Austenland Chapter 4 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Day 1

  • The next morning, Jane rides a carriage to the manor where she'll be staying. She worries about being able to role-play with a straight face.
  • A servant helps her down from the carriage, and she's greeted by Aunt Saffronia and her husband, Sir John Templeton.
  • They show Jane to her room, where she's dismayed to see that the "authentic" kerosene lamp is actually an electric model.
  • On the way back downstairs, Jane bumps into Miss Charming, a busty fifty-year-old, who is pretending to be twenty-two and to have an English accent. She's bad at both.
  • At dinner that evening, they meet the gentlemen. There's Colonel Andrews, Sir John's cousin and a hunter, and his good friend Mr. Nobley, who broods like Mr. Darcy. Or Angel from Buffy. Maybe he's a vampire. (Okay, no one's a vampire in this one, sorry.)
  • They eat, Miss Charming flirts, and "Mr. Nobley read a book and generally ignored everybody" (4.94).
  • By the end of the night, though, Jane and Mr. Nobley engage in some witty repartee, and Jane "found herself wondering if she wasn't the prettiest and smartest guest they'd had in some time" (4.116). Maybe her inner Lizzy Bennet is shining through.