dinner with mr darcy: recipes inspired by the novels and letters of jane austen

Enter Jane Austen’s world through the kitchens and dining rooms of her characters, and her own family.

＂It’s a great idea - a book that you can read as well as cook from, and one that, uniquely, sends you straight back to the novels themselves＂--TelegraphOnline

＂In this charming bit of historical reconstruction, Pen Vogler takes authentic recipes from Austen’s time and updates them for today. You’ll find everything you need to recreate Netherfield Ball in your front room.＂--Kathryn Hughes, The best books on food, The Guardian

Food is an important theme in Austen’s novels, used as a commodity for showing off, as a way of showing kindliness among neighbours, as part of the dynamics of family life, and for comic effect. Dinner with Mr Darcy takes authentic recipes from the period, inspired by the food that features in Austen’s novels and letters, and adapts them for contemporary cooks. The text is interwoven throughout with quotes from the novels, and feature spreads cover some of the key themes of food and eating in Austen’s time, including table arrangements, kitchens and gardens, and servants and service. Whether you are hoping to beguile a single gentleman in possession of a substantial fortune, or you just want to have your own version of the picnic on Box Hill in Emma, you will find updated recipes using easily available ingredients to help you recreate the dishes and dining experiences of Jane Austen’s characters and their contemporaries.

Pen Vogler is the author of Tea with Jane Austen, Dinner with Dickens, and Christmas with Dickens, all published by CICO Books. She writes and reviews on food history for the press, edited Penguin’s Great Food series, and has recreated recipes from the past for BBC Television. She lives in north London.