Wild for Austen
A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
USA Today Bestseller!
Incisive, funny, and deeply-researched insights into the life, writing, and legacy of Jane Austen, by the preeminent scholar Devoney Looser.
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this wide-ranging exploration of the life and reputation of Jane Austen (1775–1817), Looser, an Arizona State University English professor and author of The Making of Jane Austen, makes the case for shedding "the old, tired stereotypes of safety and simplicity" associated with the writer and acknowledging her "wild side." Looser traces themes of boldness, resistance to control, and unconventionality in Austen's writing, family circle, and legacy. The first section focuses on moments in Austen's fiction when female characters are positively described as "wild," like the clever, strong-willed Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice. In the second section, Looser explores Austen's family life to show the writer was not as sheltered as commonly thought. For example, she points to relatives' ties to the abolition movement and tells the story of a criminally charged aunt who may have been a kleptomaniac. The third section explores wildness superimposed on Austen's legacy, from the creation of Austen-themed erotica (Spank Me, Mr. Darcy) to attempts to reconstruct what Austen looked like, as no verified portrait of her exists. There is a great deal of intriguing material on offer, but Looser's definition of wild is so broad her premise lacks a clear focus. Still, dedicated Austen fans will relish these fresh insights.
