The Jane Austen Handbook by Margaret C. Sullivan

At my library I found this amazing new book called The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World. It is a small book with almost anything you'd need to know if you were to go back in time to the Pride & Prejudice era. It is 175 pages long, plus 48 pages of appendix, bibliography, and acknowledgments.
Here are a few of the chapter titles, and a few choice paragraphs.

• How to Become an Accomplished Lady
• How to Spend Each Season
• How to Write a Letter
• How to Ride Sidesaddle
• How to Keep House
• How to Plan a Dinner Party
• How a Lady Might Earn a Living (If Necessary)

(and my favorite section ;)

• How to Choose a Prospective Husband
• How to Indicate Interest in a Gentleman Without Seeming Forward
• How to Marry Off Your Daughter
• How to Decline an Unwanted Proposal of Marriage
• How to Carry On a Secret Engagement
• How to Elope to Scotland.

Those are a few of the chapters. There are 4 sections, with a total of 36 chapters.
An abbreviation of the chapter "How to Indicate Interest in a Gentleman Without Seeming Forward:"

1. Flatter his vanity. Listen to everything he says with great interest, admire everything he does, and agree with him on all subjects. If he disagrees with something you have said, turn your own words around so you sound as though you actually agree with him. [Note: If I remember correctly, What's-her-face from Pride & Prejudice didn't follow this very well! She definitely had her own opinion!]


2. Talk about him to his relatives. They might take the hint and pass it on to him. You know how siblings like to tease!


3. Offer to perform little services for him. Mending his pen might be one step from mending his stockings.


4. Keep your cool. If he shows interest in another young lady, pretend that you do not care. Tease him about his "conquest" and ask when you might wish him joy. [Oh, no, that's not 'forward' at all!]


5. Mirror his actions. If he is reading a book, take up the second volume. If he is playing cards, help make up his table. If he is going for a walk, declare that it is time for your daily stroll in the shrubbery. [You'd think he'd notice you following him like Mary's Lamb after a while. And if that isn't 'forward'....]


6. Find him irresistible. You will become so yourself. [Awww, idn't dat thweet!]

So now that we know how to catch him (Oh, and to the guys who read this; now you know how to detect such things :P), what do you do next? Shall you elope to Scotland (Gretna Green, Scotland, to be exact. Apparently they dealt with that sort of thing quite often), keep the engagement a secret, or what? The book tells you how to do any of those things.
And then, once you have a place of your own, it shows you how to decorate (with light, elegant furniture and colors), plan a dinner party (lots of work!), and improve your estate ("Add rustic touches. A hermitage is lovely--recruit an actual hermit to live in it for full realism....Let sheep roam wild, preferably in groups of three or five, with a sunken fence if you'd prefer to keep them in one area without ruining the view.").

I found it a very entertaining book. Margaret Sullivan is a good author, because she writes it interestingly, with humor in it. It would have been very easy to just write a dry little book about Jane Austen, but Margaret Sullivan wrote it with humorous little tidbits, and Kathryn Rathke did some great illustrations. (Especially the one in "How to Decline an Unwanted Marriage Proposal")
I could have sat here and typed the whole book up for you, because it's all so interesting, but I won't. First, that might qualify as a copyright infringement, and second, then you wouldn't want to get it yourself!
Note to those of you who use the same library as I do: HANDS OFF! This is MINE until November 12th. Then I shall renew it for three (3) weeks. After November 12th, y'all may start placing holds on it. UNTIL THEN....stay away.



Thank you, Judy, for this award!
It is an award for (as it says) Sheer Awesomeness.
This is the first award I've gotten in a while! Thanks, Judi!
And in return, I'll award it to:

Zazzamarandabo
Guitargirl
Zoe
HKSmitty
Heather
Kristen
KK
SS
JS
Pooky's Girl
Queen Lucy
Alena (Lady Florimel)
Elizabeth
and Julia.
I'd give it to Judi and HMS Avalon, too, but I don't know if yer s'posed to give it to people twice.

Thankee very much!


And now I shall toodle off into the sunset.
g'bai!
~Kiwi~