Friday, September 9, 2011

Austenland

Yup. I Just spent the past two hours there...and it was FANTASTIC!


                                                                                                                                                              


Actually, Austenland is a novel. I have read lots of good books since I came home from my mission. We all adored the Hunger Games, and don't even get me started on how much I LOVED The Help. I thoroughly enjoyed Austenland though. A friend recommended it to me yesterday and I saw it today ON SALE at the BYU Bookstore after class today. I bought it. I read it in one sitting. It is really witty, especially for all you Jane Austin lovers out there.





I am not really obsessed with Pride and Prejudice as most girls claim to be, although it is beautifully written and poetic. Mostly I am mostly just in love with him -


Colin Firth - not exactly "Mr. Darcy." Ok, so I am in love with Colin Firth AS Mr. Darcy. Look at him! Look at those sparkling eyes. He is SO handsome.

The dedication of Austenland reads "For Colin Firth, "You're really a great guy, but I'm married, so I think we should just be friends." HAHA! I knew I would love this book even before I started reading it. My personal letter to Colin would read - "For Colin Firth. I just love you. You're a really great guy, but you are old enough to be my father, so I think we should just be friends."

Remember this?


The story of Austenland is this - an adorable young, single women is getting to the age where she is not particularly young anymore, but still VERY much single. PROBLEM. She is also obsessed with Mr. Darcy and particularly Colin Firth. She blames all of her failed relationships on this. Mr. Darcy is perfect, and nobody can quite measure up. Also, Jane Austin wrote in a time where relationships were meant to go somewhere. If you did not intend to marry someone, you did not court them. It was very simple, unlike today and all the crazy stuff going on with hanging out and hooking up.

Jane, our protagonist, finds the modern world of dating confusing. She is hopeful and always looking for love. At times she is a little too hopeful. Let's just say that she counts a man as her "boyfriend" as soon as they go out on a first date. HAHAHA! I feel such a kinship with her. She is super sweet and funny. She is also very unlucky in love and spends most night pining over a fictional character.

Her great auntie goes to lunch with Jane at the start of the story and uncovers her secret obsession with Austen and Mr. Darcy. She tells Jane that if she keeps living in a fantasy world she will end up dying a Spinster like the author of love, Jane Austen herself. The perfect man does not exist. She tells Jane that she was not satisfied with her husband and was unfaithful to him for most of their marriage because he wasn't perfect. She didn't come to love him until later in life and they only had two blissful years of matrimony before his death. She encourages Jane to get a life and live in the real world.

Jane's aunt ends up dying. HOWEVER, in her will she leaves a little something something to Miss Jane. She arranged and paid for Jane to fly to England and spend three weeks in Austenland - a "park" dedicated to life in 1816 and giving Pride and Prejudice obsessed people the opportunity to "live life in Austen's England." Jane has finally decided to put this whole thing aside and move on and at first does not want to go, but she decides to have one last fling with Jane Austin before burying her fantasy obsession forever.

Her aunt's original intention of sending Jane to England was probably to let her see how sad all the crazy, romance starved,  fifty year old women pretending to be twenty year old Elizabeth Bennett are. HILARIOUS! Jane feels a little out of place at first, but she is actually witty and the character actors who work at the park at happy to have her there. She is OF COURSE a succor for all the VERY attractive men, and a couple of them seem to be falling for her too, but she can never quite tell if they are acting and getting paid to make her feel that way, or if the feelings are real. It is good fun!

Mostly this is a cute story about finding your own voice and taking control of your life. You are suppose to be the heroine of your own life story, and Jane Austen doesn't have to write it for you. It is a short read and it is not too intellectually deep, but it is sweet and I liked it. You will especially enjoy all the clever throwbacks to Pride and Prejudice if you are an Austen fan.

SIDENOTE: Remember her?

Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. She is producing a movie version of the book due out next year staring Keri Russell. SO EXCITED! 

Also - if anybody ACTUALLY DOES find a real Austenland and would like to arrange for me to go there for three weeks, I would not mind. In fact, I would love. I would look GREAT in an empire waist dress.