King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: Dear Jane Austen: A Heroine's Guide to Life and Love

author: Patrice Hannon


pages: 156

published: 2005

first line: Who is there?


rated: 4 out of 5

Just between us-imagine that I am whispering to you now- a few of my letters escaped Cass's fire and scissors, and speak from the eighteenth century in proof of what I tell you. But to wear one's heart on one's sleeve is a fairly certain way to have it broken, you know.

Yours most faithfully,

Jane Austen

Dear Jane Austen: A Heroine's Guide to Life and Love is a fun little book that is written in the voice of Jane Austen giving advice on love and life to current day females. This book made me smile, it's a well written tribute to Jane Austen that I think most fans of hers would enjoy.



The book starts in 1816 where Jane Austen is finishing off the last sentence of Persuasion when her niece comes in with letters for her. Women write to Jane asking her for advice on life and love.


Jane gives some sound advice, while making references to her novels as well as to the people in her own life, such as her sister. There are also several Austen novel quotes throughout the book.



I finished this book in one sitting and really enjoyed it. I laughed out loud at a few of Jane's comments. Especially when Jane refers to gothic novels like Wuthering Heights:

Dear Jane Austen:

Help! I have reached the age where I won't tell my age and I will die if I don't land a husband soon. Why am I still single? I read every relationship book that comes down the pike, take every man-catching class offered in my town, watch all the dating experts on television....

Dear Jane, tell me before I give up on men completely and take the veil: how can I live happily ever after like Elizabeth Bennet?

-Wish I Were a Heroine



Yes, I have been studying your society for some time and am well acquainted with its absurdities. As as friend I would urge you to strive for some measure of self-command. Indeed, your hysterical raving would not be amiss in a Gothic novel, or something by one of those Brontes who, after all my labour to entertain women with sparkling comedies having only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them, set the poor creatures back hundreds of years with stories full of improbable circumstances and unnatural characters.

These novels are fine entertainment, not unlike the sort my Catherine adored, but it is not in them that human nature is to be found. Catherine discovered that General Tilney had neither poisoned his wife nor imprisoned her deep in the recesses of Northanger Abbey, and unless it is your custom to form attachments with men who do such things-or who walk the moors in the moonlight with the ghosts of lovers twenty years dead as Heathcliff does-you should not look to such books-or their present-day descendants, Hollywood romances-for pictures of real men and women.

I do think that the author catches Jane's voice well, and this book is a fun escape
for any Janeite looking for a quick and entertaining read.

By the bye, I have recently made a survey of your circulating library, where I was astonished to find volumes containing enough conduct guides to stretch, if laid end to end, from Bath to Southampton. It is evident that my Emma is not the only clueless female.

Author Patrice Hannon really does give some good advice through the voice of Jane.

The minds of men and women alike run too much upon the phenomenon I understand to be comprehended in the word "chemistry". The charm of personal attraction is intoxicating, but beware the dangers of an attachment formed solely or even primarily on such superficial grounds.

The questions are very specific and the answers are thought out and very well written. You can see how knowledgeable the author is concerning Jane Austen's work as well as her private life. She even refers to Austen's lesser known works such as Lady Susan and The Watsons. I recommend this book to any Jane Austen fan. It is a quick and sweet Austen fix.