Book #43: Among the Janeites by Deborah Yaffe

Tommy saw this book on the shelves at the airport bookstore while we were stuck at our layover on our way home from Montreal, and he walked back to where I was sitting and said, "I saw a book I think you'd like." And I liked the idea enough that when we got, I requested it at the library.

If you're a woman, and you read, you probably love Jane Austen (or at least Pride and Prejudice). But there are whole hordes of women (and men, let's be fair) who take that love to a whole other level--and they are called Janeites. The type of people who read all of her books twice a year and have read all of her letters and other, unpublished works and dress up in Regency clothes for the Jane Austen conferences. The author goes through all the different aspects of the Jane Austen obsession that "Janeites" today have, interviewing groupies who write P&P fan fiction and comment on Austen fan blogs every single day, and scholars who analyze her work and write academic journal articles about it. She visited all of the Austen historical sites and a number of Jane Austen conferences. It was all really pretty interesting, but I kind of felt like this book was a little more fluff that she got from her interviews than was really necessary--a lot of other people talking about their feelings and experiences with Jane Austen than actually explaining the Austenmania phenomenon, I guess. It did really make me want to revisit some of her books again (although it hasn't really been that long!) and it made me want to go to a Jane Austen conference. (Coincidentally, my aunt and grandma are going to the Jane Austen conference in Milwaukee next week, and it's the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, so I'm guessing it's going to be a big one.) I don't know when I'll make it but I think I'll put that on my bucket list.