The Jane Austen Handbook

“What is it about Jane Austen, anyway?” All Janeites have heard the question at one time or another, whether from a friend, significant other, co-worker, parole officer, or a math teacher who caught said Janeite reading
Emma
under the desk during class. “She’s been dead for two hundred years! She wrote stories about upper-class twits desperate to marry other upper-class twits! How can these books possibly be relevant to life in the twenty-first century?”

There really is no way to respond to such a question. How to explain the sheer tingling joy one experiences when two interesting, complex, and occasionally aggravating characters have at last settled their misunderstandings and will live happily ever after, no matter what travails life might throw in their path, because Jane Austen said they will, and that’s that? How to describe the exhilaration of being caught up in an unknown but glamorous world of balls and gowns and rides in open carriages with handsome young men? How to explain that the best part of Jane Austen’s world is that sudden recognition that the characters are
just like you?

If you are nodding, Gentle Reader, this book is for you. We will not scold you for wanting to understand entailments and wedding clothes and the delicate politics of a ballroom. (Because it does rather bring the fantasy to a screeching halt to realize one is not familiar with the intricacies of, say, paying a
morning call.) We will instead undertake to explain the mysteries of life among early nineteenth-century British landed gentry—mysteries that Jane Austen, writing for an audience of her contemporaries, did not find mysterious at all. Here are step-by-step instructions that will allow one to conduct one’s fantasy life with perfect aplomb—or at least to better understand the background when Lizzy or Emma or Elinor or Catherine or Fanny or Anne is faced with a similar situation in the novels or films.

Have you ever wondered where Mr. Darcy got his riches—or how much that ten thousand a year would be worth today? Or why Emma Woodhouse looks down upon the Coxes but not on the Westons? Why Lady Russell spends every winter in Bath, or why Fanny Price was stuck in Portsmouth until someone male could come and take her away? These subjects, and others, are covered in the first section of this book, which deals with some of the logistical considerations of life among the gentry of Regency England.

The second section explores the ins and outs of how one spent one’s day in a period when having an actual job was frowned upon, while in the third section, “Making Love” (stop giggling, you guttersnipes; the phrase meant something different then and you know it!), one will learn the all-important rules for choosing a prospective husband.

And as Mrs. Bennet pointed out in
Pride and Prejudice
, a family in a country estate can expect to dine with as many as four and twenty families, so one will wish to know how to conduct oneself in social interactions. The fourth section addresses the nagging questions on the intricacies of dancing, country house parties, and all manner of card games, including the ever-present, if not dreadfully boring, whist.

We also have included a short biography of Jane Austen; descriptions of her novels and the concoctions of modern Austen fans, such as films, sequels, and merchandise; and a handy glossary
of the terms that have puzzled many modern readers.

Some might protest that the trappings of Jane Austen’s world are unimportant—that only the story matters. Others might point out that life in Jane Austen’s time was not all small beer and skittles—that intelligent and genteel young ladies were left impoverished, soldiers and sailors went off to war and did not return, and beloved authors fell ill and died too young.

But like Jane herself, I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, and leave the pens of the many excellent Jane Austen scholars to dwell on guilt and misery. This book is for the Janeite who, while relatively content living in the modern world, indulges in the occasional unashamed wallow in Austenland. Who among us has not imagined being mistress (or master) of Pemberley, or a trim frigate, or even an unpretending parsonage? Come, confess!

As no less a philosopher than Miss Elizabeth Bennet pointed out, “the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine.” While the careful Janeite will remember the lesson of Catherine Morland in
Northanger Abbey
, who forgot that real life is not like books, even her very commonsense hero, Henry Tilney, admitted that it is only natural to be drawn to the charms of a well-written novel. Jane’s novels are so true to life that even two centuries later they are fresh and funny and, yes, relevant as ever.

The carriage awaits, Gentle Reader. Will you step in, and let us take you on a great adventure?

—
The Authoress