This, Hale’s only book in the adult market, is a short but lovely homage to Jane Austen. The dedication is one of the funniest I’ve ever seen:

For Colin Firth
You’re a really great guy, but I’m married, so I think we should just be friends.

To digress a moment, the cover is fantastic as well. The front features a young woman, dressed in contemporary clothing, facing away from the camera. She is staring at an imposing English country house, in a post-Elizabethan style (the house, when viewed from above, forms an “E”, but the decorations are a little more Georgian). The back of the cover features the same house, but at the top, turned upside down.

The novel itself is concerned with Jane Hayes, an early thirty-something New Yorker who has rotten luck with men. When she’s down, she watches the BBC Pride and Prejudice with the aforementioned Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. At one point, in between men, she happens to talk to an elderly great-aunt of hers, and admits the Pride and Prejudice fascination. When that great-aunt dies, Jane inherits an all-expenses-paid trip to a place called Austenland — an English country house run as an odd sort of tourist site. The tourists are wealthy women who stay for a few weeks, pretending to be in the Regency era, complete with clothing and lack of contemporary things, including cell phones, cars, and take-out.

Jane goes, of course, but not everything is quite what it seems.

No, there’s no murder and no real mystery going on here. The book is most closely related to chick-lit, and Jane has, of course, the twin goals of chick-lit in her future: self-actualization and finding romance. While this definitely isn’t Ulysses, it’s certainly a good, fun, read and has many things to recommend it.

First, Jane is a great character. She’s a little crazy: she approaches everything in an intense fashion, including her Jane Austen obsession. For example, in order to better understand Northanger Abbey (which she didn’t like), she read a handful of real Gothic romances. Every man she’s dated, even if not for very long, she refers to as a ‘boyfriend’ and has assigned him a number. This numbered list, with descriptions and a few men interjected, forms the chapter headers. She’s also obsessed with Knicks basketball — something that’s a bit hard to come by in the Regency. Other characters are just as real: Aunt Saffronia, Miss Charming, Miss Heartwright . . . although I should admit that the women are much more multi-dimensional than the men. Even Jane’s mom is amusing, as she exhorts Jane to ask the great-aunt about her childhood, so perhaps the great-aunt will leave her money.

Second, the social commentary and dialogue is quite witty. Most of Hale’s commentary is against the rich women who might patronize this place for a different kind of tourism, but there are some sly pokes at women like Jane. Materialist New Yorker, sell-out, incurable romantic — all these aspects are fodder for witticisms. Naturally, this being a Jane Austen homage, there’s a pseudo-Darcy-like character, with which Jane engages in Lizzy-and-Darcy-like dialogue. The veiled insults are all the better for the sharp intelligence needed to bring them up on the spot.

Third, it’s immensely satisfying. The ending is precisely what it should be. I finished the book with a smile on my face.

If you’re a Jane Austen fan like myself, you’ll recognize elements of yourself in Jane Hayes. If you aren’t, I really have no idea why you’d like to read this book in general. It’s published for adults, but there’s nothing in there that a high-school age reader can’t deal with. Highly recommended for Jane Austen and Colin Firth fans; less recommended if you aren’t a fan of either. 4.5/5 stars.