How to Speak Like Jane Austen and Live Like Elizabeth Bennet: Your Guide to Livelier Language and a Lovelier Lifestyle

by Kaelyn Caldwell

Can’t get enough of Pride or Prejudice in book or movie form? Captivated by Austen’s entertaining repartee and Elizabeth’s enlightened living? Do you despair at having to put down the novel or step away from the DVD?

Despair no more! How to Speak Like Jane Austen and Live Like Elizabeth Bennet – a delightfully inventive interpretation of all things Pride and Prejudice – translates the language of Austen and the lifestyle of Elizabeth into easy-to-embrace guidelines for 21st century living, making it possible to talk like Jane and act like Elizabeth – anytime, anyplace.

Just in time for the 200th anniversary of the 1813 publication of the novel, faithful followers of Pride and Prejudice now have a way to bring the timeless eloquence of Jane Austen and the inspired enlightenment of Elizabeth Bennet into their everyday lives.

Much like Austen and Elizabeth, How to Speak Like Jane Austen and Live Like Elizabeth Bennet takes a sometimes lighthearted, sometimes serious, approach to the parlance and pace of Pride and Prejudice.

Part I, “How to Speak Like Jane Austen,” is an entertaining resource, translating 21st century words, phrases and sentiments into their Pride and Prejudice counterparts, making it easy to introduce the author’s language into contemporary conversation.
A more serious interpretation of Elizabeth’s lifestyle is contained in Part II, “How to Live Like Elizabeth Bennet,” which distills the heroine’s circumspect and circumscribed existence into simple precepts for modern living.
Part III, “What Would Lizzie Do?,” puts the enjoyment of the language and the inspiration of the lifestyle together in a lighthearted imagining of a more Austen-sounding and Elizabeth-acting way of life.

Whether you read Kaelyn Caldwell’s book from start to finish, or dip back and forth into portions that interest you most, How to Speak Like Jane Austen and Live Like Elizabeth Bennet offers fans a way to adopt Austen’s lively language and Elizabeth’s lovely lifestyle as their own.

CONTENTS
About the Book: How to Speak Like Jane Austen and Live Like Elizabeth Bennet
Author’s Preface: Pride and Prejudice: A Love Story
Introduction
Austen’s Livelier Language
Miss Elizabeth’s Lovelier Lifestyle
Elizabeth-Inspired Living
Part I: How to Speak Like Jane Austen
Basic Jane Speak: Vocabulary 101
Advanced Austen: Sentences and Such
Insider Austen: A Language All Her Own
Austen’s Ironies: The Ultimate Insider
As Jane Would Say: Quotable Quotations
Austen-Inspired Sayings: Things She Never Wrote (But Might Well Have Said)
Part II: How to Live Like Elizabeth Bennet
Be Circumspect
Cultivate a Balanced Sense of Self
Maintain a Happy Outlook
Mind Your Manners
Be Your Own Best Company
Allow for Leisure
Adopt a Literary Lifestyle
Keep Society in Perspective
Partner Up Wisely
Live Circumscribed
Stay at Home
Make Your Home Your Hobby
Walk Near Nature
Honor the Seasonality of Life
Entertain Easily
Vacation Simply
Take a Small-World View
Part III: What Would Lizzie Do?
Elizabeth-Inspired Doings
Afterword: Pride and Prejudice: The Sequel
About the Author

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

155 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2013

Reviews

[Andrea Hickman Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part I was not very good and revealed a number of misconceptions and/or misunderstandings on the part of the author. Part II was very good, and well worth reading in and of itself. Part III was pointless and might as well have been left out.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do you want to speak like Jane Austen and live the lifestyle of Elizabeth Bennet? Then keep this book with you, for it translates and interprets the times and novels of Jane Austen into guidelines for 21st century living.

[Kali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Proud and Prejudiced

While enjoyable, it was all-too apparent that the “Live Like Elizabeth Bennet” portion of the book depended more upon the 1995 mini-series than upon the novel. If a reader has a strong opinion of the characters that falls outside the aforementioned interpretations of them, she (pardon my glib assumption) may find herself rolling her eyes a bit. For example, I do not read the parents as caricatures who abhor each other, and, consequently, found the constant whipping of Mrs Bennet to be rather tiresome. However, the advice to take walks, write letters, and unbusy oneself was welcome and, I hope, well-taken.

[Nicole Bosse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely useful reference guide for writing in the style of Jane Austen.

[Mei · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was written with a vast affection towards Jane Austen's life and novels, and I respect that.

[Karen Sofarin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and light - if you like Jane Austen. Nothing earth shattering, fun to pass time with between weightier books.