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    Austenland: A Novel
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    Austenland: A Novel
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    Austenland: A Novel
    Ebook245 pages3 hours

    Austenland: A Novel

    By Shannon Hale

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    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.

    Editor's Note

    For lovers of Darcy...

    A hilarious romp through the world of Austen-obsession, and recently adapted into a film, the story of Jane and her quest for Austenesque love will resonate with anyone who’s found the Darcys of the world in short supply.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateAug 10, 2010
    ISBN9781596919952
    Author

    Shannon Hale

    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

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    Reviews for Austenland

    3.5/5

    1,299 ratings144 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This was as silly as expected, but enjoyable as a light story to listen to as I drift off to sleep. It's a bit of a Mary Sue story of a rabid fan of the Pride & Prejudice mini-series who is bequeathed a vacation at an exclusive resort that reproduces the settings of Austen's novels with actors and costumes and pseudonyms.

    • 4/5
      I am a huge Austen fan. I haven't even gotten around to reading all of her work yet (I will very soon!) but she's one of my favourites. I will probably pick up anything with Austen's name on it and thankfully there are lots of spin offs out there! Some better than others, of course. I think Austenland was definitely one of the better ones. I think it managed to find its own unique style instead of trying to strive to be as Austen-like as possible.

      Jane Hayes has a secret obsession: Pride and Prejudice. She is obsessed with it to the point of it hindering her life. For Jane, nothing in the real world ever lives up to what she sees as the idyllic life of Elizabeth Bennet. When her aunt dies, she leaves Jane something rather unusual in her will. Jane gets to visit a place that imitates Austen's time period and consists of actors roleplaying as various characters. I loved this idea and was interested to see where it would go. From the minute Jane steps in to this place, it's obvious that's it's not really her kind of thing and that she's not going to have such an easy time acting out the life she's been wishing for all these years.

      I thought the idea was well executed and I really enjoyed Jane's stay at the resort. I found that even I was fooled several times over who was acting and who was real! I can't imagine how weird it would have felt to be Jane. She couldn't do the acting thing but kept forgetting that everybody else could. I found a lot of the interactions of the characters really entertaining and overall, the book was a pleasure to read. It did get a bit stale at parts with too much description and not enough talking or events but other than that, I really enjoyed it and I'm really looking forward to the second book, Midnight in Austenland!

      This review first appeared here on my blog.
    • 2/5
      Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.I had incredibly high hopes (okay, not incredibly, but they were up there) for this novel, but it seemed to fall flat for me. It was cute in a way, but it was hard to relate to Jane, our heroine, on her journey of self-discovery and determination to rid herself of a fantasy she could never hope to achieve. The idea of Austenland, a place where you can play at being in the Regency-era seems fun, but it came across as boring and stuffy, nothing like I expected. Not even Jane's adventures throughout could have brought this to life for me.
    • 2/5
      A cute and quick read for a filler, ie. potato chip snack.

      Jane received a prepaid package from her Great-Aunt's will. Jane takes this vacation to England at Pembrook Park to live out her fascination with Mr. Darcy. or maybe it's to break the fascination. Jane can't decide and flip flops through her vacation.

