Literary lovers across the world are celebrating 250 years since the birth of one of England’s most beloved authors. I am doing my part with a June Regency tea at my local library and another program on Austen scheduled closer to her actual birthday in December.
When I first started writing Austen variations in 2006, it was still difficult to find Austen-based stories. Then in 2008, Twilight hit the big screen (which if you did not already know was based on Austen’s Pride and Prejudice), and traditional publishers were scrambling to sign Austen-based authors. Sourcebooks and Ulysses Press had more than a dozen such authors, many of whose names you would recognize. I was signed by Ulysses and published my first nine Austen tales with them. Those of us who were in the right place at the right time were featured at major book festivals across the U.S. and even abroad. I was even presented the opportunity to join Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and Ben Winters (Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and also the screenwriter for the TV series “Tracker) at the Smithsonian for a lecture on Jane Austen and mashups. My Vampire Darcy’s Desire covered the bloodsuckers of the mashups.
[By the way, Ulysses Press, which is now part of the Stable Book Group, has recently bought back the rights to my original novel, Darcy’s Passions, as well as the above mentioned Vampire Darcy’s Desire, for a new release of these books for spring of 2026.]
Several people believe, for example, Colin Firth’s stellar two-year “flirt” with Oscar – first with a spectacular performance in “A Single Man” and then in “The King’s Speech” – led to a resurgence of Jane Austen’s popularity. I am not one of them, for, like many of you, I have stayed the course over the last two decades, but we are all recognize how the 1995 BBC mini-series and Firth’s portrayal of the enigmatic Mr. Darcy from Austen’s Pride and Prejudice changed many people’s view of Austen. Naturally, a legion of Austen fans cheered on his being recognized for his talents. Obviously, I am one of those fanatics, and although I have never noted the total absence of Jane Austen mania, I have seen the rise and fall of her popularity in modern culture.
Recently, I received a note on Facebook from a former student, who I would say “fought” me tooth and nail when I insisted upon teaching the beloved Pride and Prejudice to his AP class. Later, he attended a film production school at the university level, and upon his first post graduation interview, the 20s something production staff described a screenplay they were considering. My student said, “Oh, that is just like Pride and Prejudice.” When the others were not as informed on Austen as my student, he explained the basic plot of P&P and earned the job. I laughed at his message to me, for I always told him that he needed to know something of Jane Austen for some day he would be on “Jeopardy” and the final question to win it all would be “Who is Jane Austen?” I was half right.
For a more detailed analysis of this “new” phenomena – this Austen mania – read the article below from The Star.
Kristin Rushowy
Education Reporter
Almost 200 years after her death, it is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen and her works have found new life in the online world.
But these days, there’s another, real-world reason for all the interest in the 19th-century novelist: English actor Colin Firth.
Beloved among fans for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the famed 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice.
Firth was the reason “a lot of people got hooked on the novels,” said Deidre Lynch, an English professor at the University of Toronto, whose Austen classes typically have as big a wait list as the classes themselves.
But, she added, that’s too simple an explanation for Austen’s ever-growing legion of fans. Social media, too, have given Austen a second life.
Austen is on X and Facebook and Instagram and . . . — well, fans are tweeting in her name — and she is the subject of countless Facebook fan pages that grow daily, one with almost 850,000 “likes.” Devotees have created a Facebook newsfeed version of P&P, and others post videos to Youtube in Austen’s honour, from serious scene recreations to hilarious send-ups to reading of Austen fan-fiction.
“It’s like votive offerings to Jane Austen, as if she were a saint,” said Lynch, editor of Janeites: Austen’s Disciples and Devotees.
In her undergraduate classes on romantic poetry and prose “Austen makes a few appearances,” she disclosed. “The students would probably prefer more.”
Publishers often have trouble keeping up with demand for Pride and Prejudice.
There has been “a pretty steadily increasing Austen presence in popular culture — but not much of that really connected to the books Austen wrote,” noted Elaine Bander, president of the Canadian chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America.
