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    Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders
    Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders
    Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders

    By Josephine Ross and Henrietta Webb

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners is a light-hearted, insightful handbook written as if intended for her original Regency Era readers, and illustrated throughout with beautiful watercolors. When Anna, Jane Austen's young niece, sent her a novel for ""literary comment," Jane loved everything about it, except its utter disregard for the manners of the day. The resulting and tender correspondence between the two serves as the foundation for this instructional book.

    Etiquette and social behavior of the early 1800s come to life in lovely chapters teaching one on how to pay and return formal "calls," how to properly refuse a proposal of marriage, who should lead off the dancing at a country-house ball, and what to wear for a morning walk. Jane Austen used these daily customs and niceties to brilliantly illuminate the cloistered world of high society women in her timeless novels. Now with this delightful handbook of correct social behavior, readers will learn just why Mrs. Bennet of Pride and Prejudice couldn't call alone on her new, rich, bachelor neighbor and had to force the reluctant Mr. Bennet to do so...even as he uttered "Tis an etiquette I despise."

    An indispensable gift for any Austen fan, this beautiful book will prove irresistible to anyone wishing to go back in time to the atmosphere of their favorite Austen novels.

    Henrietta Webb is the co-creator of Bad Hair. Josephine Ross has written a number of books including, most recently, Jane Austen: A Companion, published in England by Austen's original publisher John Murray.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateDec 3, 2008
    ISBN9781596919945
    Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders
    Author

    Josephine Ross

    Josephine Ross has written a number of books including, most recently, Jane Austen: A Companion, published by Jane Austen's original publisher John Murray.

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    Reviews for Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners

    3.5/5

    12 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Delightful and informative, with excerpts of Austen's own work and letters to serve as examples. The illustrations are a gorgeous watercolor style, which adds to the quality of the book. A must-read if you are an Austen fan! I certainly learned a few new things about Regency manners.
    • 3/5
      This is a cute little guide for Austen fans - I suppose if you're interested in a quick-hit guide to what was considered 'good manners' in the 1800s, then you might like this. But the book is centered around Austen's subjects and has some quotes from her novels and letters, with examples of how she and her characters behaved, so it's really geared towards Austen admirers. It was a neat look at how things were done 200+ years ago (and a reminder that I'm mostly glad for modern opinions and relieved that our manners have relaxed, though I do think they've done so perhaps too much) and I did pick up a thing or two. For instance, hearing about how those of higher rank were free to decide who of lower rank could be introduced to them. We see examples of this in P&P but I always looked at it from the perspective of Darcy being a dink - but Mr. Collins wasn't supposed to introduce himself, it was up to Darcy, per the rules of 'polite society' to indicate whether he wished Mr. Collins be introduced to him. Another thing I noticed with the help of the book is that Austen doesn't spend a great deal of time detailing the clothing, hair and features of her characters - which I appreciate! There are cute illustrations throughout and a ribbon bookmark in my edition, so overall it's a nice book to have in my collection. But it's pretty niche and probably something saved for someone who spends a lot of time reading and loving all things Austen.
    • 4/5
      I was originally looking for a guide to Regency etiquette, and this doesn't quite fit the bill, but Josephine Ross' sweet little rulebook is still a treat for Austen fans. The Guide to Good Manners covers the basics, like 'dancing and dining', 'dress and taste', marriage, family and servants, with reference to Miss Jane Austen's family letters and quotes from her novels. I learned two important details - displaying good manners requires only common sense and a respect for others, and the propriety expected of young women in the Regency era was 'not to hinder, but to protect'. I think we would all do well to emulate our genteel ancestors and behave with such decency and care today! Jane Austen's Guide is an inspirational companion to the novels, prettily illustrated, which would make a lovely gift.
    • 4/5
      If you are a Janeite, this is a very insightful compilation of regency mores and etiquette to guide you along and show you how Jane perceived the world and how her writing commented upon it. That is one of the many things that Austen is credited with, that her books are studies in the society of the time, and give us now a view of a kinder, more genteel period.Since the Austen Canon, unlike the Dickens Canon, provides a look at a very well to do part of society, mostly that of perhaps the lower upper class, which Jane was a member of, we do not see often the picture of the vast majority of England, nor do we get a sliver of the Regency other then through Jane's wishes for it. Here we have to then focus on what the book's title tells us. Jane Austen's Guide. Not a Guide to the Regency, or even the entire Ton, for where Mr. Darcy is of the first quality, and we become intimate with him in Pride and Prejudice, Jane gives us the Ton as she wants it to be. Not always as it was. And by extension so does our authoress.If we can put aside that the book does not dwell on the true Regency era, but on the world that Jane created for us to read two hundred years later, then we have a pretty little world and the description of it is well done. Excerpts from the book abound and small drawings that help uncover more of the detail of what is being talked of.The book is a useful resource to get a glimpse of the period, but I would not take the book as anything other then Jane's fantasy world. It is not the entirety of the Regency World, nor is it even a solid glimpse of the world that Jane lived in. It is the world she wrote of and we do not even know if that was the world she ascribed to.
    • 4/5
      This brief guide to proper etiquette in Jane Austen's era is based on Austen's correspondence with her niece, Anna. Using illustrations from both Austen's novels and letters, Ross describes proper conduct in the following areas: forms of introduction, calling and conversation, dancing and dining, dress and taste, matrimony, family, and servants. This little book isn't meant to be a definitive work on the rules of society in Austen's day. The excerpts from novels and letters, the delightful illustrations, and the book ribbon bound with the book, all indicate that it is best suited as a gift item. Warmly recommended as a gift for a young lady just discovering the pleasures of Austen's novels, or for the bedside table in a guest room.
    • 4/5
      An adorable and quick read for Jane Austen fans. Though it is by no means an all-encompassing guide to the manners of the Regency era, it will amuse you for a few hours, which is about how much time you'll need to finish this little book.
    • 4/5
      If you are a fan of Jane Austen's works and the behind the scenes manners that governed her characters you will LOVE this book. A delightful read for any Jane Austen fan and lovely illustrations.

