Janeite fun for all ages

Although Jane Austen didn’t write for children, many Janeites discover Austen during their tween or teen years, around the age when bookish young ‘uns start outgrowing kiddie lit. Perhaps that’s why this summer has brought us a veritable flood of Austen-themed toys*—or, at least, toy-adjacent products aimed at adult collectors nostalgic for their youth:

--Last month, Lego offered up its “Tribute to Jane Austen’s Books,” a 361-piece model of a cozy sitting room complete with piano, bookshelf, fireplace, and tiny Chawton-esque writing desk. On the wall hang pictures evoking Austen movies (check out Darcy proposing to Lizzy in a neoclassical temple, à la P&P 2005). A somewhat peevish Lego Jane presides over the whole.

The set was originally offered only as a bonus for anyone buying $150 worth of other Lego products during a single week in late June. But if you missed that window, never fear: eBay’s US site now includes more than 170 listings of the Austen tribute set, most of them in the $50 to $60 range, offered by sellers in eight different countries.

Fifty dollars is a lot of money for a modest Lego set. On the other hand, I do have a birthday coming up.

--If the one-room Lego Austen seems excessively simple to you, you might prefer the gorgeous Lego Pemberley designed by an enterprising Janeite builder. Earlier this month, the project received its ten thousandth thumbs-up from Lego’s community of adult builders (sample comment: “i would give a kidney for this”), advancing it to the stage at which Lego decides whether to produce it.

Which they really need to do immediately, before too many Janeite kidneys flood the market.

--This year’s key commemoration may be Jane Austen’s 250^th birthday, but 2025 also marks the thirtieth anniversary of one of the greatest of Austen adaptations, Amy Heckerling’s immortal Clueless. And Mattel is on the case, offering three different lines of toys for grownup collectors, keyed to nostalgia for the movie—which, of course, updated Emma to high school in Beverly Hills.

The Little People set ($27), a version of a toy usually intended for toddlers and preschoolers, features two-and-a-half-inch-high figures of Cher (Alicia Silverstone), Dionne (Stacey Dash), and Tai (Brittany Murphy), plus a tiny copy of Emma. The Polly Pocket compact ($33), typically aimed at children over age four, includes even tinier versions of the three characters and their brick-like ‘90s cellphones.

But the pièce de resistance is, naturally, the $60 Clueless Barbie: a Cher doll, dressed in Silverstone’s iconic yellow-and-black plaid outfit; and a Dionne doll in red, white, and black, topped by that unforgettable Cat in the Hat-style lid.

Although you can get your Little People right now, Polly Pocket isn’t coming until August, and those to-die-for Barbies don’t ship until September. If you can’t stand the wait, keep yourself busy by playing with your Legos.

* As is so often the case, my tireless Janeite informant Tram Chamberlain alerted me to several of these items.