      She will give up men, she will not give up men. My question; why does it have to be all or nothing? Why can't she make better decisions?
    • 2/5
      I'm disappointed with this book by Shannon Hale as I usually enjoy her offerings, but this was too light and fluffy for my taste and, on the whole, Jane just annoyed me.
    • 5/5
      A must for anyone who loves Mr. Darcy as much as me...or the heroine of this novel!
    • 3/5
      Frankly, I have trouble coming up with much more of a reaction than "eh" for this one. The reader was good, though.
    • 2/5
      Latest in a long line of “OMG I love P&P with Colin Firth he’s SOOO hot” chick lit novels for both teenagers and adults. This is nominally for adults, though nothing in it wouldn’t be appealing to the YA crowd. It was fine, as far as it went, but it suffered from a problem I generally have with chick lit novels, namely that I find the main characters to be unbearable, neurotic, status-obsessed clones of Meg Ryan from, uh, about a dozen Nora Ephron films. I gather that the neuroticism over men and babies is supposed to be funny and relateable, but I do not relate and I didn’t crack a smile. On the other hand, what woman hasn’t imagined what she’d be like back in the time of Jane Austen? The central conceit of the novel is extremely clever. In brief: there are exclusive resorts for very rich women, where for three weeks they get to dress in period clothing, sleep in period housing, and interact with gorgey actors who are pitch-perfect period men. They also, of course, get to conduct clandestine affairs with these men, who have been trained in their personality types and know exactly how to fulfill their fantasies. The main character in Austenland is so obsessed with Mr. Darcy-as-Colin-Firth, that she goes there (via a gift from a rich aunt) as a kind of detox to try to get over the obsession so she can like regular men again. But of course…well, you don’t need a crystal ball to guess how it’s going to turn out. Amusingly enough, Hale is so much better at the period interactions than the modern ones, that I only ever really bought the romance when the main characters were acting their roles. And can I just say: much as I adore the BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice (and believe me, adore is the word) the novel is BETTER. Much better. Without the biting, mocking tone of the narrator, the absurdities of the characters can be glossed over. It edges closer to soap opera than social satire. Why can’t people just appreciate the damn book?! Ahem.
    • 5/5
      When Jane's aunt dies, she receives a gift of a 3 week vacation to Pembrook Park (a mansion and grounds with actors playing our regency romances of 1816). Will Jane completely lose herself in this world, or will she be cured of her addiction to Jane Austen novels and especially Mr. Darcy of Pride & Prejudice. Jane has real trouble in modern life trying to find a man that lives up to Mr. Darcy, so when she enters this make believe world, she struggles trying to find out if she is truly falling in love, or is it all just an act....As an aside, I listened to the audiobook with Katherine Kellgren as the reader. She did an excellent job of pulling you along with a fine dramatic reading.
    • 4/5
      33 year old Jane is obsessed with Colin Firth's Mr Darcy. Much to her embarrassment, her great aunt Catherine knows it. When Catherine bequeaths Jane a three week holiday at Pembrook Park, she decides this might just be the way to get over Mr Darcy, and men in general, for good. Her three weeks in Kent, England pretending to live in the time of Austen, isn't exactly what she thought it would be. But boy, isn't it fun?YES! The story had me laughing out loud. Modern Jane just isn't cut out to live in Regency England, but she definitely tries.
    • 5/5
      Imagine being able to spend three weeks in the time of your favorite book. This is exactly what happens to Jane Hayes, the main character of Shannon Hale's Austenland. Jane in her early 30s, single and is secretly obsessed with the books of Jane Austen, most particularly Pride and Prejudice. Unfortunately because of this, she compares every man she meets to Austen's hero, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. When her great aunt comes to visit, Jane is very embarrassed when her secret is discovered. Actually, she should be grateful for this development because it leads to an all-expense-paid three week trip to an exclusive Regency Era estate. This estate, Pembrooke Park, allows clients to experience life as they would have in the regency era. The question is, will Jane find her Mr. Darcy or give up on men forever?I enjoyed the book Austenland because I also enjoy the books of Jane Austen. This book was intriguing and makes me wish there was really a place like Pembrooke Park to visit so that I could go back and experience life in a different time. I think it would be fun to wear long dresses, to live in a large estate, to take long walks each day and to look forward to attending balls. I also think that expectations for relationships were better in the Regency Era because the men were more respectful of women; for example, in the Regency Era you had to be married before kissing someone but in modern times most people have had their first kiss before going to high school - way before thinking about marriage! Another reason I like this book was that it was an easy read that didn't take long. The characters seemed very real even though some of them were actors and weren't all they appeared to be. Finally, it was clear that finding someone who has the same expectations for love has never been easy but it is possible.
    • 3/5
      Before pronouncing my "this book was sort of lame" review here on LT, I wanted to see what others had said. Turns out I wasn't too far off the mark. The jacket made it sound SO interesting...and then the plot was only "eh." I liked the blurbs on Jane's past boyfriends that happened at the beginning of chapters--some were funny. And a few of the lines just stuck with me. But other than that, it was only so-so. I've never read anything else of Hale's, but this makes me hesitant to ever do so. It's a nice book for a quick, fluffy read, but doesn't encompass the scope of the time period as well as other Austenite authors have. But I did enjoy it...for what it was worth.
