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Read a Q&A with author Laurie Viera Rigler about Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

Q. What are some of the most glaring examples of culture shock that your heroine experiences in the 21st century?

The most practical way to answer that question would be in the voice of my protagonist, Jane Mansfield (no relation to the 1950s screen siren). Here is a list of what certain things meant in 1813, and what they mean today:

TAKING A DRIVE, 1813:
Something one does in a carriage pulled by horses which may attain a speed as great as 12 miles per hour. The expense of maintaining such a conveyance is considerable, requiring as it does a stable and feed for the horses and wages for the groom and coachman.

TAKING A DRIVE, 2009:
Something one does in an oddly shaped and astonishingly fast equipage known as a car, which requires neither horse nor groom but does, however, consume something even costlier than hay.

READING, 1813:
Something one does between the pages of a book.

READING, 2009:
Although some do still take pleasure in turning the pages of a book, most appear to prefer sitting before a shiny glass box in which tiny figures act out scenes from books.

CALLER, 1813:
Someone who visits one in person and at prescribed hours of the day, leaving a calling card with one's footman, who informs the caller as to whether his mistress is at home and able to receive callers. Fifteen minutes is a respectable length of time for a morning call, unless one is most strenuously pressed to stay.

CALLER, 2009:
Someone who sends messages or engages one in conversation at any hour he pleases, by means of an annoying yet curiously indispensible machine known as a phone. The phone has not only replaced the servant, it has obviated the need to be in the presence of one's conversational partner, resulting in the diverting sight of a great many of the populace strolling about whilst gesturing and talking as if to the air.

DANCING, 1813:
Something done with elegance and grace, to dulcet music which allows for conversation with one's partner. The dance takes place in longways sets of ladies attired in gloves and gowns and gentlemen in coats and neck cloths. A lady may not dance with a gentleman unless he has been properly introduced to her by a trusted friend, or by the master of ceremonies in the assembly rooms.

DANCING, 2009:
Something done with wild flailing of arms and legs and hips to music which is so ear-shatteringly loud that it vibrates one's very frame. Woman and men (for I dare not say ladies and gentlemen) wear as little as possible to such assemblies; bare limbs and unbound hair are considered unexceptionable. Any gentleman may approach any lady and, without so much as an attempt at introduction, begin strutting about in some savage approximation of a dance.

PARTICULAR ATTENTION, 1813:
When a single gentleman engages a young lady for the first two dances at a ball and then asks her to stand up with him again, pays regular visits to her mother and father, contrives to sit by her at dinner, and has little conversation for anyone else. After several such meetings, the lady and all her friends will, not unreasonably, expect an offer of marriage to soon follow. Until such time, the only expression of regard the lady may make is to offer the gentleman her hand to shake.

PARTICULAR ATTENTION, 2009:
Blatant and public flirtation, kissing, and even what has become known as "hooking up," a term which brings to mind being lured to one's death, like a fish. Though a man may appear to have symptoms of being violently in love prior to satisfying his carnal lusts, a lady may entertain no matrimonial expectations afterwards. In that respect, things have not changed at all since 1813.