More than twenty-five years ago, a spate of filmed adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels–most famously, the BBC’s “wet shirt” Pride and Prejudice, which featured Colin Firth as a sexy, smoldering Mr. Darcy–transformed Austen from the author of hoary nineteenth-century classics into a contemporary celebrity.  

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Today, she’s everywhere. You can pack a bonnet and an Empire-line gown for Jane Austen festivals from Kentucky to Australia. You can argue about Elizabeth Bennet’s love life with the denizens of on-line Austen communities. You can buy Austen-themed tea towels, tote bags and tarot cards. And you can read dozens of sequels to Pride and Prejudice, many featuring a sexy, smoldering Mr. Darcy.

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Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom is an affectionate and entertaining non-fiction look at this quirky subculture, written by an author, Deborah Yaffe, who is both an experienced journalist and a lifelong Janeite.

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In these pages, you'll meet ordinary people who just happen to be crazy about Jane Austen–among them, a Canadian speech pathologist who thinks Austen wrote about autism, a Florida lawyer who is pursuing a byzantine theory about hidden subtexts in the novels, a Texan with a closetful of Regency gowns, and a writer of Jane Austen fan fiction who found her own Mr. Darcy while reimagining Pride and Prejudice. Part memoir, part journalism, Among the Janeites is a book for anyone who’s ever fallen in love with literature.