Cover Image: Austentatious

Austentatious

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Member Reviews

This was an interesting book because it offers an interesting insight into Jane Austen fandom, and since every fandom has its own history, its peculiarities, and so on and so forth, it's not surprising that Jane Austen one has a lot of interesting notable things, and this part was really interesting to read. But it is also a fascinating reading if you just want to take a look, sort of a critical look, on fandom as a whole, because even if the main subject is JA, it's also true that it talks about the fandom in general, and, to be honest, this last part was what intrigued me the most. I was interested in the book, and I enjoyed discovering the more JA related things, but also the general frame, the context of it all was fascinating.
The only downside of it is that I, personally, found it a tad repetitive. It is not a long book, so it's not such a burden to carry but I think that an even shorter book will have worked perhaps a bit better. But anyway, it was interesting and informative. I appreciated it.

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Man I enjoyed this. It spoke to me, and maybe it is bc I’m a fan. Any austenite would love it.

Thank you to Netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review.

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This was a fun and entertaining academic look at the Jane Austen fandom. As a self-proclaimed Janeite I actually learned about a lot of fandom that I hadn’t previously known. This was an interesting read.

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As I huge Jane Austen fan I knew I had to read this book. And I was not disappointed! It was a great look into adaptations and satire. Loved it.

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I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the authors, publisher and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A humorous look into the online places where the Janeites such as myself, roam and wax poetic on our favorite author.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

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As a self-proclaimed Austenite, I knew I had to read this! It's a fun, easy read and one I would recommend to fellow Jane Austen fans!

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I am actually giving this a 1.5. When the authors of this book do the theory, they do it very well. The entire chapter about Lady Susan is well done and is the stand out. When they apply theory to the fan fiction, that is clever and worth reading. When they give paragraph after paragraph of summary about the fan fiction or the movie Clueless or some other adaption, it wanders and seems off message. I understand that not everyone will have read every single piece of fan fiction and thus, some kind of summary is necessary, but this just went too far and went on too long (kind of like me complaining about it just now). There are some clever nuggets in here for sure but it is repetitive and could have been cut. I know the book would have been shorter that way, but it would have had the focus it needed.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC

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I received a free e-copy of this book from University of Iowa Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

I have started this review about 5 different times hated how it was going every time. I have so much I want to say and my review just kept becoming super long and wordy, it was awful and unreadable. In order to combat that I am going to try and do my review via bullet points instead of paragraphs:

* I don’t normally read non-fiction but I love Jane Austen and this book actually sounded really interesting.
* Austentatious is about Jane Austen adaptations and works created by fans.
* It covers everything from Colin Firth’s wet t-shirt to Pride and Prejudice Memes.

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* Because this book doesn’t have a plot to suck me in, it did take me a while to read it, but it was worth it.
* I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot!
* I am not a note taker when I read. If I come across something I want to remember I take a picture of the page. Usually I take 0-3 pictures per book but I took 64 pictures while reading Austentatious.

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*I have never had the desire to buy a completed copy of any ARC I have read before, but immediately after finishing this one I decided I needed a physical copy so I can have a place to record all the notes I want to make. (It should arrive later this week!)
*Reading Austentatious made me want to re-watch all of the adaptations I have seen, plus it brought a bunch of new ones to my attention!
*I re-watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and I watched Clueless for the first time (I thought I had seen Clueless before but it turned out I was thinking about Get a Clue and had the two movies mixed up)

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I really want to list all the fun facts I learned about but I feel like that would defeat the purpose of other people reading the book. (also the list would be super long, this books is chock full of cool stuff!)

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source: Kate Beaton

* Austentatious is refreshingly modern, it isn’t a dusty old tome talking about boring old facts. Austentatious delves into non-cannon ships and fanart and I love it! It also braves into the world of LGBTQ+ representation and what it means to fans that they can find Austen adaptations where the main characters are like them!
* I don’t know if I have stressed this enough, but this book has a LOT of really cool information!
* It also spends some time inspecting some of the more popular adaptations (Clueless, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, plus a lot more!) It talks about what makes them good adaptations and where they got things wrong.
* I need to watch Bridget Jones’ Diary!
* If there is any chance that either of the author’s are reading this (your books is awesome!) I just want to let you know that I know that my blog title is from the movie and not the book! (if you are not the author this response might not make any sense, but it is in response of this paragraph: )

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* Also I totally get it. It really bugs me when people attribute the quote “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading. How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book.” to Jane Austen. In the book it was insincerely said by Caroline Bingley! Who knows if this is what Jane Austen actually thought of reading?

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* Unpopular opinion – I loved Matthew Macfadyen as Darcy Every bit as much as I loved Colin Firth. Look at his character development through the story:

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* This is probably the best non-fiction book I have read! I actually want to read it again so I can further absorb all the information! (And I am planning on reading it again once I have my physical copy!)

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This was a fun book to read. It's suitable for Jane Austen fans as well as scholars and the authors combine those two angles nicely. One can notice the authors are scholars, but as they are Austen fans at the same time, they make a point that it is possible to be both. They also make use of both angles, which makes it a well researched book without being scholarly show-off.

