By Bill Gaither
Members met on June 7, 2026 for a lively discussion of Devoney Looser’s Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane (2025). Co-regional coordinator Sara Tavela presided and also created the questions for discussion. Member and scholar Mary Jane Curry moderated the discussion together with Sara. This was a Virtual Book Club meeting.
Mary Jane provided a brief introduction to Professor Looser and her work, including Looser’s many contributions to the study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English literature (such as her books The Making of Jane Austen and Sister Novelists) and her unstinting efforts to make such scholarship accessible to the general public. Looser lectured at JASNA-NC’s 2026 Virtual Conference (https://jasnanorthcarolina.org/events/conference-2026/).
As members noted, Wild for Austen provides an entertaining and researched-based sampling of many areas of Austen scholarship, united under the theme of “wildness.” The focus on “wildness” is Looser’s deliberate counter to a lingering popular perception of Austen as a retiring spinster who wrote dull novels about frivolous characters.
In Part I of Wild for Austen, Looser explores wildness in Austen’s fiction and verse, from the juvenilia to Sanditon. As members noted, although Looser analyzes several distinct meanings of “wild” in Austen’s works, her chief argument is that “wild” and its derivatives are “frequently used positively to describe bold women and their active imaginations, strong feelings, and unconventional choices.” Members accepted the validity of this view for some of Austen’s heroines (including Catherine Morland, the Dashwood sisters, and Elizabeth Bennet) but noted that Looser fails to address the negative consequences of feminine exuberance in the cases of Marianne Dashwood’s serious illness after Willoughby’s desertion and Lydia Bennet’s marriage to the unprincipled Wickham.
Members enjoyed much of the content of Part II of the book, which focuses on incidents involving members of Austen’s extended family, and Part III, which focuses on rather sensational instances of Austen’s influence on popular culture. Most of the chapters in Parts II and III provide a brief overview of a topic within the field of Austen studies as well as an excursion into a single intriguing issue. Austen and her works are never forgotten.
For example, an overview of Austen’s letters, their provenance, wit, and occasional snarkiness, leads to a detailed analysis of Austen’s self-characterization in a letter as a “Wild Beast.” An account of the shoplifting trial of Jane Leigh Perrot leads to observations about the importance of reputation in Austen’s novels. A consideration of Austen’s views on slavery leads to analyses of the Reverend George Austen’s trusteeship in an Antiguan plantation, brother Frank’s public association (discovered by Looser) with the abolition movement, and the dark side (another Looser discovery) of brother Charles’s successful capture of the slave-trader ship Nuevo Campeador.
Although members praised the scope and variety of Parts II and III, some felt that Looser’s treatments were too brief. Others felt that the book was too encyclopedic and needed more focus on Austen’s fiction, with the content of Parts II and III moved to a separate book.
In the next-to-last chapter of Wild for Austen, Looser describes why and how she loves Jane Austen’s writings. In a varied discussion of this topic, members nevertheless voiced a common theme, that the more that one learns about Austen and her fiction, and the more that one rereads the novels, the greater are the pleasure and the appreciation that are found. Looser herself thoughtfully characterizes Austen’s novels as “not only a profound personal pleasure to read and reread but also a shared vehicle to explore with others what it might be to try to live a meaningful life in a world that’s deeply unfair.”
Next Up
In July, we will have our annual Fun & Games meeting, and in August is our next Virtual Book Club where we will be reading our Austen selection, Northanger Abbey.