So You Want To Read Something Like Jane Austen?

So you want to read something like Jane Austen?

I see lots of posts where people answer this question with recommendations for classic historical romance authors like Georgette Heyer or more modern bodice-rippers like Julia Quinn or Tessa Dare. But to me that’s never quite the appropriate answer. Sure, if what you want is romance with country dancing and breeches, that’s fine, but surely if you want to read more things similar to Jane Austen, the best way to do that is to delve into her lesser known contemporaries. People Austen admired and people who admired her. People writing on similar themes and using similar language. 

So this is my list of 10 novels from the 18th and early 19th century that you might like to try if you’ve read Austen and want to branch out more. These are just personal recommendations and based off what I’ve read; I’m very happy to hear other suggestions!

Worth noting as well that all of these are available online or free for kindle download. :)

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"Matchmaking Mamas hate him! Local Gentleman exposes shocking secret to avoiding matrimony. Learn his one weird trick!"

Darcy: King of Loopholes

After reading about Regency balls, I learned that Darcy has found a clever loophole in the rules, which people hate him for. I shall explain:

1. If a Gentleman danced once, he was expected to dance every set, as long as a woman was free (eg. Knightley in Emma at first went to the non-dancing side, but after dancing with Harriet he remained in the set)

2. A Gentleman must be introduced to a woman in order to dance

So to defeat these rules, Darcy refuses to be introduced to anyone. That way he can dance with Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst and absolutely no one else. Very clever, if don’t care how much people will resent you for it.

isabella thorpe is just as distressing as her brother

i feel like i sympathise with catherine a lot because i can so sharply remember what it was like to socialise properly for the first time and have it count. at 17, she’s stepping out into a setting far away from her family, without the grounding that she usually has. and the first person she meets is isabella thorpe, who acts as such a good older sister figure to her (especially when catherine was initially socially isolated):

Miss Thorpe...could compare the balls of Bath with those of Tunbridge, its fashions with the fashions of London; could rectify the opinions of her new friend in many articles of tasteful attire; could discover a flirtation between any gentleman and lady who only smiled on each other; and point out a quiz through the thickness of a crowd. These powers received due admiration from Catherine, to whom they were entirely new...

but that’s exactly the point: isabella acts more than anything else. she’s the foil to catherine; her scheming and her hypocrisy make a stark contrast to catherine’s innocence. her insincerity and her other actions during the book make clear how she will not end up acting in catherine’s interests, BUT CATHERINE DOESN’T SEE THAT BECAUSE SHE’S 17 AND CONFUSED AND IN BATH. it’s like watching an accident in slow motion. you know where the car is going to end up, but you’ve got to watch the agonisingly long spin off of the road it takes before crashing into the tree.

let’s take this example: isabella says to catherine: “My dearest creature, what can have made you so late? I have been waiting for you at least this age!” the hyperbole of ‘dearest creature’ and ‘at least this age’ shows either that she is being insincere or she is truly very affectionate. personally, i drew comparisons to caroline bingley writing to jane bennet, pretending to be her friend, which is why i got Bad Vibes from her instantly: “If you are not so compassionate as to dine to-day with Louisa and me, we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest of our lives...”

but you don’t even NEED TO HAVE THIS COMPARISON! in the next scene we see her literally in hot pursuit of two bachelors, when she professes to find them ‘odious’. make it make sense, isabella. the hypocrisy just pops out off the page...

“They are not coming this way, are they? I hope they are not so impertinent as to follow us. Pray let me know if they are coming. I am determined I will not look up.”

In a few moments Catherine, with unaffected pleasure, assured her that she need not be longer uneasy, as the gentlemen had just left the pump-room.

“And which way are they gone?” said Isabella, turning hastily round. “One was a very good-looking young man.”

AND WE CAN SEE THIS REPEATING THROUGH LITERALLY THE ENTIRE BOOK! she keeps pushing catherine into her brother’s way even though she knows that he’s Very Unsuited for her (indeed, he is unsuited for all humans); she guiltrips catherine into going to clifton, so she won’t go to visit the tilneys; she pretends that she’s dissatisfied because of the long engagement and not the 400 pounds yearly that will be given to james.

to the reader, isabella’s betrayal is not a matter of if, but how, and it’s just so terrible to have to watch catherine go through it. 

TL; DR: isabella, i hope your shoes drop off while dancing with the next bachelor you try to seduce. i hope you can never find a good tailor to make you fashionable dresses. i hope you step in horse manure just before going to all of your balls. 

“When I wrote that letter,” replied Darcy, “I believed myself perfectly calm and cool; but I am since convinced that it was written in a dreadful bitterness of spirit.”

absolutely spot on OP let's go

so i was rewatching pride and prejudice the 1995 version and just have to make this

FINISHED NORTHANGER ABBEY WOO

will post something -- either on isabelle or on dancing. depends on how much time i have. also trying to make sure no one's already posted about what i wanted to say lol

Pride and Prejudice but it’s set during the Spanish Colonial Period in The Philippines.