That’s because Austen’s 250th birthday is being marked by costume events across Britain, where her most dedicated fans are gathering to dress in handmade Regency garb and share their enthusiasm for the work of the pioneering novelist.
“This feels like a Jane Austen Comic-Con, a Jane Austen convention. So it’s cool to geek out with other Jane Austen nerds,” Amy Chagnon, a high school English teacher from San Diego, told NBC News late last month in the gardens of what is known today as Jane Austen’s House, the cottage-turned-museum in southern England where the writer spent the final years of her life.
All six of her novels were either written or revised in the house’s sunny rooms. Today, it is a key stop for pilgrims like Chagnon and a focal point for the anniversary celebrations.
Wearing a high-waisted gray gown and sheltering under a lace parasol, Chagnon, 40, was visiting Austen sites across the U.K. She said she drew inspiration from both the author’s stories and her life.
Austen was born in December 1775, just a few months before Britain’s troublesome American colonies declared their independence.
“Austen’s voice centers a female lived experience and takes us into the minds and emotions of her characters. She explores feelings, conflict, small things, but the small things that make and shape our lives,” Lizzie Dunford, the director of Jane Austen’s House, said in an interview.
“That is why people in 1813 could read these novels and feel, ‘This woman is speaking to me.’ And that’s why people today can read these novels and say, ‘This woman is speaking to me.’ Because she takes you so deeply into the inner worlds of her characters.”
“Pride and Prejudice” has sold more than 20 million copies over two centuries and has never been out of print since its first publication in 1813, Dunford said.
“I want to tell you that I have got my own darling child from London,” Austen wrote to her sister upon receiving her first copy of the book.
A new Netflix adaptation is currently in production. The streaming giant announced in July that Emma Corrin, who previously played Princess Diana in “The Crown,” would star as Bennet, while Oscar winner Olivia Colman would play her anxious mother. It follows the 2005 film version starring Keira Knightley and a 1995 BBC production that helped launch the career of Colin Firth.
Celebrations to mark the anniversary of Austen’s birth are scheduled throughout the year in locations across the U.K. including Bath and Winchester, the city near Chawton that’s home to her final resting place, which has opened to the public for the first time. Several events have also been planned by the Jane Austen Society of North America.
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