December 18, 2006
Dear Colin Firth,
You may notice that this book, Austenland, is dedicated to you. Please don’t be alarmed! I am a great fan of your acting (the muffin scene in The Importance of Being Earnest is truly hilarious). I’m also a recovering BBC Pride and Prejudice addict, clean for five years, happily married, and now only watch the movies on rare occasions. For research. You understand.
In memory of those darker, obsessive times, I wrote this novel. Too many women are crazed with the idea of Darcy, and I’m hoping this book will help them recover. Or at least, I’m hoping it’ll make them laugh.
Would you be willing to take a look at it and perhaps give it a blurb? As your time is precious, I’ve pre-written a few helpful ideas for you:
- “Austenland is brilliant! If it doesn’t get the National Book Award, some heads are going to roll.”
- “I’ll have you know, I am much more than a wet shirt.”
- “I haven’t read this book and don’t endorse it in the least.”
Shannon Hale
Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.
Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen—or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It’s all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?
(Mille's Note : all are taken from http://www.squeetus.com/stage/main.html )
