by Shannon Hale
1. Austenland opens, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a thirtysomething 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” (1). How does this sentence set the stage for the novel? Compare it to the famous first sentence of Pride and Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Which of these universal “truths” is actually true, if either?
2. Austenland, besides chronicling Jane’s stay at Pembrook Park, lists all thirteen “boyfriends” she’s had in her lifetime. How well does the reader get to know Jane’s past? How much has she changed from her first relationship at age twelve to the one that is now just beginning?
3. Jane observes of the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice: “Stripped of Austen’s funny, insightful, biting narrator, the movie became a pure romance” (2). What would Austenland be like without Jane’s own funny, insightful, biting narration?
4. Looking at the gallery of portraits in Pembrook Park, Jane feels “an itch inside her hand” to paint a portrait, “but she scratched the desire away. She hadn’t picked up a paintbrush since college” (36). How is Jane’s artistic itch intensified during her stay at Pembrook Park? How does she come to the realization that “she wanted to love someone the way she felt when painting—fearless, messy, vivid” (125)? In the end, has she found that type of artistic love?
5. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth’s mother, Mrs. Bennet, is known for her determination to marry off her daughters and for her frequent social blunders. How does Miss Charming, Jane’s fellow visitor to Pembrook Park, resemble Mrs. Bennet? What are some of Charming’s funny faux pas and verbal blunders?
6. Jane realizes, “Wait a minute, why was she always so worried about the Austen gentlemen, anyway? What about the Austen heroine?” (105) Is the heroine given short shrift by many Austen fans today? Why or why not?
7. Jane calls herself and Mr. Nobley “Impertinence and Inflexibility” (133). How do these nicknames originate? How do these traits compare to the pride and prejudice of Darcy and Elizabeth in Austen’s novel?
8. Jane’s great-aunt Carolyn set the whole Pembrook Park adventure into motion. What do you think Carolyn’s intentions were in sending Jane to this Austenland? Do you think Jane fulfilled those expectations?
9. Jane comes to wonder what kind of fantasy world Jane Austen might have created for herself: “Did Austen herself feel this way? Was she hopeful? Jane wondered if the unmarried writer had lived inside Austenland with close to Jane’s own sensibility—amused, horrified, but in very real danger of being swept away” (123). Is it possible to guess at Austen’s attitude toward romance by reading her work? Why or why not?
10. Looking at Henry Jenkins, Jane realizes that “just then she herself was more Darcy than Erstwhile, sitting there admiring his fine eyes, feeling dangerously close to falling in love against her will” (190). Are there other occasions in which Jane is more Darcy than Erstwhile? Is it possible that today’s single, thirtysomething woman is more a Darcy than a so-called spinster?
11. Jane walks away from Nobley and Martin at the airport with the parting words, “Tell Mrs. Wattlesbrook I said tallyho” (186). Why does Jane enjoy her last line so much? What does she mean by “tallyho”?
12. What might Jane Austen think of Austenland, if she were alive today? Could she have possibly anticipated how influential her novels would become, even for twenty-first-century audiences? Could she ever have imagined a fan like Jane Hayes?
13. Shannon Hale reveals on her Web site (www.squeetus.com/stage/austen_journey.html) that the original title for Austenland was Ostensibly Jane, and that it evolved from a short story, to a novella, to a screenplay, to this novel. Can you imagine a shorter version of Austenland? A feature film? What would each be like?
14. Hale lists her “fantasy casting” of a movie version of Austenland at www.squeetus.com/stage/austen_casting.html. What is your own fantasy cast of Austenland? How does it compare to Hale’s?
suggested reading
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion; Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club; Jon Spence, Becoming Jane Austen; Emma Campbell Webster, Lost in Austen; Laurie Viera Rigler, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict; Amanda Grange, Mr. Darcy’s Diary.
a note on the author
SHANNON HALE IS THE AUTHOR of four books for young adults: The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and the New York Times best-seller Princess Academy, for which she received a Newbery Honor. She and her husband are working together on a graphic novel. Shannon and her family live in Salt Lake City, Utah.
by the same author
The Goose Girl
Enna Burning
Princess Academy
River Secrets
Copyright © 2007 by Shannon Hale
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Hale, Shannon.
Austenland : a novel / Shannon Hale.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59691-285-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 10: 1-59691-285-5 (hardcover)
1. Single women—New York (State)—New York—Fiction. 2. Vacations—England—Fiction. 3. Austen, Jane, 1775–1817—Influence—Fiction. 4. Chick
lit. I.Title.
PS3608.A54584A95 2007
813'.6—dc22
2006034165
First published by Bloomsbury USA in 2007
This e-book edition published in 2010
E-book ISBN: 978-1-59691-995-2
www.bloomsburyusa.com