Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1: The Advantage of Choice
2: The Power of Refusal
3: An Acquaintance Formed in a Public Place
4: White Satin and Lace Veils
5: Where N Takes M, For Better, For Worse
6: Wedding Journeys
7: Scandal and Gossip
8: A Contract of Mutual Agreeableness
9: Domestic Happiness Overthrown
10: The Simple Regimen of Separate Rooms
11:The Years of Danger
12: An Old Maid at Last
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Reviews
‘Hazel Jones has written a masterful accounting of the crucial role played by marriage in Jane Austen's novels and the world she and her characters lived in. Brilliantly researched and documented -- including information taken from the fascinating and sometimes troubling "conduct manuals" on the proper interaction between the sexes -- Jane Austen and Marriage offers deep insights that inform not only one's reading of Austen's novels but of the treacherous social bedrock underlying the lives of women living in that time. And in so doing, Hazel Jones has presented the reader with another testament to the long, hard march of women throughout history. It is a book that reflects Jane Austen's own penetrating gaze and insight into Regency society and no doubt will find a place in the library of even the most sophisticated "Janeite".’- Alice Steinbach, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman.
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'Hazel Jones' carefully researched and engaging work examines Regency values and concepts of marriage through letters, diaries, and guides to contemporary manners, offering a new insight into Austen's much-loved novels.' - The Good Book Guide
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'The wonder is that nobody has thought of publishing such a title before ... What we look for ... is that quotations and examples represent a
good balance between Jane Austen’s fiction; the real life of her family and
neighbours; and the experiences of her contemporaries at large. This Hazel Jones has undoubtedly achieved,
drawing on letters, diaries, conduct books and newspapers of the period.' - Jane Austen Society Newsletter
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'Jones fleshes out the interaction between man and woman in nineteenth-century
Britain. Illustrative excerpts from the novels and primary research sources
provide a well-rounded, informative basis for her walk up the garden path and
down the aisle ... a particularly useful book. Readers will welcome the author’s friendly style of writing as well as her insight into women like Lydia Bennet, Anne Elliot, and
Marianne Dashwood. Highly
recommended.'
-Jane Austen in Vermont
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'Jones's ample use of archival and manuscript sources provide illuminating and amusing insights that compliment Austen's own ... a lively introduction to the romance plots of Austen's novels, and her contemporaries' views of marriage.' - Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, Times Literary Supplement
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'Wonderfully readable and often hilariously funny ... Jones has come up with a host of fresh ideas and new insights presented with a deep sympathy for, and understanding of, her subject ... Jane Austen & Marriage reads as easily and entertainingly as a novel, full of plot twists and delightful surprises - a treasure of a book to be returned to again and again.' - Jane Austen's Regency World
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