
Love and Marriage in the Age of Jane Austen
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $29.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sarah Coomes
-
By:
-
Rory Muir
About this listen
What happened when Jane Austen’s heroines and heroes were finally wed?
Marriage is at the center of Jane Austen’s novels. The pursuit of husbands and wives, advantageous matches, and, of course, love itself, motivate her characters and continue to fascinate people today. But what were love and marriage like in reality for ladies and gentlemen in Regency England?
Rory Muir uncovers the excitements and disappointments of courtship and the pains and pleasures of marriage, drawing on fascinating first-hand accounts as well as novels of the period. From the glamour of the ballroom to the pressures of careers, children, managing money, and difficult in-laws, love and marriage came in many guises: some wed happily, some dared to elope, and other relationships ended with acrimony, adultery, domestic abuse, or divorce. Muir illuminates the position of both men and women in marriage, as well as those spinsters and bachelors who chose not to marry at all.
This is a richly textured account of how love and marriage felt for people at the time—revealing their unspoken assumptions, fears, pleasures, and delights.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2024 Rory Muir (P)2024 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune
- How Younger Sons Made Their Way in Jane Austen's England
- By: Rory Muir
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Regency England the eldest son usually inherited almost everything—while his younger brothers, left with little inheritance, had to make a crucial decision: What should they do to make an independent living? Historian Rory Muir weaves together the stories of many obscure and well-known young men of good family but small fortune, shedding light on an overlooked aspect of Regency society. This is the first scholarly yet accessible exploration of the lifestyle and prospects of these younger sons.
By: Rory Muir
-
Jane Austen at Home
- A Biography (250th Birthday Edition)
- By: Lucy Worsley
- Narrated by: Lucy Worsley
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This telling of the story of Jane's life shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the places and spaces that mattered to her. It wasn't all country houses and ballrooms, but a life that was often a painful struggle. Jane famously lived a 'life without incident', but with new research and insights Lucy Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. A woman who far from being a lonely spinster in fact had at least five marriage prospects, but who in the end refused to settle for anything less than Mr Darcy.
-
-
The most fascinating information about Jane and her home.
- By Amazon Customer on 04-04-25
By: Lucy Worsley
-
The Waiting Game
- The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens
- By: Nicola Clark
- Narrated by: Nicola Clark, Karen Cass
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen's ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.
-
-
One of the best!
- By Patt LaPierre on 01-13-25
By: Nicola Clark
-
Sex in the Middle Ages
- By: Jennifer McNabb, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer McNabb
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sex. The word makes some people giggle or blush, while others may draw back in discomfort. So, why do we find it so difficult to talk openly about sex? Much of our reticence in discussing and acknowledging the realities of sex comes, at least in part, from a unique time and place: medieval Europe. In the 12 episodes of Sex in the Middle Ages, Professor Jennifer McNabb and a panel of experts in medieval history and literature will take you back to the period between the fall of Rome and the rise of the Renaissance to explore the ideals and realities of sex and sexuality.
-
-
Confusing
- By Anonymous User on 03-23-24
By: Jennifer McNabb, and others
-
A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England
- By: Sue Wilkes
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immerse yourself in the vanished world inhabited by Jane Austen's contemporaries. Packed with detail and anecdotes, this is an intimate exploration of how the middle and upper classes lived from 1775, the year of Austen's birth, to the coronation of George IV in 1820. Sue Wilkes skillfully conjures up all aspects of daily life within the period, drawing on contemporary diaries, illustrations, letters, novels, travel literature, and archives.
-
-
A fantastic companion to Regency novels
- By Nicole on 07-08-24
By: Sue Wilkes
-
Patient Zero
- A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
- By: Lydia Kang MD, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the masters of storytelling-meets-science, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks—how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written in the authors’ lively style, chapters include gripping medical stories about a particular disease or virus—smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV—that combine “Patient Zero” narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.
-
-
I so VERY much wanted this to be good
- By 20eagle16 on 02-13-25
By: Lydia Kang MD, and others
-
Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune
- How Younger Sons Made Their Way in Jane Austen's England
- By: Rory Muir
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Regency England the eldest son usually inherited almost everything—while his younger brothers, left with little inheritance, had to make a crucial decision: What should they do to make an independent living? Historian Rory Muir weaves together the stories of many obscure and well-known young men of good family but small fortune, shedding light on an overlooked aspect of Regency society. This is the first scholarly yet accessible exploration of the lifestyle and prospects of these younger sons.
