Jane Austen's Guide to Dating

What a fantastic, sensible book - it makes me want to re-read every Jane Austen book I have ever read with the new insights I have, and I was also very refreshed to know that my dating personality matched Elizabeth's from Pride and Prejudice. This book is worth giving to every teenaged young woman, who is approaching dating in an era where almost anything goes, but also almost anything can blow it, and with some of the weird relationship advice out there, combined with a whole generation of young men who have no idea how to behave post-feminism or how to act or react in this world full of overt sexual stimulus, this book would be a breath of fresh air. It's also a great way to introduce young readers to Jane Austen.

As a single young woman, I seem to have the knack for finding and dating the wrong guys. I love Jane Austen, and noticed this book and had to get it. While much of the advice truly is common sense, we often forget that these are the best routes to take in dating when we're constantly given horrible advice in women's magazines (like the advice Henderson describes she was given by American friends: Don't seem too available, don't see eachother too often in the beginning, keep phone calls short, and other ridiculous things), TV and movies. This was definitely refreshing, and I'll be suggesting this book to all of my single girlfriends.

This book is charming. The author uses Jane Austen's more famous works - Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, etc. to demonstrate good/bad relationship behavior. There are 10 tips, each presented in lengthy chapters, that show how to model your relationship behaviors based on the romantic couples in Austen's books. The book was actually quite enlightening - although the 10 dating 'tips' are pretty obvious, the way in which the author uses examples from Austen's works is what makes the book a joy to read. Aside from examples from the books, the chapters also include examples of real-life couples and situations. This is quite an inspiring book, especially because you can see how well educated the author is about her subject matter (Austen, not dating), and it was interesting to see Austen's books critically examined from a romantic standpoint, while still being very fun.

This is the best guide you will ever read for help in negotiating through the delicate intricacies of dating in the 21st century. Henderson interprets Jane Austen's timeless wisdom and applies it to our present day. This is the first guide I've seen that treats men as human beings! Though this fine piece of writing does boarder on scholarly, it is still completely accessible to those of us that prefer to see the adaptation of an Austen novel in a movie theater or consider articles in Cosmo as literature. Thank you Lauren Henderson for your entertaining, clever and witty insights to dating in modern times!

This is my first time reading a book about dating, it was not so much a self help book. It was more of a discussion of all the romantic characters in all six of Jane Austen's lovely novels. In the book you look at their relationships, personalities, and why it did or did not work out. The book is broken down into ten chapters. Each chapter is a rule. Some of them are very helpful such as "If you like someone, make it clear that you do." In the chapter it stresses the point that you should not play hard to get and try to appear unavailable. Which I am very guilty of doing! Each chapter has three references from three different novels, then like 6 stories about people in real situations in today's world. The author stresses that the world has changed since Jane Austen's time, yet the fundamental principals of falling in love are the same. If you love Jane Austen you will like this book, it is all about how her books teach us the proper way to find and fall in love with the right person. That is what the books of Jane Austen are all about, right? marrying for love? she would know , don't you think. At the end of the book there is a quiz to see what kind of heroine you are and a summary of all Jan'es novels, and character analysis of romantic character good and bad! I highly recommend this book for: anyone whole loves romance, loves Jane Austen, is in search of a Mr. Knightly or Mr. Darcy, keeps falling in love with Willoughby's and Wickhams's, and is . . . ahem . . still single!