Review by Tony Grant.
To start with, it is a pleasure to be holding a book with a hard cover and with a glimpse of the brown and cream page binding at the top and bottom of the spine. It gives the reader the interesting, pleasurable knowledge that this is a sewn binding in the old style. Kindle can give us the effect, on its screen, of real paper but this book, solid and sharp cornered, is the real thing, an object with weight, a valued, well made artefact nice to hold. Having it in your hands is a pleasure to experience.
I love the contents pages divided into sections and then all the different article headings within each section beginning with,”How to…” There is something poetic in the repetition of these opening two words followed by an assertive verb.Yes, the contents are a pleasure to read in themselves and could be read out with passion, emphasise and feeling at any live poetry night, at my local pub anyway.
How to Become an Accomplished Lady…………………..16
How to identify “ The Quality”………………………………….22
How to ensure a good yearly income……………………..26
How to provide for your daughters & Young Sons…28
And so on. It’s mesmeric!
A couple of things made me wince. In Margaret’s introduction there is a sentence that goes thus. (I will come back to why I have just used the word ,”thus,” in a short while.)
“ All Janeites have heard the question at one time or another, whether from a friend, significant other, care worker, parole officer or a math teacher who caught said Janeite reading Emma under the desk during class.”
Margaret gives the game away with these, “Americanisms.” OK it is her introduction but I hope she intends this book for us British English speakers too? And also, I know I’m nit picking here, there are the odd occasion when these words appear: neighbor, endeavor, watercolor. I’ll say no more.
But on the whole and almost a hundred percent of the time, I absolutely love the way she uses language. I can hear the fun in her voice, the absolute thrill and joy of thinking and using the most gorgeous words and phrases., aplomb, guttersnipe, I chuckled at that one, impoverish, genteel, repine, overly impecunious, oh I just wanted to repeat that phrase again and again and she goes on, sentence after sentence, line after line, page after page, defray, small beer and skittles, a bit of working class culture creeping in there and it’s just such a joy to read and wallow in. I even think she used the word. “wallow,” at some stage. The best thing about this book is the joyous pleasure Magaret has with words. Oh yes!
So, coming back to why I used the word, “thus.” The above paragraph really provides the reason. Margaret, through her use of language, captured my mind and released my 18th century vocabulary store deep within my brain. I couldn’t help myself. It slipped out.
I do think this book is aimed at women rather than men. Here are some examples of Section headings and chapter opening lines.
“Well bred young ladies must acquire a store of accomplishments….”
“The mistress of the house is rather like a CEO of a major corporation…”
Get him back after you have quarrelled.
Converse with your dancing partner. (this chapter refers to how the female should make conversation with the male.)
There are references to male things, education, being a house owner and so on, but they are written about from a female point of view often just there to make a comparison with the female side of things.
It is also written as though the reader is middle class and discusses mostly middle class things. Once in a while there are references to the serving classes and aristocratic life, often written in the same breath as things about the middle classes. Perhaps there should be an explanation of the differences between the classes and the different lives they lead.
I think the sections at the back of the book are excellent. There is a very thorough and detailed index, a good glossary covering many words and terms. There is a good bibliography and resources list. These end sections will give the Jane Austen, and 18th century student a good starting point in a life long exploration.
Who do I think this book would be a good buy for? My daughter Emily is just completing her A’levels before she goes to university next year. Some of her friends are doing A’level English literature. This book would give them an excellent background and springboard into the life of Jane, her characters and the world of the 18th century. It would be an ideal companion to anybody beginning to read Jane Austen. They would be able to get their compass bearings set on a true course.
- An interview with Margaret C. Sullivan, author of The Jane Austen Handbook
- Preorder The Jane Austen Handbook: Proper Life Skills from Regency England
- Review: There Must Be Murder by Margaret C. Sullivan, wherein the reader follows the escapades of Henry Tilney and his lovely wife Catherine in Bath
- Q&A With Margaret C. Sullivan of Austenblog: Facebook
- Review of The Jane Austen Handbook, Jane Austen Today
- Review of the Handbook at Austenprose
Jane Austen's World 
I bought this book while in the UK, either at Jane Austen’s House Museum or at The Jane Austen Centre. I found it here in the US when it was published here afterward and since it had a different cover didn’t recognize it and bought it and then couldn’t return it. I’ll have to compare them again. I loved the book, too.
Sounds very enjoyable!
I’m sorry, Tony; I hate to sound like an ignorant, uneducated wastrel, but I read the ‘Americanized’ sentence several times, and could not, for the life of me, discover what you were referring to (other than a poorly constructed sentence), and I’m quite familiar with the ‘ou’s in British English vs. American. Colour/color, neighbour/neighbor, etc.
Could you clue me in?
BTW, I do hope that the young ladies are ‘Well bred,’ not ‘Well BREAD.’ Hee hee. ;D
Martha, the well bread is my fault. I proof the posts before they are published, but sadly I missed this one! Correction made!!
Not in time to prevent me spotting it again 12 minutes later. We are actually quite close to you in Newtonian space (Twickenham) but I am ahead of you in space-time, it seems.
Explanation: I called up the page via Google reader yesterday but only looked at it today.