    • 4/5
      Always enjoy Hale's writing style, easy flowing stories and humour. Good reading while stuck in PhD land. Just go with the flow for the ending. I had to remind myself this is not non-fiction but fiction and it's fun, so go with the flow!
    • 4/5
      A young, single, successful American woman finds Mr Darcy so perfect that it seems to get in the way of any real-life relationships she has. A wise old aunt intuits Jane's (yes, the heroine's name is Jane) obsession and leaves Jane a trip to Austenland in her will. At Austenland (on some estate somewhere in England), guests act the part of Regency-era English well-offs on a visit to a country estate. Guests dress in Regency clothes, attempt to speak Regency dialogue, and interact with actors who people the estate with servants, residents, and other visitors. Jane's not sure what lesson old auntie hoped she'd learn at Austenland, but she decides to treat it as one last fanciful hurrah before giving up on men and relationships altogether. Of course, it doesn't turn out that way, though I will say no more so as not to spoil stuff and things.A fun premise, but one that works better, perhaps, as a premise than as a story. Jane has difficulty sorting what's real from what's not while at Austenland. When everyone around you is playing a part, how can you ever know where you stand? This might have been the most compelling aspect of the novel if it weren't for the fact that I could never tell how I was meant to react to the rest of the characters. I had no idea whether I was supposed to suspect certain of the actors of developing real feelings for the guests or not (and neither did Jane). This constant wrong-footedness, if it had been handled superbly, could have made this an excellent novel about fantasy and reality, how they intertwine, and how fiction plays into that tangle. But, as written, it was more confusing than enlightening.Still, an enjoyable read on the whole, and I will always give points for a neat premise even if the execution is not perfect. Austenland is one of the few books I've ever read that I thought from the start would work better as a movie, and I'm looking forward to the coming film version (and fingers crossed all the negative reviews I've seen are the results of critics who just have their panties on a little too tight.)
    • 2/5
      I met Shannon Hale at an author reading for this book, though I only went to get my copy of The Goose Girl signed. I knew this book would be classic chick lit, straight women's romantic fantasies, and it even had a glowing recommendation from Stephenie Meyer on the back cover. So it wasn't really a surprise upon reading that it wasn't really my sort of book. Nevertheless, the beginning was interesting, and there were bits here and there where the main character had a glimmer of a personality — like when she rediscovers her love of painting. But all in all, boring — and kind of sickening, the sexist tropes of ~romance~, which I guess is why I usually don't read this genre.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful! Hale's light prose touch and gift for creating rounded, irresistible characters is on full display. This is so much more than a parody of or answer to Austen's oeuvre -- probably enjoyable by readers who have not themselves ever read Austen! I was surprised by how engaging the mystery plot turned out to be, and by how deliciously suspenseful and satisfying the romance plot turned out to be. Genuinely masterful.
    • 3/5
      5 stars for the idea, but only 3 stars for the execution. I actually had a good time reading it, I think mainly because the idea of the book tickled my fancy. However, looking back after I finished the book, I realized that the writing wasn't anything amazing. The main character's internal monologue seemed a little scatterbrained. I didn't get overly invested in any of her relationships at Austenland. The whole experience itself wasn't as magical as I had hoped :(. If you're looking for some nice fluff, give it a shot. It's fun if you don't expect much from it.
    • 5/5
      This book was just lovely on cd. Jane gets a trip to fairy tale land to look for her mr. darcy.
    • 3/5
      What Austen-a-holic in her right mind wouldn't want to spend a few weeks courting Mr. Darcy Regency-style at an estate straight out of the pages of Pride and Prejudice? Jane Hayes isn't so sure. When her great-aunt Carolyn dies leaving Jane an all-expenses paid three week vacation back in time to Regency era England, Jane doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Carolyn had discovered Jane's deepest, darkest secret: she is obsessed with the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, and with Colin Firth himself, the Mr. Darcy.Of course Jane decides to go to Pembrook Park, hoping to channel her inner Elizabeth Bennet, and maybe to eliminate her obsession and live in the real world. In England, as re-invented Regency lady of leisure Miss Jane Erstwhile, she will discover something special about herself, and about the benefit and power of infatuation.Shannon Hale's Austenland is one of the funniest, most clever books I have read all year. As I'm sure you can tell from my synopsis above, it is an utterly frivolous novel - a true "beach-read" type of book. That being said, Jane's adventures in Austenland are completely charming and hilarious. The delightful cast of characters in this light hearted novel are laugh-out-loud-funny, and the banter between them is authentically Austen-esque.Now for the one thing I didn't particularly like about Austenland... At the beginning of each section in the book, Hale adds a little blurb about Jane's past boyfriends. For me, these took away from the story rather than adding anything to it. I didn't see a point to the information, and it didn't really have any bearing on Jane's adventures in Austenland. All in all, Austenland is light, sassy, and enchanting, with engaging, witty dialog, and brilliant pacing. I would define this whimsical novel as the ultimate in guilty pleasure reading - satisfying in a positively scrumptious way.
    • 4/5
      A light, fun romance set in a traditional Austen setting - for the most part. The plot device (an Austen "spa" of sorts) works well most of the time and the ending was hilarious, sweet, and bit corny all mixed together.
