Finding Mr. Darcy

Book excerpt: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Unless, of course, he's gay. Or has a girlfriend. Or is neck-deep in twice-weekly psychoanalysis and entirely unfit for public consumption." How does the modern young woman negotiate her dating way in a world where the rules change as fast as you can update your status on Facebook? How to know if the man you've just met in the chatroom is married with three children, if you should be going out in a short skirt with no undies, or if texting your deepest desires to the stranger you met last night is entirely sensible. Luckily, Jane Austen is there, as she has been for three centuries, advising us to keep a sense of humour and our dignity intact. Amply aided and somewhat updated by former intrepid dater and award-winning journalist Amanda Hooton, Jane shows us how we can save ourselves heartbreak by following the examples of her famous heroines. We learn that cleverness is no barrier to romance, beauty is within and that you can't actually meet a man unless you go to places where men dwell. Best of all, we learn how to wade through the heaving mass of commitment-phobic masculine humanity out there to discover our very own Mr Darcy.