Jane Austen's Guide to Modern Life's Dilemmas

Jane Austen is more of a celebrity and media queen now than she was in her lifetime. As a forensic observer of the social scene, with a mordant wit, ironic eye, and a sly way of puncturing pretension and seeing past the social façade, there is no doubt that if she had been with us today, she would have had her own column in an upmarket glossy—a stylish, smart-cookie agony aunt.

Unfortunately, she did not get the opportunity, and so Jane Austen's Guide to Modern Life's Dilemmas is a crack at showing what it might have been like. This is a smart, sassy look at modern work, domestic, and romantic dilemmas, answered not by Jane Austen herself, but using her clear-eyed, witty, unsentimental view of life, love, and money with quotations from her books, letters, and unpublished writing as back-up.

Treat it like a new and sensible best friend, to turn to whenever you are confronting life's dilemmas (how can I stop saying yes to everything, what do I wear to a society wedding, is internet dating just for the desperate, etc).