Austenland: A Novel

Although this is a novel that contains elements of Jane Austen, I differ with some other reviewers. "Austenland" is not trying to be anything more than what the description of this book says it is: a thirty-something woman who wishes she could find a Mr-Darcy/Colin-Firth flesh and blood guy in real life goes to "Austenland", a theme park for people who love Jane Austen's books and want to live the life for a few weeks. The protagonist, Jane, could just as easily be obsessed with the brooding Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky and goes to Imperial-Russialand but this does not mean that the author is riding the coattails of Tolstoy! We are all, perhaps, a bit dotty over Colin Firth's portrayal of Darcy (especially when he looks at Lizzie across the piano as the music swells) but this book, at its core, is a fun story about a young woman who wants to understand herself better.I bought Austenland as a change from a lot of the more serious and historically-themed books I have been buying lately. I needed a break and this fun book did the trick! Jane Hayes, a thirty-something graphic artist in New York is going through the motions of career and life, and has a list of disastrous relationships behind her. She has, in a few words, given up on love, yet an elderly aunt gives her an all-expenses-paid trip to Austenland, a themed vacation in a Regency England country home (minus the chamber pots). She is perhaps obsessed with a Mr Darcy type in her life, and thinks that this is her problem, yet she is a realist when all is said and done, and while wishful of finding a Mr Right, she is really under no illusions that this vacation will provide this.Jane is a talented graphic artist, yet her real love is for art and painting which she abandoned; she is bored with her job and does not like it especially, yet it is a means to an end. She arrives at Austenland with some trepidation, tentatively tests the waters, and then resolutely plunges into the fantasy with both feet, playing as much a part as the hired actors of this fantasy world. Unfortunately, it becomes harder and harder for her to tell what is real and what is not, especially when she thinks her own feelings are at stake. Everyone is playing a game, or are they? The author nicely layers deceit and honesty, on top of more deceit and honesty, and even we the readers are not quite sure about the outcome until the final pages.A cast of wacky, unpleasant, pleasant, and fun characters flesh out the storyline, creating problems and leading to plots within plots. Is Jane really unable to have a decent relationship because she is looking for Darcy? Or do her problems have nothing to do with the Darcy fantasy and she is merely a magnet for awful guys? Jane eventually pulls everything together, likes herself a lot better, understands herself even more, and the ending will bring a smile to your face.I recently heard that this book has been made into a film that debuted at Sundance and has not only J J Feild(who played a great Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey) but also the hysterically funny Jennifer Coolidge who plays Lizzie Charming ("what! what! Tallyho! Cheerios!) and has some of the best lines from the book. It should be a fun movie!

Shannon Hale's Austenland was the sort of book that made me start thinking about who I'd recommend it to as soon as I finished it. It also made me smile every time I thought of it for at least a week.Initially, the book description caused me to have fairly low expectations. I expected it to be fluffier than my usual read. I like very few spin offs on the work of established authors. Though Austenland was clearly inspired by Austen's work, it was also a completely contemporary story. On the one hand, that made it way more acceptable to me than a costume drama dealing with the fringes of the Darcy/Bennett menage; on the other, it could easily have incorporated all the worst excesses of ze dreaded chick lit. In my few encounters with the genre, it seemed to be populated by women characters who repeatedly and unnecessarily embarrass themselves and me as well. Yet, in spite of the potentially cringe-worthy set-up, Austenland manages to avoid this particular pit-fall.Our heroine, Jane Hayes admits at the outset that she is besotted with Austen's work, especially Pride and Prejudice, and most particularly with Mr. Darcy as portrayed by Colin Firth. Plagued with a series of unfortunate relationships, she despairs of ever meeting her own Mr. Darcy. An elderly and understanding relative stages a posthumous intervention by bequeathing Jane an all expense paid trip to Penwood, an Austenesque fantasy vacation destination in England. Jane decides to accept her great aunt's challenge before subsiding into resigned spinsterhood.Austenland is told from Jane's point of view, though not in the first person, and it is Jane's honesty, her confusion, and her dry wit that make this book work. As a character and as an observer of others, Jane seeks understanding of her own obsessions and of her companions' roles and motivation. And Jane is funny. More than once I was startled into the dreaded snort-laugh, but it was always with Jane not at her. Nor is Jane the only source of humor in the novel. Just the names given the role players is enough to stain a page with droplets of coffee. Mrs. Wattlesbrook, Miss Charming, and, best of all, Mr. Nobley. (Now is that "o" long or short?) Miss Charming, in particular, has some snicker-worthy lines. Aside from their names and dialogue, each character gives Jane's powers of observation a lively workout and proves her a worthy reflection of her namesake.It is clear from the beginning that Penwood is not to be the full immersion experience that Jane expects. As Jane Erstwhile, she is equipped with an appropriate wardrobe and given a whirlwind tour of the rules and regs, but her accommodations are not primitively historic. This layering of the authentic with the frankly faux causes Jane to constantly question the nature of truth and fantasy, and she finds that sorting one from the other is hard. Yet this constant drive to analyze her experiences is what eventually leads Jane to change and grow.The tale of Jane's adventures is punctuated with brief accounts of each of her failed romances. While some of these episodes are indeed embarrassing, I don't think any of them reaches the squirmiest depths of humiliation. Instead, one tends to empathize with Jane and look for patterns that aren't necessarily there. I found that the sum effect of these interludes was to make me root for Jane all the more strongly. In the present, Jane at first looks within herself to find the source of her failures, until her experiences finally lead her to seek and acknowledge her strengths as well.. And, of course, the whole Austenland experience is fraught with hints and teasing suggestions of romance. Jane struggles to find the balance between autonomy and romance throughout the story. For Jane and the reader alike, the big question regarding romance as well as every other aspect of Austenland remains: Is it real; is it illusion; or is it perhaps just wishful thinking? The answer....Well, of course, I'm not giving the answer. I'll just refer you to my first paragraph and say that I read the last chapter three times. And smiled.

