Book Review Sue Parrill, Editor

Jane Austen and the Each chapter begins with an Domestic Life observation on or reference to Austen’s own life. For example, The Jane Austen Guide to Life Chapter 1, “Living Your Dreams,” By Lori Smith. affirms a commonly held — Skirt/Globe Pequot Press, 2012. xi + 212 pages. that women in Austen’s time were Hardcover. $8.78 at Amazon. $9.99 Kindle edition. “neither expected nor allowed to Cooking with Jane Austen and work”—yet, “Jane Austen lives Friends on because she . . . picked up her By Laura Boyle. pen and told stories.” Smith then breakfast dishes, progresses across the Trail Publishing, 2010. 68 pages. juxtaposes our contemporary times with various dinner courses (soups, sides, and Paperback. $14.99 from Cookingwithjane.com those of Austen, commenting on pithy main dishes), wends her way through adages (“Do the unexpected” or “Share desserts (pudding, sweets, and teatime Review by . your with the world”) to show how treats), and ends with beverages, fortified Jane’s life may correlate to our own. Anyone who is familiar with Jane and not. The final pages offer advice on The chapters each provide a number Austen’s era is also well acquainted how to host parties that were de rigueur in of quotations or references to specific with the fact that, aside from dancing Austen’s day: tea, dinner, and card parties. scenes from the novels, and Smith and feigning interest (or non-interest) Each recipe comes replete with a suitable appropriately weaves such allusions into in available partners, characters in her quotation from an Austen novel or the fabric of modern life. novels spend much of their time in the explanation of the dish, or both. Every domestic arena. The female characters To be sure, the book includes such recipe is complemented by a drawing in particular are expected to know the predictable chapters as “Finding a by either Hugh Thomson or C.E. finer points of husbandry, i.e., care and Good Man” and “Marrying Well,” but [Charles Edmund] Brock, the original management of the home, along with they are tempered with the very sort of illustrators of Austen’s books, among the proper way to behave in almost caution and deliberation that Jane herself others. The sketches add a touch of any situation. Although cookbooks advocated for her more respectable Regency authenticity to techniques and and manners guides had been written characters such as Elizabeth Bennet ingredients more suitable for twenty- and published in Britain since the early and Elinor Dashwood. Smith wants first century palates. In addition, Boyle Middle Ages, young women were most readers to know she recognizes that cites a bibliography of historical and often taught these skills by their mothers young women of any day and age want contemporary sources. or governesses, generally with the end love and companionship; however, she Among the more appealing dishes are goal of attracting a suitable spouse. acknowledges that in today’s world, so Martha Lloyd’s Macaroni and Cheese many more choices are open to them. Now, we have the opportunity to learn and Rosings Roast Beef and Yorkshire for ourselves how to live and cook in Guide to Life cites many of Austen’s Pudding, both having been modernized. the Regency manner. Smith and Boyle letters to friends and family in addition In fact, almost all of the recipes in Boyle’s have both produced small but interesting to the novels, revealing a handbook that little book should entice readers who volumes based on their own studies of is more scholarly than it would perhaps like to cook and/or to eat. The breakfast Jane Austen and her milieu. Times have first appear. Smith’s brief yet interesting dishes are easy, and the desserts are, changed, and tastes have evolved, but the book lives up to its subtitle: “Thoughtful as they should be, “sinfully delicious.” desire for the types of books reviewed Lessons for the Modern Woman.” Only two of the recipes in the book here still exists, and probably will as long In another vein, Boyle’s Cooking with may discourage American foodies: Mr. as people seek refinement. Jane Austen and Friends provides Wodehouse’s Smooth and Wholesome Smith’s Guide to Life draws on lessons readers with “period recipes that Jane Gruel and Mutton à la Mansfield. the author claims she learned from Austen was familiar with,” thankfully In short, both of these books will give her reading of Austen’s novels and adapted for modern tastes and culinary readers a lighthearted glance into biographies. Calling the book an experiences. Like Smith, Boyle Austen’s life and time. Smith and Boyle etiquette guide with a Jane Austen flavor acknowledges that times have changed, have written entertaining little books would be a disservice, as it is much more. and cuisine that was acceptable or that may help readers recapture those As the title suggests, Smith has written expected in the early nineteenth century moments and activities today. a handbook for living, one that depends needs updating. upon a more civilized and cultured era Christine Mitchell is an associate professor Boyle arranges her cookbook in a logical for its structure and values. of English at Southeastern Louisiana ; she begins with, appropriately, University, Hammond, Louisiana. 18 JASNA News