Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades and Horrible Blunders - Hardcover

This book talks about how to pay and return formal 'calls'; how to refuse a proposal of marriage; who should lead off the dancing at a country-house ball; and what to wear for a morning walk. Today such social niceties are largely ignored or forgotten, but they underpin all of Jane Austen's timeless novels and are explored and dealt with in this highly original book. Written as if intended for Austen's original readers in the Regency era, and illustrated with exquisitely witty watercolours, Jane Austen's "Guide to Good Manners" is a light-hearted, entertaining and instructive little handbook of etiquette as depicted in Jane's novels and letters. It will not only offer sound wisdom and pearls of advice, but also encourage the modern-day reader to look back at Jane's work with a new and deepened appreciation.

Henrietta Webb is the co-creator of Bad Hair (published by Bloomsbury) and Josephine Ross has written a number of books including, most recently, Jane Austen: A Companion, published by Jane Austen's original publisher John Murray.