As I am marking Jane Austen’s 250th birthday with Jane Austen Month here, many authors are also fittingly marking this major milestone. This year, we have several new books related to Jane Austen being published. (I mean, we always have some, but we have more this year than normal!) I’ve gathered the books that I’ve had my eye on- some have already been published, some haven’t, but I will be reading all of them. Let’s get into the best Jane Austen 250th anniversary books!
The Best Jane Austen 250th Anniversary Books
Jane Austen’s Bookshelf, Rebecca Romney
Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always, allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more.
But Austen wasn’t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers—and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen’s work. Every character in Northanger Abbey who isn’t a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in Mansfield Park is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase “pride and prejudice” came from Frances Burney’s second novel Cecilia. The women that populated Jane Austen’s bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn’t Romney—despite her training—ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?
Jane Austen’s Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes—women writers who were erased from the Western canon—to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth—and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen’s bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. Jane Austen’s Bookshelf will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.
Why You Should Read This…
As of publishing (May 2025), I’ve not read this yet- I’m actually saving it for the site hiatus to be able to sit and enjoy. While I will be sharing my thoughts after I’ve read it, I’m at no less than nine different people recommending it as a must-read!
Living with Jane Austen, Janet Todd
Fanny Price, in Mansfield Park, tells her persistent suitor that ‘we have all a better guide in ourselves…than any other person can be’. Sometimes, however, we crave external guidance: and when this happens we could do worse than seek it in Jane Austen’s own subtle novels. Written to coincide with Austen’s 250th birthday, this approachable and intimate work shows why and how – for over half a century – Austen has inspired and challenged its author through different phases of her life. Part personal memoir, part expert interaction with all the letters, manuscripts and published novels, Janet Todd’s book reveals what living with Jane Austen has meant to her and what it might also mean to others. Todd celebrates the undimmable power of Austen’s work to help us understand our own bodies and our environment, and teach us about patience, humour, beauty and the meaning of home.
Why You Should Read This…
While I’ve got a full review here, I loved this approach to Austen’s works. Part literary analysis, part memoirs, Todd’s exploration of Austen’s novels and what they might mean in our own lives is quietly brilliant. It isn’t a quick read, but it gave me a lot to ponder and think on.
The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography, Janine Barchas with Isabel Greenberg (illustrator)
The Novel Life of Jane Austen is a one-of-a-kind, impeccably researched, ecstatically drawn graphic biography of one of the world’s most beloved literary icons. Combining deep scholarship and serious whimsy, The Novel Life of Jane Austen presents this literary icon as the starring character in her own graphic novel. Told in three parts (Budding Writer 1796-1797); Struggling Artist 1801-1809; Published Author 1811-1817), the gritty circumstances of Austen’s own genteel poverty and the small daily injustices so often borne by creative women at this time, are told against the backdrop of Georgian England and reflect, down to the smallest detail, many of the plots and characters woven into Austen’s greatest works. All the settings and scenarios presented here are based upon the historical record, including the clothing, architecture, decor, and Regency locations. Sprinkled throughout, the Easter eggs and clever references to popular film adaptations of Austen’s novels will satisfy the casual and avid Austen fan alike.
Why You Should Read This…
I have to say, I was exceptionally glad that I got myself a colour Kobo when this book was recommended to me! This is a quick biography of Austen’s life that covers the major points with a lot of humour and a lot of creativity. (A full review is coming ASAP!) If you enjoy Austen’s books and graphic novels (or want to give the form a try), I would recommend The Novel Life of Jane Austen.
Jane Austen: The Biography, Elizabeth Jenkins
In the small town of Steventon, Hampshire, one of the world’s most important authors was born…
Jane Austen is a luminary of the global literary canon and is adored for her wit, social observation and insight into the lives of women.
But behind the books is a life largely unknown, with an idyllic childhood, a busy social life and an affectionate family circle.
Elizabeth Jenkins’ account of Austen’s story not only brings to life the country gentry of Regency England, but also illuminates the character and mind of one of the most unusually perceptive and gifted writers the world has ever known.
Richly drawn and in picturesque detail, Jenkins pulls together fact and fiction to show how Jane Austen’s life, lived with quiet passion, inspired some of the most beloved novels to date.
Why You Should Read This…
I am currently reading an eARC of this biography, and I’m enjoying it! It is a re-issuing of Jenkins’ 1938 biography of Austen, and although the language is slightly different from what we are used to, it is wonderful. Jenkins was involved in the Jane Austen Society’s founding and helped the group to purchase Chawton House (known to many now as the Jane Austen House Museum).
Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Legacy, Devoney Looser (2 September 2025)
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 used as evidence 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.
Why You Should Read This…
This is another book that I will be reading in July during the hiatus! I’m lucky enough to have an eARC and it is taking all of my willpower not to crack into it now. Looser is one of the Austen scholars of the twenty-first century and for good reason- she is more than intelligent, humorous, and a great writer. (If you’ve not read The Making of Jane Austen and Sister Novelists, I cannot recommend them enough!)
♠
Want more Jane Austen?
Must Visit-Places for Jane Austen Fans
Five Authors Who Inspired Jane Austen
My Favourite Austen-ish Period Dramas
The Best Jane Austen Biography Books and Sources
Book Bite: The Friendly Jane Austen
Book Bite: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew
Have you read any of these books? And how are you marking Jane Austen’s 250th birthday?
Cheers,
The Historian
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