The release date for Among the Janeites has been moved up about a month, to August 6 – we’re hoping to catch a bit of the publicity wave for the movie version of Shannon Hale’s novel Austenland, which hits theaters August 16.
Austenland is about a modern-day single woman whose romantic fantasies have been colonized by the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. (Colin Firth, wet shirt – need I say more?) She travels to a Regency-house-party-cum-theme-park, where the women wear bonnets and Empire-line dresses, the men wear knee breeches and embroidered waistcoats, and no one knows who’s a fellow guest and who’s an actor hired to provide a frisson of Mr. Darcy-esque excitement.
It’s a natural fit with my book about the real-life community of Janeites, who have been known to dress up in Regency costume and fantasize about Colin Firth. Along with a lot of far more serious acts of Austen appreciation, naturally.