Austenland

Austenland by Shannon Hale

I thought I had written about this one already, but apparently not. Oh, now I remember, I wrote to the author about it. I was going to just add a comment to her blog, but there were some spoilers involved, so I wrote to her instead.

The basic concept is that a woman obsessed with Pride and Prejudice, especially the movie starring Colin Firth, goes to an English resort where women can pretend to be Regency-era ladies similar to those in Austen's books. She does this in an attempt to get over her obsession, which she thinks is sabotaging her real relationships with the opposite sex. The result is quite amusing, especially if you've read Pride and Prejudice and other books by Jane Austen. And somehow, in the middle of all the laughter, it manages to say some good things about illusion and reality, and yet still to be very romantic and satisfying.

"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..."