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Austenland: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Shannon Hale (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 3,031 ratings

Book 1 of 2: Austenland

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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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 32-year-old singleton Jane Hayes's mind, no man in the world can measure up to Fitzwilliam Darcy—specifically the Fitzwilliam played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Jane is forced to confront her Austen obsession when her wealthy great-aunt Carolyn dies and leaves her an all-expenses-paid vacation to Pembrook Park, a British resort where guests live like the characters in Jane's beloved Austen novels. Jane sees the trip as an opportunity for one last indulgence of her obsession before she puts it "all behind her—Austen, men, fantasies, period," but the lines between reality and fiction become pleasantly blurred as Jane acclimates to the world of Spencer jackets and stringent etiquette rules, and finds herself torn between the Darcyesque Mr. Nobley and a forbidden tryst with Pembrook Park's gardener. Though the narrative is endlessly charming, Jane is convincing neither as a sarcastic single girl nor as a romantic idealist, and the supporting cast is underdeveloped. Nods to Austen are abundant in contemporary women's fiction, and an intriguing setup and abundant wit are not enough to make this one stand out. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—Thirty-three-year-old Jane Hayes, who has a fairly serious addiction to the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice, inherits a trip to Pembrook Park, Kent, England, the location of a resort where guests dress, talk, think, and act in ways that Jane Austen would approve. Refusing to lie about her age, even on vacation in a place right out of Austen's England, Jane finds herself quickly overcoming the obsession with Mr. Darcy that may very well have jeopardized her 13 "relationships" over the years. Left to walk in last to dinner, mildly obsessed with one of the hotel's gardeners, and annoyed by another guest's overeager attempts to bag a man, Jane is eager to return to Manhattan. Then she decides to give it all one more chance, since Great-Aunt Carolyn did see fit to pay for the entire vacation. Hale does a lovely job with the tale of a single woman who would appreciate a genuine shot at love. The book is well written, quite readable, and the myriad characters, especially those working at the resort, are quirkily funny. Given the immense popularity of Jane Austen's novels among teen girls, this book definitely has cross-over appeal.—Sarah Krygier, Solano County Library, Fairfield, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Suppose you're a huge fan of Jane Austen, and in particular Pride and Prejudice and in particular Colin Firth's portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the BBC adaptation, and nothing in real life quite measures up. And suppose your great-aunt's legacy to you is a three-week vacation at an Austen-themed resort. This is the situation in which Jane Hayes, New York graphic artist, finds herself. Pembrook Park is a kind of Austen Fantasy Island where the female guests are required to dress, speak, eat, and in every way conduct themselves like heroines in Austen's novels, with actors filling out the roles of eligible suitors. Jane, called Miss Erstwhile for the duration of her stay, tries to get used to corsets and other Regency amusements while sorting out whether the attentions of a Darcyesque Mr. Nobley, not to mention a good-looking gardener, are sincere or part of the show. A clever confection for fans of contemporary Austen knockoffs. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"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

About the Author

Shannon Hale is the author of five young adult novels published by Bloomsbury: The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, Book of a Thousand Days, and the Newbery Honor–winning New York Times bestseller Princess Academy. She is at work on another adult novel, and she and her husband will together publish a graphic novel in 2008. They live with their son and daughter in Salt Lake City, Utah.

From AudioFile

Well known for writing clever twists on fairy tales for young adults, the author has written her first adult story. Aficionados will connect with the many allusions to Jane Austens works in this modern-day story of 33-year-old Jane Hayes, who is frustrated in love and longing for an Austen-like romance. When her Aunt Carolyn wills her a three-week stay at Pembroke Park, an Austen role-playing theme park, Jane starts by seeking a Mr. Darcy and ends by realizing that her present reality holds more promise than the fictional past. Katherine Kellgren characterizes British-accented gentlemen and women as they indulge in a Regency lifestyle. As Jane, she expresses the passions of a young woman trying to make sense of life and love. S.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00422LESO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA; 1st edition (August 10, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 10, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1738 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 209 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #253,294 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,516 in Clean & Wholesome Romance (Kindle Store)
- #4,601 in Clean & Wholesome Romance (Books)
- #9,230 in Contemporary Romance Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.2 3,031 ratings

