Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: Sept. 2, 2025
Devoney Looser is a next-level Jane Austen fan. As a professor who focuses on Austen as subject matter, she has written “The Making of Jane Austen”, as well as several other published works on the author, so you can say she knows her stuff. Her new story, “Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive and Untamed Jane” highlights the woman behind the name, the reputation she built, and both the rumours and the facts that spread about Austen’s personality and novels.
Of course I’m a Jane Austen fan, but I didn’t know much about the woman herself, so I was interested in this story for that reason (among others). I was curious as to who Jane Austen was, how she developed her talent and how she survived as a female author in the nineteenth century.
The first few chapters of this book break down each of her six novels, including some more unknown works, discussing not only Looser’s opinion of them, but how they have been reviewed and interpreted by others throughout the years. As is the title, Looser focuses on the “wild” parts of the characters and the books, connecting them to Austen’s frame of mind and personality. I’ve read Austen’s books, although it’s been years for some, but I found this part of the story to be dry. It read more like a book report, summarizing the plot and characters. Of course, Looser connected the novels to Jane as a person and as a woman, which was intriguing, but I struggled through this part as a whole.
Moving forward, we see Austen as an influential feminist figure, and her involvement in the abolitionist and suffrage movements are discussed. Looser makes assumptions based on information collected, and discusses other opinions of Austen academics, from both sides.
There is another section where Looser talks about Austen’s family and members of her social circle, which was definitely more interesting. Austen knows some interesting characters and Looser connects these to characters in Austen’s novels, and there are many similarities. Although this section wasn’t exactly Austen specific, the members of her family and community have some great stories to tell.
“Wild” was dry in parts but it did have some interesting sections. I loved learning about Austen and her existence as a female author and how she has become the icon she is today. Looser is definitely an avid Janeite, and “Wild” presents an unexplored side of the influential author.

I honestly think that author didn't really read anything by Austen nor anything about her. Because this Austen doesn't seem like Austen

I enjoyed this. The first section focus on Austen’s life and works. I particularly liked the look at Mansfield Park’s reputation during Austen’s day, but Looser gives great insight to all of Austen’s works. Part II centers on her family, their literary talents, connections, and their own wildness, and their potential influence on Austen and how we view her today. I had followed recent articles about her brothers’ involvement with abolition with interest and I’m glad to see it highlighted here. And then part three focuses on Austen’s continued influence and legacy in other mediums. This section was a little slower for me; I just found the “wild” connections flimsier even though parts were interesting.

I enjoyed how the author presented evidence from Austen and her family’s behavior that the myth of Jane Austen’s excessive authorial modesty and hesitancy to publish is ridiculous. It also demonstrates how Austen’s scope of novels wasn’t the extent of her knowledge of the world. Her own life experiences and acquaintance was far beyond the few country families of her fiction. She was not a naive nor a nonpolitical writer.

Obviously, I was disappointed that Austen inspired fiction gets a bad wrap. It’s all erotica, apparently. Looser says they should be taken seriously when investigating Austen’s legacy, but I think she misunderstood variations and the fandom.

This is a great look at Austen’s wild books and characters for both devotees and casual fans. Looser will show you reasons to love and respect all of Austen’s heroines. Yes, ALL of them. This was extensively researched and well paced with a conversational style. Plus I’m dying to know what Austen adaptation actor inappropriately came on to the author. Someone spill the tea.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

I am DNF-ing this book for now, which is almost unheard of for me. This book is THOROUGH. It contains a lot of interesting information, and the author is clearly very knowledgeable about all things Austen, but oh my, 'tis a slog. I will probably return to this book at a later time, but I currently do not have the bandwidth to read 25 chapters of dense (although fascinating) history and literary analysis. I think this is the kind of book that would work really well as an audiobook for a lot of readers (or a semester-long lecture course, ha). I will certainly be on the lookout for its release in audiobook format!

Devoney Looser’s examination of Jane Austen, her work, and the subject of “wildness” was a very enjoyable experience. I loved the variety of anecdotes, how the book was structured into three parts (written works, family members, and inspired contemporary works), how much more I now know about Jane Austen.

The author’s writing was very easy to follow and I stayed engaged the entire time. Looser was especially good at giving the perfect amount of context, whether that was a synopsis of a book or setting the scene for a particular anecdote of an Austen relation.

I look forward to continuing my journey of reading through all of Jane Austen’s works (and now knowing of the existence of Juvenilia, can add it to the mix) and referring back to this book for extra insight.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for letting me read this early in exchange for an honest review.

