Customer Reviews

Jane Austen's Guide to Romance: The Regency Rules

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
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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!

As a Jane Austen fan, I thought this would be a fun read. Even though I'm married, I wanted to share it with my daughter. While the book does a great job of using examples from the novels to make her points, the modern day examples repeatedly tell of people meeting in bars?! Is this really where folks hope to find the love of their life? Also, the book assumes people sleep around A LOT before settling down. Guess I've been married a little too long...otherwise it was cute.

When she moved to the US from England, author Lauren Henderson was mystified by the American dating scene. Concepts such as "if you really like him, DON'T call him!" were completely foreign to her, and she quickly found that her romantic relationships were floundering. Not knowing where to turn for advice, she fell back on her favorite author, Jane Austen, for guidance.

Hendersen's main premise is that Austen's classic novels contain a wealth of truisms which can be applied to the modern dating scene, from "if you like someone, make it clear that you do" to "be prepared to wait for the right person to come along." The ten rules which Henderson gleans from Austen's work each form a separate chapter in the book, with each rule illustrated using various relationships, both good and bad, from Austen's novels. Of course, much of the advice itself is merely common sense, but the Austen-based examples lend a unique intelligence and wit to what would have otherwise been another run-of-the-mill self-help book.

Although Henderson suggests that you do not need to have read Austen in order to benefit from her book--she even provides summaries of Austen's six novels for those who fit this category--I believe that the book's appeal to non-Austen fans is limited. However, if you have cherished Austen's novels, you are likely to relish every moment of this book as well, particularly the opportunity to match yourself and potential partners with Austen characters. In conclusion, I would recommend this amusing little guidebook for any female fans of Jane Austen (are there any other kind?) who are looking for some basic, practical dating advice.

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.

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.

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.

I'm not one who normally reads books on dating, but as a fan of Jane Austen, the premise of this book grabbed my attention. I was sure I was going to enjoy the analysis of the Austen characters, but I was unsure about the dating part. Fortunately for me, I liked both parts of the book. While the character analysis didn't really present anything new, I liked the way Ms. Henderson applied the characters' strengths and weaknesses to the dating life today and I came away with some real, practical ideas. The examples she used illustrated real situations and helped to show how silly we've made the modern dating scene. Unlike other "dating" books which tell us that the reason we're not dating is either that we're not likeable enough or that the others in our perspective dating pool are too dumb to see our potential, this book recognizes that we all make mistakes in how we approach dating and that it takes time an patience to weed out the Henry Crawfords and Wickhams of the world.
Instead of feeling depressed about myself or my potential dating pool, I finished this book with a sense that I really can find my Darcy or Knightly if I'm reasonable and myself. I recommend this book as a fun read that will help you feel good about your life when you've finished.

I am a big Jane Austen fan and that was the best part of this book: the examples from Austen's novels. The rest of the book read a lot like pop psychology and I have to agree with the other reviewer that commented on the "bar hopping, and sleeping around" aspect to many of the examples; a bit of a turn off for me. Some good analogies, and the woman can write.

This book is an entertaining read and a source of good common sense advise about dating relationships, as are many of Austen's novels. The author of this book develops several dating principles based on the novels and illustrates with Austen's characters and modern examples, proving that Austen's approach describes nearly universal truths about love and marriage and needs only superficial "updating" to be relevent to the twenty-first century. As a bonus, the author's insights into the Austen characters make this volume helpful for understanding the novels and their romantic themes.

It's a very cute book. You should get it if you are a Jane Austen fan..but don't read it if you want any serious dating tips. I don't think there are any universally applicable dating tips anyway. What makes the book light and cute is that it discusses Jane Austen's stories and her witty titbits from her stories.