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Shannon Hale

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New York Times best selling author Shannon Hale started writing books at age ten and never stopped, eventually earning an MFA in Creative Writing. After nineteen years of writing and many rejections, she published The Goose Girl, the first in her award-winning Books of Bayern series. She has since published 40 books for young readers including the Newbery Honor winner Princess Academy and its two sequels; multiple award winner Book of a Thousand Days; and graphic novel memoirs Real Friends, Best Friends, and Friends Forever (with LeUyen Pham). With frequent collaborator LeUyen Pham, she created the adorable Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn picture book series. Her novels for the adult crowd include Austenland (now a major motion picture starring Keri Russell). Shannon and her husband Dean Hale have collaborated on several projects, such as Eisner-nominee Rapunzel's Revenge (with Nathan Hale); early chapter book series The Princess in Black (with LeUyen Pham); two novels about the unbeatable Marvel superhero Squirrel Girl; and the DC graphic novels Diana: Princess of the Amazons (with Victoria Ying) and Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld (with Asiah Fulmore). They live with their four children and two cat overlords near Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Debbie B.

Not what I expected, but a lot of fun!

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2015

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Jane Hayes spends 3 weeks at a kind of Jane Austen Regency camp, where there are handsome men just waiting to pay court to those women willing to pony up the dough to live out their dreams. They are given period names and clothing and agree to strictly adhere to rules of deportment while living in this controlled environment where modern technology like ipads and cell phones are absolutely verboten. Jane couldn't have paid for all this herself, but a distant relative decided she needed the experience to purge her of her Mr. Darcy obsession and gifted it to her. Unfortunately, the director of this stuffy place makes it clear that Jane is not of the same quality as their usual clientele, and Jane steels herself to expect no special treatment.

The experience turns out to be a better time for the reader than it is for Jane. The boredom! The quiet! The lack of any real conversation beyond polite nothings! And these guys are all actors, aside from the other female guests who seem to be far more into this nonsense than Jane is. She starts bucking the system early and finds a few cracks in the facade. She certainly gets to experience some romance with more than one of the men on the grounds. By the end of the book, though, both Jane and the reader are thoroughly confused over what's an act and what's for real in this strange place.

Austenland pokes fun at those who live vicariously through Regency romance - specifically those who pine for their own Mr. Darcy to the extreme of measuring every man they meet against him - and even though it's a rather fluffy book itself, it makes a serious point: If you want a real relationship with a real man, you have to live in the real world and not in a fantasy.

I haven't seen the movie, so I have no idea how it compares. The book is nicely written, fun to read, and full of plot surprises. I did enjoy that the intro to each chapter described, in succession, each of the prior men in Jane's love life. It did strike me that what made these relationships unsuccessful was NOT her obsession with Mr. Darcy, and so I don't think they really supported what seemed to be the book's premise, though they were humorous. None of this story is to be taken very seriously, especially the ending, which is very romance novel-ish.

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Robert J. Newell

A Lot Like Jane Herself

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2013

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All I had to do was to read the back cover and I knew that I, as an age 60+ male, was very much not in the target audience for this book. But (1) having heard good things about the movie and (2) having been a Jane Austen fan for nearly 50 years, I was going to read this book regardless of publisher demographics.

The story is about a woman (also) named Jane who is what we can only call a bumbler when it comes to relationships. She is bequeathed a three-week visit to Pembrook Park, the "Austenland" of the novel. It's a place where wealthy women of disparate ages go to immerse themselves in the Austen era, wearing period clothes, doing period activities, and interacting with a local "cast" of actors who serve them and even woo them as part of the "experience." The women all pretend to be in their twenties and single so as to be seen as marriageable (in terms of period norms).

It's an interesting premise which works with mixed success.

As a male reader, I wasn't really interested in all the clothing details, although to be fair that aspect wasn't terribly overplayed. Nor was I especially taken in by Jane's various heart-flutters and reactions to the presence of attractive males. Like I said, I'm not in the target audience.

Austenland customers are exclusively female. There is nothing there for a male customer, and indeed, male customers would spoil the scripted experience that is provided for the wealthy paying females. But is there nothing in the novel for the male reader?