First, I'd like to say that I have LOVED Jane Austen since my high school days having written my senior thesis on her books. I've read all the novels, watched all the movies and every series to date. (I am well-known among friends for annoyingly pointing out the discrepancies between productions and her original work). That said, I struggled to get through this book; I found the sheer volume of detail and information overwhelming. Devoney Looser has produced an amazing and well-researched work (there are 1145 footnotes) but it read too much like a text book to keep me engaged. For those who have read Austen extensively Part I: Wild Writings, a commentary on Austen's most known works, may have a "been there, read that" feeling. If you haven't read Austen you will be lost. If you are just starting to read Austen this would be a great companion book to accompany your reading. Part II: Fierce Family Ties was the most interesting to me, shedding light on her personal life via letters to and from friends and family. Part III: Shambolic Afterlives was also engaging and witty, but by that time I was exhausted.

I am a fan of Austen's books and many of the adaptations and retellings, but I hadn't ventured into nonfiction reading about Austen's life and work, Wild for Austen was a great place to start. It was fascinating to learn more about Austen, but I most appreciated gaining a better understanding of how Austen's work, word choice, etc. would have been received at the time. Any Jane Austen fan should try this book!

Wild for Austen is an intriguing concept: the impact of “wildness” in Austen’s writing, life, and characters. However, I found the delivery a bit dry and sometimes drawn out. This is a personal preference. If I’m reading analysis geared toward a wider audience, I expect it to be a little more snappy and engaging. It also relied on quite a bit of summary, while I understand on one hand — readers may not be familiar —, on the other hand, most who would read this do so because of an already established love of Austen and her works and spin offs.

I think this would be an excellent course textbook. Its chapters work well for moving through Austen’s books and then discussing and studying them. It also allows for exploration beyond in the elements of wildness and the impact of the term during the time period and how it may impact spin-offs and creations inspired by her works.

All in all, interesting concept but a long delivery. I highly recommend for those in a study of Austen’s works.

Thank you to the NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

When you think about Jane Austen and her books, what comes to mind? Do you still imagine a quiet woman who never did anything and whose characters never challenge anyone?

This image has been challenged more and more and in Wild for Austen Devoney Looser wants to put that out-dated Victorian fictional image to rest once and for all. She explores the real Austen, the women in her family who wrote, the ones who inspired her fictional characters, the brothers who spoke out against slavery, and more. Who would Austen have known whose actions and reputations would have been considered "wild" in her day?

Looser explores what the word "wild" meant (both positive and negative) in Austen's time and how it is used in her books and letters. Each book, including the frequently forgotten Juvenilia, is explored for the "wildness" of its characters and what Austen might have been saying or satirizing on each occasion. It was an interesting angle of exploration that I quite enjoyed. Her research and arguements are interesting and cover a wide range of topics, several that I'd never heard before (like Austen's brothers in support of abolition).

Looser also explores our changing relationship with Austen's works. How has fan fiction, Hollywood interpretations, and our perhaps more willingness to accept Austen as a complete person, changed our relationship with her and her works? Can we accept her today in ways that were denied to her after her death? As perhaps more "wild" than "mild"? I think, based on Looser's arguments, we both can and should- and that an understanding of Austen like the one presented in Wild For Austen might make her more accessible in some ways to younger readers assigned the books in school who find them irrelevant today.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Well, crap. I have learned things about Jane Austen that, while I suspected, I find are most assuredly true!

Looser does a wonderful job of looking at preexisting ideas of who Jane Austen was and breaking those ideas down through her own creative work, letters from and to her, and anecdotal evidence that might not be well-known to broader audiences.

This is a fantastic book and everyone who loves Jane Austen should check it out.

Wild for Austen is a fun mix of odd stories about Jane Austen and the people around her. Devoney Looser clearly loves Austen, and that excitement comes through when she writes about family scandals, ghost tales, and even strange movie ideas that never got made. The problem is the book tries to cover so much that it sometimes feels scattered. The idea of “wild” gets stretched to mean almost anything, so the focus slips. If you’re new to Austen, the stories will probably feel fresh and surprising. If you already know a lot about her, it’s more light entertainment than deep insight.

I appreciate the pain staking research and love that went into creating this book... but it felt more like a textbook, loaded with references and facts I was not aware of. I found it hard to get into the book though, just didn't keep my attention.
Thank you for the ARC!

DNF at 10%. Turns out I don’t like to read literary analysis nonfiction, even if it is about Jane Austen. This was my first book in this genre and it was engaging but not for me.

[note: I do not post reviews online of books I DNF.]

Mild or wild? Gentle Jane or Juicy Jane? Devoney Looser, professor and scholar, delivers an upbeat review of Jane Austen’s legacy, this time in the terms of being “wild” — an adjective with different meanings over 200 years ago. It’s the 250th anniversary of Jane’s birth, and rather than a stolid, boring modern day circumspection of her six finished novels, the author explores positive uses of “wild” and Jane’s rebellion, passion and excitement that was infused into her classics.

