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Review: WILD FOR AUSTEN by Devoney Looser
- Christina Boyd
- Dec 19, 2025
- 3 min read
ABOUT THE BOOK
Thieves! Spies! Abolitionists! Ghosts! If we ever truly believed Jane Austen to be a quiet spinster, scholar Devoney Looser puts that myth to rest at last in Wild for Austen. These, and many other events and characters, come to life throughout this rollicking book. Austen, we learn, was far wilder in her time than we’ve given her credit for, and Looser traces the fascinating and fantastical journey her legacy has taken over the past 250 years.
All six of Austen’s completed novels are examined here, and Looser uncovers striking new gems therein, as well as in Austen’s juvenilia, unfinished fiction, and even essays and poetry. Looser also takes on entirely new scholarship, writing about Austen’s relationship to the abolitionist movement and women’s suffrage. In examining the legacy of Austen’s works, Looser reveals the film adaptations that might have changed Hollywood history had they come to fruition, and tells extraordinary stories of ghost-sightings, Austen novels cited in courts of law, and the eclectic members of the Austen extended family whose own outrageous lives seem wilder than fiction.
Written with warmth, humor, and remarkable details never before published, Wild for Austen is the ultimate tribute to Jane Austen.
REVIEW by Christina Boyd
Wild for Austen is a lively exploration of Jane Austen’s life and legacy, and Devoney Looser delivers it with irresistible wit. I thoroughly enjoyed the book’s fresh take on Austen’s world, especially the surprising stories that challenge the persistent myth of Austen as a quiet, unassuming spinster. Looser’s careful research shines through lesser-known writings and newly uncovered materials, and the delightful anecdotes scattered throughout keep the narrative energized. By blending deep literary insight with vivid historical twists, Looser offers a smart, heartfelt, and excessively diverting tribute to Austen that feels both groundbreaking and celebratory. I am always happy to have a reason to think about Jane Austen, so I was genuinely excited to read upon release as an e-book—and knew I wanted this for my home library, so much so that I added it to my Austenesque Jolabokaflod 2025 Book Wishlist. Cross your fingers that the Jolabokaflod exchange delivers!
Looser approaches Jane Austen with a sharp, invigorating idea: to read her life and work through the charged, underestimated concept of “wild.” By tracking Austen’s own use of the word and its shifting emotional, moral, and political meanings, Looser uncovers a writer far more daring and alert to disorder than the polished myth allows. Close readings of the novels, paired with unpublished writings and historical context, reveal Austen as a keenly subversive observer shaped by a world alive with upheaval and contradiction.
Just as compelling is Looser’s portrait of Austen’s milieu, populated by eccentric relatives, scandal-adjacent acquaintances, and unexpected influences that puncture the image of a cloistered, uneventful life. The book’s last pages turn to Austen’s cultural afterlife—spanning literature, popular culture, and curious near-misses—underscores her ongoing power to provoke and inspire. Wild for Austen refreshes even the most familiar novels, deepening appreciation for Austen’s intelligence, feminism, and enduring audacity, and making a strong case for why she continues to feel startlingly alive.
I am an unabashed fanatic of Devoney Looser's work and can easily recommend Wild for Austen to the Austen acolyte or distinguished scholar. 10/10.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Devoney Looser is Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University. (Her name is pronounced DEV-oh-nee LOE-sir). She is a Guggenheim fellow and a NEH Public Scholar.
She is the author or editor of twelve books, including Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane (a USA Today Best-selling Book), Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës, The Making of Jane Austen, a Publishers Weekly Best Summer Book (Nonfiction), and The Daily Jane Austen: A Year of Quotes. Her recent essays have appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, Salon, The TLS, and the Washington Post, and she's had the pleasure of talking about Austen on CNN.
Devoney, a Minnesota native, traded in her ice skates for roller skates in her middle age and has played roller derby under the name Stone Cold Jane Austen. She and her husband, George Justice, Provost of the University of Tulsa, are parents to two adult sons. You can connect with Devoney via her website and social media.
Got it on the wishlist.
Sounds like a fantastic book!