By: Rory Muir
-
Jane Austen at Home
- A Biography (250th Birthday Edition)
- By: Lucy Worsley
- Narrated by: Lucy Worsley
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This telling of the story of Jane's life shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the places and spaces that mattered to her. It wasn't all country houses and ballrooms, but a life that was often a painful struggle. Jane famously lived a 'life without incident', but with new research and insights Lucy Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. A woman who far from being a lonely spinster in fact had at least five marriage prospects, but who in the end refused to settle for anything less than Mr Darcy.
-
-
The most fascinating information about Jane and her home.
- By Amazon Customer on 04-04-25
By: Lucy Worsley
-
The Waiting Game
- The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens
- By: Nicola Clark
- Narrated by: Nicola Clark, Karen Cass
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen's ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.
-
-
One of the best!
- By Patt LaPierre on 01-13-25
By: Nicola Clark
-
Sex in the Middle Ages
- By: Jennifer McNabb, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer McNabb
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sex. The word makes some people giggle or blush, while others may draw back in discomfort. So, why do we find it so difficult to talk openly about sex? Much of our reticence in discussing and acknowledging the realities of sex comes, at least in part, from a unique time and place: medieval Europe. In the 12 episodes of Sex in the Middle Ages, Professor Jennifer McNabb and a panel of experts in medieval history and literature will take you back to the period between the fall of Rome and the rise of the Renaissance to explore the ideals and realities of sex and sexuality.
-
-
Confusing
- By Anonymous User on 03-23-24
By: Jennifer McNabb, and others
-
A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England
- By: Sue Wilkes
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immerse yourself in the vanished world inhabited by Jane Austen's contemporaries. Packed with detail and anecdotes, this is an intimate exploration of how the middle and upper classes lived from 1775, the year of Austen's birth, to the coronation of George IV in 1820. Sue Wilkes skillfully conjures up all aspects of daily life within the period, drawing on contemporary diaries, illustrations, letters, novels, travel literature, and archives.
-
-
A fantastic companion to Regency novels
- By Nicole on 07-08-24
By: Sue Wilkes
-
Patient Zero
- A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
- By: Lydia Kang MD, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the masters of storytelling-meets-science, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks—how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written in the authors’ lively style, chapters include gripping medical stories about a particular disease or virus—smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV—that combine “Patient Zero” narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.
-
-
I so VERY much wanted this to be good
- By 20eagle16 on 02-13-25
By: Lydia Kang MD, and others
-
Roctogenarians
- Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs
- By: Mo Rocca, Jonathan Greenberg
- Narrated by: Mo Rocca
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighty has been the new sixty for about twenty years now. In fact, there have always been late-in-life achievers, those who declined to go into decline just because they were eligible for social security. Journalist, humorist, and history buff Mo Rocca and coauthor Jonathan Greenberg introduce us to the people past and present who peaked when they could have been puttering—breaking out as writers, selling out concert halls, attempting to set land-speed records—and in the case of one ninety-year tortoise, becoming a first-time father. (Take that, Al Pacino!)
-
-
Inspiring stories
- By Mo on 05-21-25
By: Mo Rocca, and others
-
The Private Lives of the Tudors
- Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty
- By: Tracy Borman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England's Tudor monarchs - Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I - are perhaps the most celebrated and fascinating of all royal families in history. Their love affairs, their political triumphs, and their overturning of the religious order are the subject of countless works of popular scholarship. But for all we know about Henry's quest for male heirs or Elizabeth's purported virginity, the lives of the Tudor monarchs away from the public eye remain largely beyond our grasp, mostly not chronicled by previous historians.
-
-
The Narration Is Awful
- By Appollo 500 on 10-27-18
By: Tracy Borman
-
The Letters of Jane Austen
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” Jane Austen at her witty, observant, intelligent, and sympathetic best, in this collection of her letters written to family and friends. Compiled by her niece Fanny Knight’s son Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen (the first Baron Brabourne), and edited by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, this collection includes a preface written by the editor and notes from Lord Brabourne. It was originally published in 1892.
-
-
To be in the life of this wonderful writer
- By Yvette Jackson on 02-21-24
By: Jane Austen
-
The Once and Future Sex
- Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society
- By: Eleanor Janega
- Narrated by: Samara Naeymi
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Once and Future Sex, Janega unravels the restricting expectations on medieval women and the ones on women today. She boldly questions why, if our ideas of women have changed drastically over time, we cannot reimagine them now to create a more equitable future.