Austen lived among some infamous women (Brontë sisters, Mary Shelley, Harriet Wilson), and really was a risk-taker, not a wilting Regency flower. This book is upbeat, intent on smashing the usual caricatures. Looser overwhelmingly cites examples of Austen’s sense of being wild and her classifications of the amount of wildness in her books by chapters is delightful.

Often biographical studies make tedious audiobooks, but narrator Marisa Calvin and the source material from the author actually made this an enjoyable and amusing audiobook. A terrific book to celebrate the semiquincentennial anniversary a celebrated author’s works. 4 stars for both book and audio.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect here since wild or rebellious aren't exactly the first adjectives I would come up with to define Jane Austen or her works. However, I was really interested to see this author's take and am very glad I did.

There were breakdowns on each of the different books and the different uses of 'wild'. Like when Lizzie Bennett walks to Netherfield, and Caroline Bingley calls her 'almost wild'. In Emma, Mr. Woodhouse is afraid his daughter is going to end up tangled in some 'wild thing'.

My favorite part of this book, though, was the chapter about all the Pride and Prejudice movies that almost got made, and the chapter on Austen Erotica. I have never heard of the Wild and Wanton classic series before, but it's amazing.

Definitely would recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC!

I love all things Jane Austen, and while I didn't always agree with Looser, I thought she made some really interesting arguments.
I appreciated how she structured the book - going through each of Austen's books, then her family members, and then some more current iterations of Austen (like adaptations).

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.

The author, a 30-year veteran of teaching Jane Austen to undergraduates at public universities, enthusiastically and repeatedly makes the positive case for seeing and appreciating “wildness” in Jane Austen’s work. This wildness appears not just in her female characters, but also in the plots of her six finished novels, where seeming weaknesses can turn to strengths.

Though well-researched and argued, this is not a typical scholarly work. Perhaps mirroring her investment in showing Austen’s wildness, the author writes with exuberance, sharing her delight in less-examined aspects of Austen’s life and work.

The result is eloquent but uneven. Looser’s description of the novels and unfinished works is lively and thorough, though perhaps more appreciated by those already familiar with the novels. Her inclusion of Austen’s “Juvenilia” is delightful, and her insights into the social and political commentary embodied in the books are thought-provoking.

However, I think she dilutes the impact of her arguments by over-inclusion. Austen’s poems, letters, and relationships with interesting people of her era, don’t seem to add to Looser’s case for “wildness,” and instead pull away the reader’s attention from Looser’s main theme.

If this book had stopped with the description and insight into the novels, I would have given it five stars. But because of the distraction and length of the other material, I’m giving it four, and suggesting readers can gain a great deal from the first part, while skimming the later ones.

After loving Looser's biography of the Porter sisters a few years ago, I was thrilled to see that she was publishing a book about Jane Austen. Not just that, but a book that proves that the myth of Saint Jane is just that - my sentiments exactly! I loved the first third, in which Looser points out all the ways in which Austen's writing is 'wild' (or, at the very least, has moments of wildness). The next two segments, however, weren't as convincing for me. Seeing Looser's arguments as to how Austen's life (or Austen's relatives' lives) were in some way 'wild' became more and more...well, wild. The last section, looking at the wildness of Austen would-be adaptations and fandom was somewhat interesting, but then became almost pessimistic as to the future of Austen culture in places. Maybe my read was affected by my own strange headspace at the time of reading, but at the very least this book has given me a lot to think about.

Devoney Looser's Wild for Austen is a remarkable that provides new information on Jane Austen's life and characters. The author also ensures to pay close attention to historical primary sources, pop culture moments, and media portrayals of Jane Austen and her novels. This provides a great insight as to how the Jane Austen's reputation grew over time. In addition, each novel is discussed in individual chapters making it easy to follow the historical information and scholarly research focus on the novels.

The most memorable line from this book in discussing Jane Austen's legacy is that, "Austen is for everyone" (p.347). Overall, Devoney Looser's analysis of Jane Austen's life and works of literature ensure that everyone is able to understand Jane Austen.


I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very well-researched, and thorough account of all of Jane Austen's works. It ties the stories intimately with other reviews and scholarly work on Austen, and goes deep, making claims and references by citing individual sentences. I thought this would be fun Austen trivia, which it is to some extent, but not in the way I had hoped. This book read more like the dissertation of a literature PhD, the writing style and arguments very academic. I almost wish it adopted a less molecular approach, and was less restricted to just Austen's writing, and covered more about the context and history surrounding it too. The academic prose also made it difficult to get through, and the book felt boring and dragged on at times.