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An overview on Jane Austen fanfiction written by two scholars that are also members of the fandom. They explore some of the most successful adaptation, such as <i>Clueless</i>, <i>The Lizzie Bennet's Diaries</i>, <i>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</i>, but I would have appreciated something more.
In the last section, they talk about shipping between different characters, to reward every kind of fans, even though they know that the stories will always end in the same way.

Many thanks to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Goodreads review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2806535365

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Austentatious is not a book about Jane Austen and her work but a book about Jane Austen Fan Fiction. Now I have read some of the Austen tangent books and remakes of her work that have been more mainstream published but I have not been overly aware of any of the fan fiction groups out. That being said I did find all of the different types of fan fiction interesting and the various changes people do to the stories to make them relate more to our modern world.

I think of fan fiction as a modern way to show a reader's love for the material that they are connecting to. As well as make the material more accessible to different groups of readers. If you are interested in this genre of books, art, and films Autentatious is an interesting read.

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This book gave unique insight into the continuing appeal of Jane Austen with readers. There have been countless movies made based on her novels over decades. The authors explore what the typical fan enjoys about Jane's work.

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The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an interesting and original look at the Jane Austen fandom. I've been a Janeite since I was 16 and it totally changed my way to see things and my future prospects. Even if I'm a huge fan of her, this book taught me new things about the fandom and I really appreciated that.
What I really enjoyed was seeing how the fandom evolved during all these years and how all the people involved commemorate and enrich Austen's works.

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I picked up this book not because I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, but because I have an interest in online fandoms and how they create their own niche subcultures. I've dipped my toes a few times in fandom a few times and I like the idea of it, but I never really could muster enough energy to get actively involved in one.

This book was a legit eye-opener. I didn't know the Jane Austen fandom could be so intense and fascinating. They really love her work and they're incredibly passionate about it. The added bonus of all her work being in the public domain only meant that they can get more creative about their projects and really go big. I'm kind of aware of the multitude of Jane Austen spin-offs and tributes and essentially fanwork that's available commercially, but I didn't know there was a bigger online subculture of people who don't make their works commercially available, but instead free for everyone to consume.

I think that fanfiction is a very fascinating topic and I'd love to see it explore in more academic contexts. It's a subculture that has spawned subcultures of its own and now forms part of our media diet. Fanfiction has grown exponentially and I loved how this work explores it in the context of the Jane Austen fandom.

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I only read a little bit of this. It was too 'modern' for me - I really prefer more traditional studies of Jane Austen.

I received this free ebook from Net Galley

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I really loved this much more than I thought I would. I’m a huge Jane Austen fan and have read dozens of books on her world, life and works. This was something different it’s covers how authentic fan communities form and function. Lots of information and Austen anecdotes are included too. all in all this book is great fun and very interesting.
I’d highly recommend it.

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I really enjoyed Austentatious. Holly Luetkenhaus and Zoe Weinstein wrote a well researched and highly readable book about fandom. Jane Austen is an excellent lens to look at fandom through - there is a wealth of fan-created content to consider. The authors did a particularly good job of looking at the various types of gatekeeping in fan communities and in the academic world, as well.
My favorite chapter was Chapter 2, "As If! Clueless and the Modern AU." I found myself nodding along and taking notes.
I will recommend this book widely - it is incredibly appealing and easy to read.

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I liked it more than I thought I would considering that I'm not a die-hard Austen fan but more interested in how the community is formed. I'd buy and offer this book to anyone interested in Austen paraphernalia or in how does an authentic (online) community looks like.

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Full-disclosure: I consider myself to be a pretty big Jane Austen fan so naturally I was intrigued by a book that took a scholarly approach to the massive fan base of Jane Austen's works and how an early 19th-century writer has remained relevant in a 21st-century world. This book is definitely something that would probably be more enjoyable to a fan that is more deeply-embedded in online fan culture, as it covers a lot of ground around the social media communities dedicated to Jane Austen's works, especially those involving the writing of fan fiction. However, I found it to be a fascinating exploration of fan culture in general and beyond just talking about Ms. Austen's feminism (or at least perceived feminism from a 21st-century POV), it also talked about how fans are rewriting her stories to see themselves in it, such as adaptations that may incorporate characters of other races, gender and/or sexual identities. Overall, I enjoyed the book and it has helped me better understand Jane Austen's appeal to a modern audience and how her works still resonate with people that you may not expect to be fans of hers. Although this book definitely seems to be geared toward the hardcore "Janeite" (Austen's fanbase), it could still intrigue even the casual Austen reader like myself.

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Austentatious was a study in Austen, its fandom and the spawns (aka the fanfictions, fan ideas, you name it), the interpretation by scholars, characters study, adaptations, and most of all the loved for Austen's works themselves. Austentatious is perfect for every Austen lovers (whatever you might call yourselves) and anyone who would like to write about Austen and her works.

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