Nearly a month later, I am still mulling over the Jane Austen talk that I attended in London with Zoë McGee and Devoney Looser. Both had brilliant things to say and left me with a lot to think over. Something that has stuck out is the idea that Austen’s place in the Western literary canon because she was considered safe (largely by the Victorians and then it persisted). However, there is a lot more darkness, violence, and difficulty lurking in our favourite Austen novels than we realise. Courting Disaster by Zoë McGee explores that violence, and how our modern understanding has missed a lot of it.
Courting Disaster: Reading Between the Lines of the Regency Novel, Zoë McGee
Drawing parallels with the #MeToo movement, this book explores how a series of brilliant female authors in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries cleverly used the novel as a vehicle for ground-breaking discussions about consent.
What do #MeToo and Jane Austen have in common? More than you might think.
Ever since the novel was invented, women have used it as a platform for sharing ideas about sexual consent. Dr Zoë McGee reveals how Jane Austen, Frances Burney and their now-overlooked contemporaries used their stories to try to change society’s mind about rape culture – and to reassure survivors they were not alone.
Courting Disaster takes a timely deep-dive into a series of classic novels, comparing them with both historic court records and current events to show that our arguments about consent are not a new phenomenon. With the wit and wryness of a courtship novel, McGee reads between the lines to unveil a quiet feminist movement that still resonates today. Because every novel about marriage is also a novel about consent.
In an era that’s clamouring for a return to the values of the past, Courting Disaster asks what that would really mean, and whether anyone actually liked it back then anyway…
Why You Should Read This…
I’ve recommended this a few times on the site already (and elsewhere) but I wanted to give you a full review.
WHAT. A. BOOK. I’ll be very honest- I had originally planned on waiting until Courting Disaster is released in Canada and buying it then, as I was trying to stick to my budget. (Trying is the keyword….) I also wasn’t sure how I would do with the subject matter, as I am fairly squeamish and it is not an easy subject matter. However, after seeing McGee speak, I knew that I had to read it immediately.
McGee has more than succeeded at an immensely difficult task here. Courting Disaster leads us through an exceptionally difficult topic (the question of consent and relating issues, like assault) with patience, creativity, and wit, and makes it clear why this is still such an important topic for all of us. In 2025, we are still seeing widespread attacks on women’s legal positions in many countries, not to mention social difficulties that are quickly intensifying. It is a serious topic and one we need to pay attention to. While McGee does a great job of finding humour where she can (we cope with dark topics in a number of ways), she also does not take it lightly.
I also love that she guides us as readers through the unspoken ideas and themes in the eighteenth and nineteenth century novels that have remained popular. They would have been easily understood by contemporary readers but as social behaviours and concepts have evolved over the centuries, those “red flags” are not as obvious to us. There are SO. MANY. LAYERS to these novels that completely go over our heads, and it is so helpful as a modern reader. It also has given me a lot to think on, which I love as a reader.
We tend to romanticise Regency novels but there is a lot more to them than you see when first reading them. This book is absolutely brilliant and I think anyone who enjoys Austen should be reading it!
Is Courting Disaster by Zoë McGee on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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