Shannon Hale has combined the best parts of a Jane Austen novel, a modern romance, a comedy and a mystery. What am I saying? Austen did these things with her writing. This goes from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first. I do not believe that the reader has to be a fan of Austen's writing or the delightful films made from them to appreciate "AUSTENLAND", but it will definitely help to review some or all of the above.
Shannon Hale has put a marvelous fantasy together. Her characters develop as the story moves along. Jane, her main character grows both through the story line and by the insertion of brief stories about her various, unsuccessful loves.
Briefly, the story concerns Jane Hayes and her visit to Pembrook Park. Jane is a moderately successful graphic artist in New York. Pembrook Park is one of England's stately houses that has been turned into a vacation park for people, mostly middle aged married women, who want to relive a regency romance. The non-vactioners, from the gardeners to the gentry, are all actors. The gentlemen are in sufficient number to pair up with the vacationing ladies.
The pairing is one of the first mysteries. But some of the actors seem to jump outside their roles and romance the ladies for real... Or do they? The second mystery.
Ms. Hale gives a delightful interplay between modern and old; acting and real; fantasy and the world. Each major character moves delicately among these and among their memories and the present. The tracery moves the reader through an intricate minuet. It is a joy.