As to Matthew Macfadyen, I am a serious fan. You would know that if you saw all the images of him hanging on the wall of my home office. I first saw him in “Wuthering Heights” and was mesmerized. I then followed him, purchasing UK DVDs for my universal player. Warriors, Maybe Baby, Enigma, Perfect Strangers, The Way We Live Now, The Reckoning, In My Father’s Den, and a few TV roles, before Pride and Prejudice.
In around late 2008 or early 2009 (cannot recall which), I was fortunate to meet Colin Firth when he was filming a so-so movie with Orlando Bloom in the Raleigh, NC, area. My friends and I were watching the filming of “Main Street.” In my opinion, one of the problems with the film was both Firth and Bloom sounded too British for a movie taking place in Durham, North Carolina, but that was not the only fault of the project. It was originally released straight to DVD. Anyway, when the crew broke from filming for a scene change, my friends were screaming “Mr. Darcy!”, which Firth essentially ignored. [I am confident he was tired of those types of “groupies.” Boy I am aging myself with that word choice.] Meanwhile, I darted around the back of those gathered there and was fortunate to be on the “right” side of the ropes, when the crew roped off everything.
Soon, Firth was signing autographs for those on that “right” side of the ropes. When he came to me, he noted I had one of those rubber bracelets that was all the rage in those years. He asked, “Breast cancer?” because it was pink.
I said, “Yes, but it says ‘I love Matthew Macfadyen.’”
To which he responded, “That is bloody sacrilegious!” Before that went back to shooting, he had one of the crew come and ask my name and address, and he had his people sent me a note on embossed stationary with his signature and a joking-style criticism of Macfadyen for which he apologized at the bottom of the note. That is my Colin Firth story.
To read the complete article mention above, please visit, http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/934803–jane-austen-is-back-thanks-to-colin-firth
Try Jane Austen in Popular Culture
Below is a list of my Austen efforts over the last 18 years, (33 books and counting). Add to that 33 published Regencies, along with 2 contemporaries, and 8 more (7 Regency and one Austen) waiting for publication (one of which publishes on June 18 and another at the end of June), I have had an amazing career.
Regina Jeffers’s Jane Austen-Inspired Novels . . . How many have you read?
Darcy’s Passions: Pride and Prejudice Retold Through His Eyes
Darcy’s Temptation: A Pride and Prejudice Sequel
Captain Frederick Wentworth’s Persuasion: Jane Austen’s Classic Retold Through His Eyes
Vampire Darcy’s Desire: A Pride and Prejudice Paranormal Adventure
The Phantom of Pemberley: A Pride and Prejudice Mystery
Christmas at Pemberley: A Pride and Prejudice Holiday Sequel
The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Mystery
The Mysterious Death of Mr. Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Mystery
The Prosecution of Mr. Darcy’s Cousin: A Pride and Prejudice Mystery
Mr. Darcy’s Fault: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Mr. Darcy’s Bargain: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Mr. Darcy’s Present: A Pride and Prejudice Holiday Vagary
Mr. Darcy’s Brides: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Mr. Darcy’s Bet: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Mr. Darcy’s Inadvertent Bride: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Elizabeth Bennet’s Deception: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Elizabeth Bennet’s Excellent Adventure: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Elizabeth Bennet’s Gallant Suitor: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
The Pemberley Ball: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
A Dance with Mr. Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
The Road to Understanding: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Pride and Prejudice and a Shakespearean Scholar: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Where There’s a FitzWILLiam Darcy, There’s a Way: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
In Want of a Wife: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Losing Lizzy: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
The Mistress of Rosings Park: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Pemberley’s Christmas Governess: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Amending the Shades of Pemberley: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Mr. Darcy and the Designing Woman: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
The Colonel’s Ungovernable Governess: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Leave Her Wild: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Honor and Hope: A Contemporary Pride and Prejudice
Order and Disorder: A Pride and Prejudice Short Story Mystery
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