    Book preview

    Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners - Josephine Ross

    Copyright © 2006 by Josephine Ross and Henrietta Webb

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

    Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

    Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers

    All papers used by Bloomsbury USA are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in well-managed forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

    eISBN: 978-1-59691-994-5

    First U.S. Edition 2006

    1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

    Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Polmont, Stirlingshire, Scotland

    Printed and bound in Italy by Lego

    CONTENTS

    A Note on the Authoress

    1. Manners Makyth Man — and Woman

    2. The Forms of Introduction

    3. Calling and Conversation

    4. Dancing and Dining

    5. Dress and Taste

    6. The Subject of Matrimony

    7. The Family Circle

    8. The Assistance of Servants

    In Conclusion

    PREFATORY NOTE

    OR

    Advertisement concerning

    THE AUTHORESS

    'The Secret has spread so far as to be scarcely the Shadow of a secret now', Jane Austen wrote ruefully in 1813. Until then, she had endeavoured to keep her identity strictly concealed from the public.

    Unlike many of her female literary contemporaries, from Fanny Burney to Madame de Stael, she shunned any form of fame or publicity — fearing, as she put it, to be made 'a wild Beast', to be stared at, and speculated about, like one of the zoo animals at the Exeter Exchange. Even after her 'Secret' had begun to leak out, following the modest success of Pride and Prejudice, she published her novels anonymously; and the prefatory note to the last, Northanger Abbey, was signed merely by 'The Authoress'.

    In that note, or Advertisement', she apologised to her readers for the fact that changes in 'places, manners, books and opinions' had taken place since the work's inception. Even she, with her wit, observation, perception and imagination, could not have conceived of the changes which would take place over the next two hundred years — above all in the realm of manners. Prominent among these would be the extraordinary changes in the use of names. The woman whose most 'elegant' heroine, Miss Woodhouse in Emma, would disdain Mrs Elton's use of a gentleman's surname alone — 'Knightley', indeed! — would surely have been insulted to find herself, in the twenty-first century, commonly referred to as Austen'. Almost as bad, though certainly preferable, is plain 'Jane Austen': 'Let me not suppose that she dares go about Emma Woodhouse-ing me' the heroine of Emma reflects acerbically.

    The solution adopted for the purposes of this little book is to follow her own lead, and refer to her, simply, as 'the Authoress'. We can only hope that 'England's Jane', as another great writer in the English language called her, with a love and respect beyond barriers, would understand, and forgive — and perhaps even laugh.

    Chapter The First

    MANNERS MAKYTH MAN —AND WOMAN

    If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy.

    Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 17

    She had the comfort of appearing very polite, while feeling very cross.

    Emma, Chapter 14

    This little guide is the outcome, ultimately, of a correspondence between the Authoress of several novels, including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park, and her eldest niece — Anna Austen, of Steventon Rectory, in Hampshire.

    In the summer of 1814 Anna Austen (then aged twenty-one) approached her literary Aunt with a request for help with a novel set in contemporary Regency Society which she herself was attempting to write. Over the next few months, as successive instalments were sent, edited, discussed and returned, the exchange of letters between Aunt and Niece was illuminating. While finding much to praise, in terms of character, dialogue and style, Aunt Jane' was constantly struck by one major deficiency: her young niece's apparent unawareness of the 'Manners', etiquette and social behaviour of the day.

    As Lady H. is Cecilia's superior, it would not be correct to talk of her being introduced; Cecilia must be the person introduced.

    was one immediate response, followed soon after by

    When Mr Portman is first brought in, he would not be introduced as 'The Honourable': that distinction is never mentioned at such times.

    Other comments concerned language ('Bless my Heart!' for example, was 'too familiar and inelegant' a usage for a Baronet such as 'Sir T H.') and the strict code of paying, and returning, morning 'Calls' ('Mrs F.', Anna was instructed, 'ought to have called at the Parsonage before Sunday'). Much of Aunt Jane's social guidance could be summed up in one telling directive:

    Let the Portmans go to Ireland, but as you know nothing of the Manners there, you had better not go with them. You will be in danger of giving false representations.

    By 'Manners', Anna's Aunt here denotes far more than the mere niceties of'Please', 'Thank You', and Your Servant, Ma'am'. The word was applicable to every aspect of daily life from dress and domestic arrangements, to the treatment of servants, and the proper way to encourage or deter an admirer. 'Manners Makyth Man' is, of course, the famous motto of Winchester College, where the Authoress's much-loved nephews were pupils; and it is no coincidence that, in a combined family joke and compliment, she gave the

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