    • 3/5
      Very silly, a little cringeworthy in places, but did make me laugh out loud quite a lot. And I didn't guess the ending. Perfect for a light, mindless read.
    • 4/5
      After several heavy books in a row, this was the perfect piece of sugary fluff to lighten my view on the world. I whipped through it in a couple of hours and laughed out loud at several places. Jane (what a fitting name, right?) is obsessed with the Colin Firth representation of Mr. Darcy and finds that she can't settle down with any "regular" men because they just don't measure up. But, let's be honest; who does? Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy is bound to go down in history as the sexiest literary portray EVER. But, back to the book, Jane's eccentric rich aunt leaves her a surprise in her will: a three week vacation to Pembrook Park. The Park is a theme-vacation catering to rich, Austen-obsessed women. At the park they can live out their romantic dreams all while dressed in period costume. I'll leave it to you to discover how Jane's fortune plays out. Read it!! It's so fun.
    • 1/5
      Love Jane Austen's novels, love the movies, really didn't like this book. The writing itself is kind of sloppy, even purplish at times; it made it difficult to get into the narrative because I kept getting pulled up by metaphors that seem to exist only to call attention to themselves rather than bring an image clearly to mind. Then there are the contradictions: "The day was gray, and patchy rain nudged ("nudged"??) the carriage roof...the sky cerulean blue." Sorry, can't have a cerulean blue sky when it's raining enough to "nudge" the carriage roof. The misuse of the word "literally" was also irritating: "...how could the actor keep up the virtual drinking and not get literally toasted?" The book isn't well-researched. With much emphasis put on period correct Rules, there are several which anyone familiar with Austen's novels would know are simply wrong. Capt. East, Jane, et al, allowing Miss Heartwright to walk back to the house, ill, unescorted? Nonsense.But most of all, the book seems ultimately to support the very thing it is supposed to argue against: that the fantasy man, the Mr. Darcy, will appear in our heroine's life, fall madly in love with her, etc. That is so obviously what "Mr. Nobley" is intended to be. While at one point, Jane seems to be getting on with life, saying that she needs to learn to be comfortable in her independence, being by herself, she then seems to decide that what would be best is to be comfortable being alone LATER, after she's gone ahead and seen if she can attract the attentions of the gentlemen at Pembrook Park. The whole theme of independence and self-sufficiency is lost in the very contrived ending, one that seems more to support Lydia-like behavior rather than Elizabeth's. While one of the plot twists is interesting, it just isn't something that I feel the Austen fan--of both the novels and the movies--would enjoy.Of course, it IS a quick read, so if you take it on, you won't lose much time.
    • 4/5
      What a fun book, overall! The idea of Austenland is for Austen fans what Renaissance Fairs are for geeks like me. Not that I wouldn't enjoy Austenland too! This is a cute chick book that I think any fan of Austen should enjoy. Really left me wanting to read the sequel. I did feel like the end was maybe a little too romantic-comedyish, but otherwise I really have no complaints. No sex scenes or gratuitous swearing, which I appreciated, and I think Jane Austen would have, as well. Nice, light entertaining read.
    • 3/5
      I'm usually a big Shannon Hale fan so I had very high hopes for this book. It was entertaining, it made me laugh regularly, but it just wasn't up to the level I've come to expect from Hale. I will probably read the sequel eventually, but more because I want to watch the movie and I've heard it's a good mix of both books than because this book compels me to continue the story. 3 stars. If you want to try Hale, don't start with this one. The Goose Girl or Book of a Thousand Days are phenomenal!
    • 3/5
      Hale’s foray into the Austenmania literature has a clever beginning:"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a thirty-something woman in possession of a satisfying career and fabulous hairdo must be in want of very little, and Jane Hayes, pretty enough and clever enough, was certainly thought to have little to distress her."The heroine of this story, however, Jane Hayes, age 33, does indeed have distress in her life. She is so fixated on the virtues of the fictional Mr. Darcy as played by Colin Firth that no man she meets in real life can measure up. Her rich great-aunt conceives of a way to “cure” her by immersion, and bequeaths her a paid three-week vacation at Pembrook Park outside of London. This is not only an Austen theme park – attendees must actually participate, by dressing, talking, and acting as if they were living in 19th-Century Regency England.Jane receives an appropriate wardrobe for her stay, does needlepoint, plays whist, and goes for walks, all in the company of some other ladies who have paid for the vacation and a number of men acting very much like Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley, and others of Austen’s creation.Jane, feeling foolish, tries to go “off script,” but no one will humor her in this; they simply act like they don’t understand what she is saying. Still, it’s hard to know who is acting and who isn’t. In fact, Jane’s whole history of dating has been characterized by not knowing when something is “real” or not. And now, she is facing the ultimate test of reality discrimination.Discussion: I don’t think it will be spoilery to tell you that in the end, there is a blending of fantasy and reality in way satisfactory to the heroine. But this sort of bothered me. Wasn’t the whole point of this exercise for her to figure out how to find happiness outside the fantasy box?There was also a bit too much by Jane of “should I act the part or am I being an idiot?” She vacillates back and forth, chapter by chapter, and it can be tiresome.Evaluation: Criticisms aside, I enjoy reading the Jane Austen take-offs, especially when I'm looking for a light read.
    • 3/5
      Austenland by Shannon Hale - ok

