Austenland: A Novel

by Shannon Hale

Overview

For readers of Waiting for Tom Hanks and Well Met, a “gloriously satisfying” (Glamour) romantic comedy set at a Jane Austen fantasy resort from New York Times bestselling author Shannon Hale. Now a major motion picture starring Keri Russell and produced by Stephenie Meyer.

Jane Hayes is a young New Yorker with a real romantic problem: no man she meets can compare to her one true love-Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort for Austen fanatics, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.

Dressed in empire waist gowns and torn between a sexy gardener and an actor playing the brooding Darcy role, Jane finds herself mastering the rules of etiquette and of the resort's flirtatious games. But when it's time to bid Austenland goodbye, can Jane really leave her fantasies-and the two men who've played into them-behind?

In this addictive, charming, and entirely delightful story, Shannon Hale brings out the Jane Austen obsessive in all of us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596912861
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	06/08/2008
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.12(h) x 0.56(d)
Lexile:	830L (what's this?)

About the Author

Shannon Hale is the Newbery Honor–winning and New York Times bestselling author of the Princess Academy series, The Books of Bayern, Book of a Thousand Days, Dangerous, and the graphic novels Rapunzel's Revengeand Calamity Jack, as well as the Ever After High and Princess in Black series, and the upcoming The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl for Marvel. She also wrote three novels for adults, including Austenland, now a major motion picture starring Keri Russell. She and her husband, the author Dean Hale, have four children and live near Salt Lake City, Utah.

www.shannonhale.com

@HaleShannon

Editorial Reviews

Funny, moving, and a real surprise.” —USA Today

“Gloriously satisfying.” —Glamour

“Adorable! This is the best tribute to obsessed Austen freaks (like me) that I've ever read.” —Stephenie Meyer, New York Times bestselling author of the TWILIGHT series

“An utterly enjoyable tribute.” —Miami Herald

“An homage to Austen… Austenland offers hope that after years of fruitless searching for a companion, just when you're ready to give up on love, it will find you on its own.” —Houston Chronicle

“Allow me to direct you to the best Austen tribute since Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club: Shannon Hale's clever and imaginative Austenland... Hale's charming first book for adults is chick lit with soul. Though there's a laugh on nearly every page—Hale, like Austen, is adept at subtly skewering the ridiculous-there's also the more serious story of a woman learning the difference between fantasy and reality, and discovering that real life can be better than your dreams. Is there a better message for a summer read?” —Bookpage

From the Publisher

Yet another player in the literary parlor game of re-writing Jane Austen. From the dedication to Colin Firth, Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC miniseries, Hale, author of YA novels (River Secrets, 2006, etc.), lets the reader know her tongue is firmly in cheek. Hale's heroine, Jane Hayes, is a single New York professional with a secret passion for Pride and Prejudice-not the novel, but the more over-the-top romantic screen versions, particularly the one starring Firth. Shortly after her Great-Aunt Carolyn discovers Jane's obsession, the old lady conveniently dies, having bequeathed to Jane a three-week stay at Pembrook Park, a fantasy version of a Regency England country estate (modern plumbing, but no cell phones allowed). Temporarily re-christened "Miss Jane Erstwhile," Jane soon finds herself plopped into the center of several Austen novels rolled together. Her fellow guests are the pathetically needy "Miss Charming" and the gentle, genuinely charming "Miss Heartwright." Knowing that the hosts and male guests are clearly actors does not keep Jane from confusing fact with fantasy. As she resists the falseness of the situation, she falls into a contemporary fling with Martin, an actor playing a gardener on the estate, with whom she watches television and makes out. She also finds herself drawn to "Mr. Nobley," a Darcy stand-in. But is it the character being played whom she's attracted to? Or the man playing him? The novel is clever in its depiction of the many ways in which romance can fall away, and Jane is no fool as she attempts to sort out the real from the make-believe. Readers will be as surprised as she is by some of the twists. But ultimately this is a romance novel in which lovers who are meant to be together overcome miscues and misunderstandings before the final clinch. Mindless froth that Austen addicts will love.

Kirkus Reviews