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

Title: How to Speak Like Jane Austen and Live Like Elizabeth Bennet

Author: Kaelyn Caldwell

© Island Bound Press

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

ISBN: 978-0-9828438-1-9 (epub)

Publication: 2013

DEDICATION

For my particular friend, Charlotte Guynn, for whom this book is written; for Mr. Caldwell, who makes all things possible; and for Mr. Guynn, who puts up with two of the silliest girls in the country.

Special thanks to George, Tanya, Maraya, and Debbie

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

Remember that you are a human being ... with the divine gift of articulate speech; that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible.

George Bernard Shaw

* * * * *

The wisdom of a just content made one small spot a continent.

Louisa May Alcott in tribute to Henry David Thoreau

ABOUT THE BOOK

How to Speak Like Jane Austen

and Live Like Elizabeth Bennet

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 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.

As fans of Pride and Prejudice know, Jane Austen’s masterpiece has enjoyed more than 200 years of unprecedented popularity – its most recent surge attributed to the wildly successful 1995 BBC/A&E production. As a result, contemporary interpretations of Austen’s work abound in the popular culture of Austenmania, yet not one focuses solely on Austen’s best loved novel and its most admired heroine – until now!

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

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Pride and Prejudice: A Love Story

My affection for all things Pride and Prejudice began when I happened upon a rerun episode of the 1995 BBC/A&E miniseries. Even given my limited knowledge of the plot and characters, I was immediately drawn in. The lively language of Jane Austen and the lovely lifestyle of Elizabeth Bennet captivated me. I hurried to my local library to check out the video version. Although the six episodes were never available at one time — forcing me to watch them out of sequence — I soon cobbled together a coherent sense of the story and later read the book.

Before long, I infected my best friend, Charlotte, with my obsession, and as soon as the DVD was released, we each purchased a copy. Given the fact that Charlotte and I live on opposite sides of the country, our shared viewing was sporadic; however, we watched Pride and Prejudice together whenever we could: on the West Coast; on the East Coast; from start to finish; from wherever we had left off months before; or piecemeal.

For instance, the scene where Lady Catherine de Bourgh confronts Elizabeth in that prettyish kind of a little wilderness is one of our favorites (the late-in-the-day lighting is exquisite, not to mention the repartee). Charlotte also enjoys the uncomfortable scene when Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth (me, not so much); I prefer the anguished conversation between Darcy and Elizabeth after she reads Jane’s letters about Lydia’s elopement, where, from what I can see, Darcy’s love for Elizabeth comes full flower.

Eventually, our immersion in Pride and Prejudice reached a more engaged level when either Charlotte or I addressed the other as sister, along the lines of Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Philips in the miniseries (in the novel it is also used between Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Gardiner). Before long, this became our standard greeting.

Other Austenisms quickly followed. Charlotte was frequently all astonishment, while I could hardly keep my countenance. Sadly, one of our favorite lines, I have no fixed engagements, had to be discarded after Charlotte and I discovered that these words are not Pride and Prejudice per se, existing only in the miniseries (and in one of the most delightful scenes ever, when Elizabeth accepts Darcy’s invitation to dine at Pemberley — drat!).

Over the years, Charlotte and my Pride and Prejudice language matured beyond the obvious as we began casting lines well outside their original contexts. For example, we both came to understand that Mrs. Bennet’s a little sea-bathing would set me up forever meant that one of us was up for whatever activity the other had proposed. We also use Caroline Bingley’s conversation-closer, I am talking of possibilities, Charles, if the other strays too far from reality (in the novel, Miss Bingley offers this in response to her brother’s over-inflated boast, With all my heart; I will buy Pemberley itself if Darcy will sell it).

As Charlotte and I entertained ourselves with the language of Jane Austen, we became equally enamored of the lifestyle of Elizabeth Bennet, made even more appealing in movie form. Elizabeth’s leisurely home-based days, filled with simple pleasures — a love of nature, a tendency toward solitary reflection and lots of letter writing — were as winsome as the words Austen used to describe them. And in our pursuit of all things Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte and I began making room for some of Elizabeth’s daily inclinations and activities — with equally pleasing results. As we slowed our pace and productivity, our days expanded and relaxed; and as we indulged in Elizabeth’s seemingly ordinary routines, our everyday lives gained a renewed significance.

Today, Charlotte and I still find Pride and Prejudice endlessly inspiring. Even after all these years, our enthusiasm for Austen’s language and Elizabeth’s lifestyle has not waned. On the contrary, the literate and enlightened world of Pride and Prejudice is ever fresh and appealing ... no matter how many times we read the book or watch the movie.

INTRODUCTION

Jane Austen is one of the most acclaimed authors of all times; her novel Pride and Prejudice is one of the best-selling books in history; and the story’s heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, is one of the most captivating characters ever created. To what does Pride and Prejudice owe its enduring allure?

It can all be found in Austen’s lively language and in Elizabeth’s lovely lifestyle.

Two hundred years after the fact, Austen’s dialogue is fresh and inventive, a welcomed change from contemporary conversation, which can seem ordinary and uninspired by comparison. Elizabeth’s 19th century lifestyle is also refreshing, with its slowed-down days giving way to thoughtful reflection and simple pastimes, an appealing alternative to the crowded crush of modern life. Perhaps this is the reason the 1995 BBC/A&E miniseries has been so successful: At the heart of the movie’s popularity is its pace, roomy enough to accommodate much of Austen’s original dialogue and leisurely enough to allow for Elizabeth’s unhurried Regency existence.

How to Speak Like Jane Austen and Live Like Elizabeth Bennet offers admirers of the novel and the miniseries a way to bring the enjoyment of Austen’s language and the enlightenment of Elizabeth’s lifestyle into their daily lives. Much like the author and her heroine, this guide takes a sometimes lighthearted, sometimes serious, approach to the parlance and the 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.

Austen’s Livelier Language

Although devotion to Pride and Prejudice can be a serious pursuit, partaking of Austen’s language should be an entertaining indulgence, something you can put into practice easily and quickly — just for the fun of it! Fortunately, with a few key phrases in your repertoire, you and your like-minded friends will be able to utter an Austenism at the drop of a hat, conversing like Jane in no time at all.

Part I, How to Speak Like Jane Austen, is divided into six sections. The first two, Basic Jane Speak and Advanced Austen, convert contemporary verbiage into Pride and Prejudice parlance; the next two sections, Insider Austen and Austen’s Ironies, offer more inventive twists on Austen’s language; and the last two sections, As Jane Would Say and Austen-Inspired Sayings, feature both literal quotations and newly-minted epigrams in keeping with the storyline. A more detailed description of Part I is offered below:

Basic Jane Speak: Vocabulary 101: When it comes to sounding like Jane Austen, the easiest route is to replace everyday words with their more Austenesque versions. For instance, instead of saying hurry up, say make haste; instead of excellent, say capital. You can also start addressing your mate as Mr. _____ or Mrs. _____, or give your homestead a lofty-sounding name, along the lines of Pemberley or Netherfield Park. A simpler — though more daunting — solution is to drop all contractions from your conversation; that is the Austen way and accounts for the fact that Lydia’s rhetorical question to Elizabeth and Jane — Is not this nice?— is a world away from Isn’t this nice?