What accounts for this explosion of interest? What changes were made to enhance the novels' appeal to a wide popular audience? And what do the changes reveal about our own culture and its values? These are the questions discussed in Jane Austen in Hollywood.

Much of the appeal of these films lies in our nostalgic desires at the end of the millennium: a longing for an age of greater politeness and sexual reticence. Austen's ridicule of deceit and pretentiousness is also a factor. At the same time, however, these productions espouse explicitly twentieth-century feminist notions and reshape the Austenian hero to make him conform to modern expectations.

Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield have collected fourteen essays that examine the phenomenon of Jane Austen as cultural icon, providing thoughtful and sympathetic insights on the films through a variety of critical approaches. On the question of whether these productions enhance or undercut the subtle feminism that Austen promoted in her novels, the contributors differ markedly.

From Persuasion to Pride and Prejudice, from the three Emmas (including Clueless) to Sense and Sensibility, these films succeed because they flatter our intelligence and education. They cater to our desire for a communal experience. And they have as much to tell us about ourselves as they do about the world of Jane Austen.