interpretation of the adverb in bold in the following sentence?

No more can I turn the leaves of this dear book that I loved, and vainly hope in time to read it all.

vainly = over winningly = overly convinced of one's own superiority and importance

V.

[susiedq]

To get the meaning, "selfishly" might be substituted for "vainly"