Filmmaker Whit Stillman has a book deal. The director of such cult hits as The Last Days of Disco and (much more recently) Damsels in Distress, sold world rights to a novel called Love & Friendship to Little, Brown editor Victoria Matsui. Lynn Nesbit, at Janklow & Nesbit, represented Stillman in the deal, and the book is set for a 2015 release.
The novel is subtitled An Adaptation of Jane Austen’s Unfinished Novella Concerning the Beautiful Lady Susan Vernon, Her Loves and Friendships, and the Strange Antagonism of the DeCourcy Family, and LB said it is "inspired by a short work never published in Jane Austen’s lifetime." The novel, LB added, follows one of the author's "most subversive heroines" in Lady Susan Vernon.
Reagan Arthur, publisher of LB, added that Stillman, a "master of the comedy of manners," is also a "brilliant novelist" and the book will be "rare treat for [his] fans and Jane Austen readers alike."