I purchased this book because I have the film on repeat. I love it - great casting, and it even has the satirical social commentary that Austen was renowned for. Unfortunately within the first few chapters, it's apparent the book is very different, from the origin of her ticket to the experience right down to the guests who are her companions. I struggled and eventually gave up - it's currently languishing on my shelf with a few more books I will pick up at a later date.

I am a Jane Austen fan, read everything she wrote, enjoy the adaptations. So, I could not have pass on the opportunity to read "Austenland" after I watched the film by the same name."Austenland" the film is somewhat enjoyable, and occasionally funny. The book, while being different from the film (not so funny, I thought), still provided light entertainment (alas, there was no Jennifer Coolidge). The whole Jane Austen and Mr Darcy obsession of the main character felt completely believable to me, yet the flimsiness and silliness of heroine when it came to men in her life spoiled the book for me. Same with the romance - there was really no believable chemistry between the leads, but a lot of sentimental gibberish sprinkled with weak attempts at regency. I think the idea of "Austenland" retreat sound good when thought of and discussed, but was not executed to its full potential. The whole actors playing falling in love with rich ladies who pay money to wear Nineteenth century dresses felt somewhat surreal to me...It is not a classic, it's not Jane Austen, it's not an attempt at a regency novel, but a typical chicklit book sprinkled with regency drama, a very light entertainment. Do not expect a vivid historic drama or a heart-breaking love story. That said, it's only 208 pages long and the cover is exquisitely designed. I would not mind checking out the second book of the series.

I came upon this book after hearing about the film that has been made of it, currently on limited release in cinemas, but (from what I hear) likely to move fairly swiftly to DVD. The story sounds intriguing: a modern-day American going to a (fictional) Jane Austen themepark. Well, in the book at any rate it's not really a theme park; it's an exclusive country house populated by actors where a very small number of Jane Austen obsessives can live out their Regency gentleman-related fantasies.It's all very proper, but also quite fake, and mildly comic. A good deal of the fun and confusion comes from not knowing when characters are acting and when they are sincere, and from the reality of the present day continuously showing through the Regency veneer. But it's an escapist romance within an escapist romance, so the ultimate payoff of the book isn't too hard to imagine. It's frothy and light, and good fun without being at all taxing. I'm not sure I'd want to read any more of the series (yes, there are sequels), but as a standalone novel, it was good fun.I listened to the  American audiobook version , which comes on 5 CDs in cardboard packaging. It's read by Katherine Kellgren, who is a New Yorker but who studied at RADA, and who manages to switch between American and British accents without any apparent trouble (although Martin's Bristol/Sheffield working class accent is more than a bit of a pastiche). It's a spirited reading, giving about 6 and a half hours of listening - more than enough to keep you amused on a trip from London to Edinburgh. American audiobook version

I bought this as a rainy day distraction on Kindle and almost read it in one sitting. Austenland is a deceptively light and easy read. I say deceptive, because it's a great idea for a story, cleverly written with some lovely descriptive writing at times which makes storytelling seem easy, when I'm sure it was rather painstakingly crafted.The idea of a Jane Austen immersion experience, like an extended murder mystery weekend, is a clever one, from which evocative scenes flowed, full of supressed desires and battles of wit between well-drawn and often conniving characters. I loved Mrs Wattlesbrook, and her harsh dictatorship style of management, it was the anchor which made the rest of the book believable. Miss Charming was a great comic character who could have been incredibly annoying, but instead was funny and engaging.The main character Jane, whilst somewhat stereotypical of the Thirty-Something-Girl-About-Town-Addicted-To-Chocolate-But-Oh-Dear,-Still-Can't-Find-Mr-Right cliche, manages to be very likeable with a wit which sometimes indeed could match Elizabeth Bennett. I get so tired sometimes of the same old neurotic heroines who panic hourly over men and shoes, but was surprised to find I really liked both the real Jane and Jane Erstwhile, her Austen alterego.It takes great skill to make a vastly entertaining book out of three weeks of doing ostensibly nothing, but Shannon Hale manages it with aplomb and without too much repetition. The details of dress and food etc. were interesting, especially for Austen fans, as those books have little or no such information.This is chick lit as it should be. The characters might be instantly recognisable, but the idea is fresh and it's well written. True, there are one or two things that might jar the reader briefly out of the story, but they're minor, and the vast majority of non-UK readers wouldn't notice them at all.I look forward to seeing the movie later this year, although I'm aware that some of the sparkle of the novel, running like a seam through the narrative - sometimes just in the way words are beautifully put together - will likely be lost.

I decided to read this after adoring the film (it took me a shameful amount of time to realise there was a book). It is a pleasant book to sit back, read and get lost in but the film does pad out some areas that certainly help the story along. I won’t spoil anything of anyone that plans to read this or watch the film but I do prefer the adaptation to its source material.You will have to know a bit about Austen and her books to get all of the references that are continually thrown out (Although if you’re not an Austen fan why would you be reading this?).Certainly worth a read though.