Mr Darcy's Guide to Courtship
In a new book Jane Austen's most famous (and most fancied) hero here reveals the secrets of his success with the opposite sex. Here are our 10 favourite tips...
1. Ladies should think themselves under great obligations to gentlemen who will marry them despite their faults
2. An essential courtship rule: Ensure that you are not utterly disgusting to behold
3. The number of plain women is possibly the most forcible argument against visiting the country
4. A woman’s hair must be sufficiently clean: in the morning apply a paste of the whites of six eggs to the head and leave to dry
5. Freckles may be removed by lotions of lead…the more potent varieties do have a tendency to temporarily paralyze the face, and so should not be applied immediately before making your face available to public view
6. If a lady should have the misfortune of being better informed than her male companions, she should conceal it as well as she can
7. If you are a native of the north of England, you would do well to study elocution before horrifying your company and humiliating yourself with the vulgarity of your accent
8. Three basic masculine qualities that all women hope to discover in a suitor: unimaginable wealth, irresistible good looks and exceptional breeding
9. Ladies, if you have failed to secure a husband by the age of thirty – at which point the bloom of youth will fade most desperately – admit defeat and harden yourself to the idea of not being worth looking at
10. Ageing spinsters appear to occupy themselves solely with embroidery, economising, brushing dust from teapots and sighing
Mr Darcy's Guide to Courtship: The Secrets of Seduction from Jane Austen's Most Eligible Bachelor (Old House Projects £7.99)
1. Ladies should think themselves under great obligations to gentlemen who will marry them despite their faults
2. An essential courtship rule: Ensure that you are not utterly disgusting to behold
3. The number of plain women is possibly the most forcible argument against visiting the country
4. A woman’s hair must be sufficiently clean: in the morning apply a paste of the whites of six eggs to the head and leave to dry
5. Freckles may be removed by lotions of lead…the more potent varieties do have a tendency to temporarily paralyze the face, and so should not be applied immediately before making your face available to public view
6. If a lady should have the misfortune of being better informed than her male companions, she should conceal it as well as she can
7. If you are a native of the north of England, you would do well to study elocution before horrifying your company and humiliating yourself with the vulgarity of your accent
8. Three basic masculine qualities that all women hope to discover in a suitor: unimaginable wealth, irresistible good looks and exceptional breeding
9. Ladies, if you have failed to secure a husband by the age of thirty – at which point the bloom of youth will fade most desperately – admit defeat and harden yourself to the idea of not being worth looking at
10. Ageing spinsters appear to occupy themselves solely with embroidery, economising, brushing dust from teapots and sighing
Mr Darcy's Guide to Courtship: The Secrets of Seduction from Jane Austen's Most Eligible Bachelor (Old House Projects £7.99)