Wednesday 19 June 2013

Mr Darcy's Guide to Courtship




I saw this on Netgalley, and as I loved Pride and Prejudice I thought I would request and Osprey Publishing were kind enough to let me have a preview.

This really was funny! It's a 19th century guide on how to court a lady, with some advice for the ladies as well. It is written by the Pride and Prejudice character Darcy and it really is like Darcy is writing.

You can tell right from the dedication of the book that it is Darcy and it made me laugh:

"Dedicated to Mr Charles Bingley. May this cure once and for all your utterly disastrous taste in females."

The book is full of lines like this, with Darcy taking on that superiority that he seems to think he has, especially when he says "I have long suspected that something in my countenance is irresistibly pleasing to the fairer sex." We can definitely see why Lizzy Bennet was so adverse to him!

He talks about courting a woman as if the man is training a dog and he really does reference this in the book! And one chapter is titled- 'Is she qualified to be your wife?". Haha! God so glad all this class and stuffiness is not like this now!

So obviously the advice he offers would not at all be helpful for today's dating world! But even though the things he says are actually ridiculous! He was not at all far off for the 19th century.

What was quite funny was a modern reference to Jay-Z's 99 problems: "I am beset by nigh on one hundred grievances, a vexatious female need not be counted among them".

The way he talks about females would be shocking today- he makes it clear many times that women are the inferior sex and that they should make sure they know that men are their betters! I'm so glad this would not pass lightly today lol.

Oh and I loved the illustrations in the book! Some of them were very funny :).

Overall it was a funny read, with some what would be hilarious advice today. To all Pride and Prejudice fans this is a definite read.

7/10

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