Delightful and informative, with excerpts of Austen's own work and letters to serve as examples. The illustrations are a gorgeous watercolor style, which adds to the quality of the book. A must-read if you are an Austen fan! I certainly learned a few new things about Regency manners. ( )

This is a cute little guide for Austen fans - I suppose if you're interested in a quick-hit guide to what was considered 'good manners' in the 1800s, then you might like this. But the book is centered around Austen's subjects and has some quotes from her novels and letters, with examples of how she and her characters behaved, so it's really geared towards Austen admirers.

It was a neat look at how things were done 200+ years ago (and a reminder that I'm mostly glad for modern opinions and relieved that our manners have relaxed, though I do think they've done so perhaps too much) and I did pick up a thing or two. For instance, hearing about how those of higher rank were free to decide who of lower rank could be introduced to them. We see examples of this in P&P but I always looked at it from the perspective of Darcy being a dink - but Mr. Collins wasn't supposed to introduce himself, it was up to Darcy, per the rules of 'polite society' to indicate whether he wished Mr. Collins be introduced to him. Another thing I noticed with the help of the book is that Austen doesn't spend a great deal of time detailing the clothing, hair and features of her characters - which I appreciate!

There are cute illustrations throughout and a ribbon bookmark in my edition, so overall it's a nice book to have in my collection. But it's pretty niche and probably something saved for someone who spends a lot of time reading and loving all things Austen. ( )

A charming, enjoyable little book. For the devoted Austen reader, there isn't a lot of new or in-depth information, but it was a fun read for me and contains some reminders of tidbits I'd forgotten about the manners of Jane Austen's day. ( )

I was originally looking for a guide to Regency etiquette, and this doesn't quite fit the bill, but Josephine Ross' sweet little rulebook is still a treat for Austen fans. The Guide to Good Manners covers the basics, like 'dancing and dining', 'dress and taste', marriage, family and servants, with reference to Miss Jane Austen's family letters and quotes from her novels. I learned two important details - displaying good manners requires only common sense and a respect for others, and the propriety expected of young women in the Regency era was 'not to hinder, but to protect'. I think we would all do well to emulate our genteel ancestors and behave with such decency and care today!

Jane Austen's Guide is an inspirational companion to the novels, prettily illustrated, which would make a lovely gift. ( )

If you are a Janeite, this is a very insightful compilation of regency mores and etiquette to guide you along and show you how Jane perceived the world and how her writing commented upon it. That is one of the many things that Austen is credited with, that her books are studies in the society of the time, and give us now a view of a kinder, more genteel period.

Since the Austen Canon, unlike the Dickens Canon, provides a look at a very well to do part of society, mostly that of perhaps the lower upper class, which Jane was a member of, we do not see often the picture of the vast majority of England, nor do we get a sliver of the Regency other then through Jane's wishes for it.

Here we have to then focus on what the book's title tells us. Jane Austen's Guide. Not a Guide to the Regency, or even the entire Ton, for where Mr. Darcy is of the first quality, and we become intimate with him in Pride and Prejudice, Jane gives us the Ton as she wants it to be. Not always as it was. And by extension so does our authoress.

If we can put aside that the book does not dwell on the true Regency era, but on the world that Jane created for us to read two hundred years later, then we have a pretty little world and the description of it is well done. Excerpts from the book abound and small drawings that help uncover more of the detail of what is being talked of.

The book is a useful resource to get a glimpse of the period, but I would not take the book as anything other then Jane's fantasy world. It is not the entirety of the Regency World, nor is it even a solid glimpse of the world that Jane lived in. It is the world she wrote of and we do not even know if that was the world she ascribed to. ( )