-
-
Get a Rosalie Gilbert book instead
- By Jennifer Martin on 07-11-23
By: Eleanor Janega
-
Between the Stops
- The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus
- By: Sandi Toksvig
- Narrated by: Sandi Toksvig
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'Between the Stops is a sort of a memoir, my sort. It's about a bus trip really, because it's my view from the Number 12 bus (mostly top deck, the seat at the front on the right), a double-decker that plies its way from Dulwich, in South East London, where I was living, to where I sometimes work - at the BBC, in the heart of the capital. It's not a sensible way to write a memoir at all, probably, but it's the way things pop into your head as you travel, so it's my way'.
-
-
Funny, interesting and enlightening. A must listen.
- By Steve Killingback on 01-05-20
By: Sandi Toksvig
-
Unbecoming a Lady
- The Forgotten Sluts and Shrews That Shaped America
- By: Therese Oneill
- Narrated by: Betsy Foldes Meiman, Chanté McCormick
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Slut. Shrew. Sinful. Scold. The 19th- and early 20th-century American women profiled in this collection were called all these names and worse when they were alive. And that’s just fine. These glorious dames earned those monikers, and one hundred years later they can wear them proudly! With irresistible charm and laugh-out-loud impertinence, New York Times bestselling author Therese Oneill chronicles the lives of eighteen unbecoming ladies whose audacity, courage, and sheer disdain for lady-like expectations left them out of so many history books.
-
-
Ida B Wells
- By Teresa Smith-Dixon on 01-06-25
By: Therese Oneill
-
How to Survive in Medieval England
- By: Toni Mount
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine you were transported back in time to Medieval England and had to start a new life there. Without mobile phones, iPads, internet, and social media networks, when transport means walking or, if you're fortunate, horseback, how will you know where you are or what to do? Where will you live? What is there to eat? What shall you wear? All these questions and many more are answered in this new guidebook for time-travelers. This lively and engaging book will help the listener deal with the new experiences they may encounter and the problems that might occur.
-
-
I love Toni Mount!
- By Kindle Customer on 01-08-25
By: Toni Mount
-
Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life
- By: Lucy Worsley
- Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perhaps one of the best known of the English monarchs, Queen Victoria forever shaped a chapter of English history, bequeathing her name to the Victorian age. In Queen Victoria, Lucy Worsley introduces this iconic woman in a new light. Going beyond an exploration of the queen merely as a monarch, Worsley considers Victoria as a woman leading a truly extraordinary life in a unique time period.
-
-
Gloriana!
- By Karen on 01-21-19
By: Lucy Worsley
-
Women in the Middle Ages
- The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition
- By: Frances Gies, Joseph Gies
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Medieval history is often written as a series of battles and territorial shifts. But the essential contributions of women during this period have been too often relegated to the dustbin of history. In Women in the Middle Ages, Frances and Joseph Gies reclaim this lost history, in a lively historical survey that charts the evolution of women’s roles throughout the period and profiles eight individual women in depth.
-
-
Another great Gies’ title.
- By Michael S. Henderson on 07-09-24
By: Frances Gies, and others
-
The Palace
- From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court
- By: Mr. Gareth Russell
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Architecturally breathtaking and rich in splendid art and décor, Hampton Court Palace has been the stage of some of the most important events in British history, such as the commissioning of King James’s version of the Bible, the staging of many of Shakespeare’s plays, and Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation ball. The Palace takes us on “an entertaining journey into the past” (Kirkus Reviews) as it reveals the ups and downs of royal history and illustrates what was at play politically, socially, and economically at the time.
-
-
Gareth Russell is a true talent
- By clandstu on 12-13-23
-
Embers of the Hands
- Hidden Histories of the Viking Age
- By: Eleanor Barraclough
- Narrated by: Eleanor Barraclough
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In imagining a Viking, a certain image springs to mind: a barbaric warrior, leaping ashore from a longboat, and ready to terrorize the hapless local population of a northern European town. Yet while such characters define our imagination of the Viking Age today, they were in the minority. Instead, in the time-stopping soils, water, and ice of the North, Eleanor Barraclough excavates a preserved lost world, one that reimagines a misunderstood society.
-
-
Author is an excellent reader!
- By K on 02-11-25
-
Wu
- The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God
- By: Jonathan Clements
- Narrated by: Kathleen Li
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empress Wu Zetian (624-705 AD) was the only woman to be the sovereign ruler of imperial China. A teenage concubine of the Tang Emperor Taizong, she seduced his son while the emperor lay dying. Recalled from a nunnery as part of an intricate court power-game, she caused the deaths of two lady rivals, before securing her enthronement as the Emperor Gaozong's consort. She ruled in the name of her husband and two eldest sons, presiding over the pinnacle of the Silk Road, before proclaiming herself the founder of a new dynasty.
-
-
Loved this book!
- By Jessica on 01-21-25