MARIA GRACE, COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE IN JANE AUSTEN'S WORLD + GIVEAWAY

Thanks so much for having me, Maria Grazia! I love getting to visit with you.  

I’m so excited to share with you and your readers about courtship and marriage in Jane Austen’s day. Customs have changed so dramatically in the two centuries since Jane Austen wrote her novels that things which were obvious to her original readers leave readers today scratching their heads and missing important implications. It’s amazing how much of Austen’s stories we miss not understanding the context she wrote it.

One of the most bewildering aspects of marriage in the regency era was the legal position of women in the era. Single and widowed women enjoyed very different legal status than married women whose legal personhood was subsumed into her husbands in a doctrine called coverture..  

This excerpt from Courtship and Marriage in Jane Austen’s World explains more about coverture and what it meant to women.

Married Women's Legal Position in the Regency

In 1765, William Blackstone presented a common man’s language interpretation of English law. He explains the law’s approach to women’s legal existence and rights in marriage which remained largely unchanged until the Married Women’s Property Act of 1884.
Blackstone said: By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband… and her condition during her marriage is called her coverture.… For this reason, a man cannot grant anything to his wife, or enter into covenant with her: for the grant would be to suppose her separate existence; and to covenant with her, would be only to covenant with himself: … a husband may also bequeath anything to his wife by will; for that cannot take effect till the coverture is determined by his death.… the chief legal effects of marriage during the coverture; upon which we may observe, that even the disabilities which the wife lies under are for the most part intended for her protection and benefit: so great a favourite

MR DARCY'S GUIDE TO COURTSHIP - THE SECRETS OF SEDUCTION FROM JANE AUSTEN'S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR

If I were a man, I'd ask him for advice in courtship, wouldn't you?  But since I am a woman, I'm  terribly curious to know what he would suggest to another man and what he really thinks about us.  Fitzwilliam Darcy has been so many women's dream man for 200 years now and he must know one or two secrets to  succeed with them.

Since the publication of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mr Darcy has been the romantic hero par excellence, fancied by ladies of all ages all over the world. Who better than him could write a guide to the seduce the opposite sex?  

Now, in his Guide to Courtship,   he offers advice to make you successful in love but,  be warned, he wrote this book  before been mellowed by contact with Miss Elizabeth Bennet. So, please,  imagine the Darcy you met at Meriton Assembly, which means all pride and prejudice,  as the author of this little precious book.

DATING IN COLLEGE? WHAT JANE AUSTEN'S NOVELS CAN TEACH US ABOUT COURTING - GUEST POST BY ANGELITA WILLIAMS

As one of the most famous female novelists of all time, Jane Austen is ardently admired and adored by women, both young and old, throughout the world. Her poetically written novels have firmly tugged at the heartstrings of millions since her books' first appearances in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and her societal and cultural influences only continue to grow as the years pass.

Thousands of books have been written about the modern wisdom the antiquated Jane can impart to those ladies who long to be romanced, wined, dined, and wooed like the leading ladies in her novels. We live in a time – however – when men would rather text a silly heart icon than handwrite a letter; where subtle romantic gestures have been replaced by obnoxious proclamations on Facebook; where men are pressured to believe that scoring on the first date makes them as suave as Johnny Depp; and where patiently waiting for love to mature and blossom is a thing of the past.