ASU Book Group: ‘Wild for Austen’ by Devoney Looser

Just in time to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, the ASU Book Group's October 2025 reading selection is “Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane” by Austen expert Devoney Looser, a Regents Professor of English at ASU. 

The book group is open to all in the ASU community and meets monthly this fall from noon to 1 p.m. This special meeting of the book group also celebrates the Department of English's 125th anniversary as part of ASU Humanities Week and includes a swag giveaway for in-person attendees!

Haven't read the book? Come anyway! Authors are always present.

*Note new in-person location for 2025.

Synopsis

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.

About the book group

The ASU Book Group meetings and selections for fall 2025 are:

Sept. 25 - “Every Sound Is Not a Wolf” by Alberto Ríos

Oct. 23 - “Wild for Austen” by Devoney Looser

Nov. 13 - “Roadside” by Dylan Park-Pettiford

Dec. - no meeting

The ASU Book Group is sponsored as a community outreach initiative hosted in partnership between the Department of English and ASU Library.