The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After ~Elizabeth Kantor
“Women today and settling for less than we want when it comes to men, relationships, sex, and marriage. But we don't have to, argues Elizabeth Kantor. Jane Austen can show us how to find the love we really want.
In The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After, Kantor reveals how the examples of Jane Austen heroines such as Elizabeth Bennet, Elinor Dashwood, and Anne Elliot can help us navigate the modern-day minefields of dating, love, relationships, and sex. By following in their footsteps—and steering clear of the sad endings suffered by characters such as Maria Bertram and Charlotte Lucus—modern women can discover the path to lifelong love and true happiness.” (Inside cover flap)
I read this one through (twice in a row!) with pencil in hand and sticky flags at the ready. Kantor speaks about the “Cult of Sensibility” which has invaded and permeated our ideas of what Romantic love is all about (Chp 2). She uses Jane Austen's heroines and heroes to give us practical lessons and guidelines for how we should be directing our love lives: such as taking love seriously (Chp 5), looking for the “rational happiness” that Elizabeth Bennet speaks of (Chp 6), and “being prudent in real love” like Anne Elliot (163) and the importance of discerning a man' intentions before we commit our emotions into the relationship as a way of guarding ourselves from heartbreak (Chp 12).
I highly recommend this one for both the lessons and also for the great insights in the characters and construction of Austen's great novels. Although this is not specifically written from a Christian point-of-view, Kantor does reference her own faith occasionally, which I found very encouraging.
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