Why use plain words to scold those nearest to you when fancier insults are available? With The Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women, you can clap back at irritating strangers, tiresome guests, bad dates and micromanaging bosses with top-notch snipes from the ultimate literary genius.

Just as effective today as they were two hundred years ago, hold your head high as you deliver the following:

When they won’t stop talking: ‘Let us have the luxury of silence.’

When you colleague asks you to ‘circle back’: ‘I detest jargon of every kind?’

When they post filtered selfies: ‘Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked.’