Hi Martha. Americanisations. Notice I used an s not a z.
We do not have parole officers in England, or attend math lessons. We also do not attend class.
Instead we have probation officers, we go to maths or mathematics lessons and we have lessons. A class is the group of children who go to lessons.
Mathematics is plural because it is made up of geometry, algebra, the four rules, time and weights and measures.
Sorry for being pedantic but you asked.
All the best,
Tony
That sentence was just chock full then, wasn’t it? Interesting- I appreciate the insight!
Hi Tony,
Thank you for your answers; you were NOT being pedantic in your explanation! I’m an American — and life-long-Anglophile! — and I consider myself to be somewhat savvy in recognizing the difference between Americanisms and Britishisms, but I was completely baffled by that sentence you quoted, and couldn’t recognize ANYTHING wrong with it, as Martha said, above! Shows you how far off I am when I say somwhat savvy, doesn’t it? :-) George Bernard Shaw was certainly right about our two countries separated by a common language, wasn’t he?
That said, I, too, really enjoyed this book, too. It is delightful, and on top of all the fun information, it is actually a PRETTY book: I love the LOOK and FEEL of it!
Two more things: I read and enjoy your blog frequently, and always learn new things, thank you. And, in the U.S., we use the term “math” (singular) as an abbreviation for “mathematics” (plural); don’t know why. But then I don’t know why you-all have some unusual language usages, either: go figure! (GBS again!)
Thanks again,
Cathy Allen
Re: “Well bread young ladies must acquire a store of accomplishments….”
Crumbs! May I suggest ‘well-bred’ is the mot juste here?
Well I have had to work hard to earn my, “bred and butter,” today.
“Crumbs!!! yes, quite.
Tony
I think Tony makes a valid, though minor, point here. For example, maths is (are?) universally spelt with an ‘s’ in UK English; and I’m not sure what most people would make of ‘significant other’. I’m personally rather fond of my local kind of English, and finding transatlanticisms used as though they are the norm tends to make me just a little bit crusty …
“Maths is” – because you’re referring to the word itself, not to mathematics.
And I love that UK English uses “spelt” instead of “spelled”! (There’s also a grain that’s called spelt, at least over here in the States.)
Andrew, I agree, it is a minor point. It was intended as a whimsical minor point.
The main point being is that Margaret’s book is fun to read and packed full of information. I hope everybody has read the other things I said too. I’d love to hear whether you agree.
Ahem. My crustiness was just adding an ill-bread slice of frivolity. Yes, it does sound like an interesting book and it seems well worthy of your generous remarks. Nevertheless, I don’t think the point about Americanisations (with an ‘s’ please) is unworthy of comment.
Hello Tony,
I have wondered about what criteria the publishing world uses to choose whether or not they will change Americanisms to Britishisms or vice versa when printing a book from one side of the pond on the other. I have a copy of Lynne Truss’s “Eats, Shoots & Leaves”, and its British English is intact – and it’s an American-printed copy. Yet my Harry Potter books are American editions, and not only has spelling been Americanized (or Americanised?), but there are actual sentences, dialogues, and occasional paragraphs that are different. The idea arises that it could be because one is non-fiction, the other fiction. But my Jane Austen books, in all their well-worn glory, seem to keep to British usage. (Though I confess, I probably wouldn’t notice an Americanism very easily, as they are, after all, normal to me!) This makes me think that perhaps it is the audience the book is intended for – children are less likely to know cross-the-pond language than adults.
But it only seems natural that a book about an English author and the culture of her day, being printed in Britain for a British audience, would use the local language conventions! And it would seem strange to notice “watercolor” instead of “watercolour” in reference to Jane Austen.
P.S. I thought I was well-versed in the differences of British English and American English, but I only noticed the math/maths issue – I didn’t know you don’t go to class! Well, something new is learned (learnt?) every day.
“Criteria the publishing world use” – oops.
Sounds like something much needed in today’s world. I will definitely look for it!
Well, oops. I just saw this for the first time.
Because I am from the U.S., and the publisher was from the U.S., I didn’t consciously try to make it sound “British.” I don’t think I’d be able to make a book seamless for modern UK usage, to be honest. It would sound really fake and forced. Also, again because it was an U.S. publisher, we used U.S. standards for spelling and punctuation. There wasn’t a different version printed for the UK–everybody got the same book. I can understand that it was a bit jarring, and I apologize for it! *hangs head in shame*
Incidentally, I really did get busted reading a novel under a table in class when I was in high school. It wasn’t Jane Austen, though–I didn’t read Austen for another ten years. It was 1984 (hey, another British author!), which we were reading for English class, and I was really enjoying, and the class was boring. It wasn’t math (or maths) class, either–it was religion class. I went to Catholic school, you see. So I tried to make my anecdote a little more relatable for a larger group.
–Mags, a/k/a Margaret C. Sullivan
It’s interesting to read your american/british discussions – imagine being Danish, like med, and attending English classes, where British English is taught while constantly hearing American English on TV/radio. I’m just glad we can’t see Australian TV shows here in Denmark! ;-)
The New Yorker sums up the debate: ‘Who Wrote Shakespeare?’
by Eric Idle
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2011/11/21/111121sh_shouts_idle
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