'I Will Find a Mr. Darcy'
From Hollywood to Hampshire, fans can't get enough of Austen.
HAMPSHIRE, England, Oct. 17, 2007— -- Nearly 200 years after her death, Jane Austen is bigger than ever.
The annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath, England, is a celebration of all things Austen, from walking tours and lectures to a bonnet-making workshop and a chance to be photographed in full Georgian costume. The festival's Web site describes the weeklong gathering as "a veritable feast of delights for all Jane Austen fans."
"I like the fashion, the culture, the manners, the whole ambience," said one attendee at the Regency Ball, the climax of the festival.
The ball is the sort of social event Austen and her characters frequented. It's the sort of occasion at which a suggestive fan flutter is considered flirting, and where, as one attendee said, men and women "treat each other with respect and manners, and I think that's sadly lacking in our society today."
"I still remember when I first read 'Pride and Prejudice' and said, 'I will find a Mr. Darcy,'" said one person at the ball, referring to the leading man of Austen's best-known work.
"We do look to her novels for truth," observed another attendee. "We do look to her novels to understand why people do what we do and what we should do next."
"Nothing's so beautiful nowadays," explained Chris Northey of the Jane Austen Center in Bath. "It's like, 'Do you want to go out for a drink?' 'Yea, all right then.' And then a quick snog."
That means a kiss, by the way. When she's not drinking or kissing, Northey is a guide at the center.
The city of Bath is where a young Jane Austen socialized, and on an average weekend 600 visitors of all ages and nationalities come to breathe it in, buy trinkets and visit the Mr. Darcy tearoom.
Women from around the world can be transformed, at a small price, into Elizabeth Bennett acolytes.
"It's not books that are about sex and violence and all that kind of thing, like modern books. It's just very real, genuine," said a visitor named Christy, visiting all the way from Zimbabwe.
"We have to thank, I think, the films and the television series," said Terry Old, who also works at the center, of the continued interest in all things Austen-related.
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