Actually, there's a lot, if you're willing to look for it and set publisher's demographics aside. Author Shannon Hale manages to touch on some important observations about the human condition. Jane Austen did the same, and that made her books timeless and universal. I won't say Ms. Hale reaches Ms. Austen's level. But she does quite well.

The plot is relatively lightweight, at least from where I sit. Jane goes back and forth, hope swells, hope is crushed, hope swells again; that much is typical romance fare. What does work is Jane as an evolving character, Jane's development in the way she views herself, her progress toward self-understanding and ultimately, what I can only call redemption.

The writing is excellent, and I am delighted that the author didn't attempt a faux-Austen writing style. Modern prose suits this novel well and doesn't at all interfere with the period concepts.

My summary is this. The "Austenland" concept itself is rather mixed and doesn't work completely. The plot is, well, not much. But the writing is good and the lead character is superb. What we learn about ourselves as character Jane learns about herself is what makes this book one to read. Even for age 60+ males.

So take that, publisher!

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Linda Buchanan

a good read

Reviewed in Canada on October 1, 2022

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Very easy to read. Not a complicated plot - just a good story. Snuggle up with a romance but what is real and what is not!

Monica

Un libro da non dimenticare

Reviewed in Italy on April 27, 2023

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Ho preso questo libro con un pò di diffidenza, pensando di fare una lettura leggera. Ma essendo appassionata di Jane Austen non mi aspettavo più di tanto. Le prime pagine le ho lette un pochino a rilento, ma non appena ci si catapulta nel mondo Austeniano, una pagina tira l'altra. Non vedo l'ora di leggerne un pò di più. Sicuramente consigliato, un libro che ti prende

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mansi mudgal

A Jane Austen Spin off that does not disappoint at all

Reviewed in India on March 10, 2018

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A Jane Austen Spin off that does not disappoint at all!
The fabulous concept of the novel is that there's a Regency-era mansion in England that hosts an exclusive vacation experience for wealthy customers. Visitors dress in period clothes and live a period life for three weeks, interacting with actors and (they hope) having a little Austen-style romance.
In Austenland, a wealthy and eccentric relative sends Jane Hayes (our hopeless Janeite with love for all things Colin Firth) to Pembrook Park, hoping it will cure her of her Darcy-lust and enable her to get on with her life.
Enjoyable and lovely, I'd recommend to anyone looking for some cozy romantic read.

Alix

No está mal

Reviewed in Spain on July 23, 2015

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Compré el libro porque descubrí la película por casualidad. Lo leí después de haber visto ésta y creo que me caen mejor los personajes de la película que los del libro. Partiendo de la misma base, son diferentes historias. Soy Austenfreak, pero no tanto. Me pareció mucho mejor libro The Jane Austen Book Club, al que llegué de igual manera y, en este caso, libro y peli son muy diferentes, pero me gustan los dos: película y libro están mejor escritos que este.

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Jellibabee

A breath of fresh air

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 3, 2014

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This is a really nicely written book that sweeps you from all your modern day troubles and whisks you away beautifully to the turn of the last century. Jane Hayes, is a thirty-something single girl who’s obsession with Jane Austen and particularly Pride and Prejudice gets her an all-inclusive paid for holiday from her Great-Aunt upon her great aunt’s death to Austenland where she is swept into this era for three weeks. Shannon Hale's excellent writing skills got me so immersed in the book and the characters that I finished the book without even putting it down. It is a beautifully written piece which is humorous and brings the characters to life so well, I can completely understand Jane Hayes’ obsession with Pride and prejudice and in particular Mr Darcy (the Colin Firth version) is naturally understandable; I mean what red blooded woman doesn't want a Mr Darcy in her life? I also completely understood Jane’s enthusiasm and reluctance warring with her over her experience, should she immerse herself fully into the experience to rid herself of her obsession once and for all, or keep it real and keep a touch with reality? Should she fall for Mr Nobely the sour looking actor or the charming and real gardener Martin? This is a pleasant romantic comedy that has me wanting to go off to Austenland for my own adventure and to experience life and love the good old fashioned tummy flipping, butterflies dancing with a simple hand on my back way and not the all too revealing, and often unnecessary full on sex way. Keep up the great work Shannon, your book was like a breath of fresh air in this otherwise polluted world we are currently in.

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