The Latest from Devoney (August 2024)

Wild for Austen is coming in September 2025 . . .

Dear Jane-Friends:

It’s been a while. I hope the past few months have been good ones? I’ve been in semi-hiding, hunkering down to write. I’m happy to report my soon-to-be book, Wild for Austen, is now in revisions. Printing out a manuscript for the first time never fails to thrill. Thanks for letting me celebrate this milestone with you!

Wild for Austen

Wild for Austen delves into what’s wild in the great novelist’s life and fiction, as well as those who’ve gone wild over her in the years after her death. It’s on track for a planned fall 2025 release from my fabulous publisher, St. Martin’s Press. I’ll be keeping you up to date on its rollout as we head into Austen’s Sestercentennial (the 250th anniversary of her birth) on December 16, 2025.

In the meantime, if you know of any physical or virtual places I ought to visit as part of a book tour in 2025–26, especially festivals, bookstores, libraries, conferences, conventions—please suggest them to me? Or better yet, suggest me to them as a possible featured author or speaker. I’d welcome the chance to visit your hometown on book tour.

Halo Statue

There’s certainly much in the news now that deserves our closer attention, but on the Janeite front, there are some headlines, too. My dad used to tell a terrible joke with the punchline, “Halo Statue.” (“Hello. Is that you?”) I can’t stop thinking about it with the controversial Austen statue planned for Winchester Cathedral, which seems to be moving forward. This one, like the Jane Austen Centre’s wax figure, will surely be popular for photo ops.

I have no problem with the statue itself, but the mention of its “tranquil domestic setting” being a fitting one for her makes me sick and wicked. Which scenes could they be thinking of? The Portsmouth home of the Prices? Norland Park after Fanny Dashwood arrives? Perhaps Kellynch Hall under Sir Walter Elliot’s retrenchment. My poor nerves.

Southampton Jane

Other kinds of plans are afoot in Southampton, England. Sadly (to my mind) calls to preserve its Dolphin Hotel, where Austen danced on her 18th birthday, have failed. Smithsonian Magazine recently wrote about approved plans for the property to be turned into dormitories. Perhaps some portion of it will have its historic character maintained, as promised? Let’s hope. More happily, I’ll be among those speaking at the Global Jane Austen Conference in Southampton in July 10-12, 2025. It’s an absolute dream team of Austen researchers, and I’m honored to be among them. Hope to see you there!

Coming-Soon and Just-Arrived Jane

It’s thrilling to learn that Soniah Kamal’s fine “P&P in Pakistan” novel, Unmarriageable, has been optioned for film. I was wowed by the sneak listen I got into Amanda Prahl and Anna Marcus-Hecht’s Persuasion: The Making of a Musical Adaptation, debuting some of their songs, at the recent Virtual Jane Con. I’m looking forward to the 2025 release of Natalie Jenner’s moving Victorian novel, Austen at Sea and am so grateful we share a publisher. You’re not going to want to miss Rebecca Romney’s fantastic work of criticism, history, sleuthing, and bibliomemoir, Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend, coming in February 2025. I’ve been reading about Black Girl Loves Jane’s Damianne Scott in the JASP Janeite spotlight and can’t wait for her presentation at the JASNA AGM in Cleveland in October. On my TBR pile this month is Susan Allen Ford’s What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why), just published. I’m sure there are many other things I’ve missed. I’ll try to keep abreast of some of them and report back.

XXXIV and $4700

It’s clearly going to be a wild time for all things Austen, including products. If you have a Lady Catherine-sized bank account, perhaps you’ll want this new Mont Blanc Jane Austen pen? The limited edition version has the shocking price tag of $4700. You’ll be intrigued to know that “The cap ring is inscribed with the Roman numerals XXXIV” which “signifies the chapter in which the excessively proud Mr Darcy proposes to the wise and independent female protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet.” Who comes up with this stuff? Shouldn’t they have priced it £10,000 and used Austen’s birth year, MDCCLXXV, for their Roman numerals?

Sister Novelists in Kansas

I haven’t left the Porter sisters entirely behind. In July, I had the chance to revisit an important site for my research on Sister Novelists, the fabulous Spencer Library at the University of Kansas. Special Collections Curator Elspeth Healy put together a fantastic pop-up exhibit of Jane and Anna Maria Porter’s papers, books, and locks of hair (!). That meant I got to speak about these remarkable author-sisters with their things nearby, in conversation with a robust audience of KU librarians, faculty, staff, and students, as well as a few intrepid JASNA-KC members.

If you’ve read Sister Novelists, I hope you’ll want to continue to help me spread the word, perhaps with a rating on Goodreads, Amazon, Audible, or BookBub (or wherever you like to review and rate books) or with a good old-fashioned recommendation of it to a book-loving friend.

I look forward to experiencing a robust period of Jane-ness together over the next year and a half. I’ll be writing you more often, which I hope is okay. As ever, please reach out if you think there’s something I ought to notice about Austen, the Porter sisters, strong women, or roller derby? (Alas, there hasn’t been much roller derby for me in 2024, but I tell myself that finishing Wild for Austen was worth it.)

Thanks so much for being (and staying) connected, in literary sisterhood,

Devoney

P. S. Feel free to forward this newsletter to a friend who might want to join us here. I’ve said it before (with apologies for mangling Austen’s beautiful prose): How quick come the reasons for forwarding what we like!