      Non-challenging piece of fluffy chic-lit. Whiled away a day at my Dad's when I really wanted distraction without having to think.

      I believe they've just made a film of it - I'll be giving it a miss!
    • 3/5
      A short and light read, Austenland is the perfect pick me up for a Jane Austen fan. The main character is brave and funny as she tries to get over her Pride and Prejudice fantasies by literally living through them. I felt the end was a little too predictable but fit well with the scope of the story. Overall, there were some really humorous scenes and crazy characters that made me laugh out loud and not want to put the book down.
    • 3/5
      I thought this book was so-so. A girl can't find a man to measure up to her Mr. Darcy fantasy. Her aunt leaves her a vacation to a fantasy park where you can pretend to live in a Regency environment. Fun ensues. Fluff, and the ending didn't work for me.
    • 1/5
      This was one of the few books I've had to put down before finishing it. In this case, I couldn't even get halfway through it before abandoning the whole thing.Previously, I have enjoyed Shannon Hale's books. So I decided to pick this one up even though it didn't fall into the same category as the Goose Girl or Princess Academy. After all, her writing style was quality. But this was really unenjoyable. The main character, aptly named Jane, is unlikable and whiny, so filled with herself that you wonder if there's room for romance.To make matters worse is the weird factor of her obsession. She's not an Austen buff, and not even really interested in anything other than Mr. Darcy as played by Collin Firth. It makes her desire to submerse herself in Austen's world that much more unbelievable.The "Austenland" itslf is awkward and not much fun. It's stiff and there are too few characters to get any real enjoyment out of. Finally, Hale's writing here seems lackluster. Many sentences are clunky and obtuse, and you don't feel any sense of urgency or even vague interest towards the characters. Unless you've got a Jane Austen fetish, I recommend passing on this one. And if you simply must try it, get it from the library.