Jane Austen July 2026

Jane Austen July hopefuls

 

Jane Austen July is a month long readathon all about Jane Austen, her novels and other writings, and her time period. I’ve taken part in the challenge the last two years (you can find my 2024 TBR and wrap-up as well as the 2025 TBR and wrap-up behind the links). As Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors, I’ve loved this challenge, and naturally, I want to take part this year as well.

There are seven challenges in this readathon: five books and two screen adaptations. You can find more information about the challenge from the Youtube videos posted by the hosts of the challenge (Katie from Books and Things, Marissa from Blatantly Bookish, and Claudia from Spinster’s Library).

Here’s what I’m planning to read this year and my reasons for picking them.

 

Challenge 1: Read one of Jane Austen’s six main novels

Reading one of Jane Austen’s main novels is obviously the main reason for the readathon. There are six novels to choose from: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey. In previous years, I’ve read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.

This year, I want to continue in the order of publication and reread Mansfield Park. Incidentally, it also happens to be the read along book for this year’s challenge. I’m not sure if I’ll participate in the read along per se, as I’m not sure if I’ll be able to follow the schedule. But I’m excited to read it and continue my practice of annotating Jane Austen novels. I don’t usually annotate novels, but I’ve noticed how annotating helps me pick up things that I haven’t noticed before. For annotation purposes, I’ll be reading an old Penguin paperback, but I also own a pretty Penguin Clothbound edition, and I want to read the introduction and notes from that.

Mansfield Park was actually the first Jane Austen novel I ever read back when I was sixteen. I’ve reread it at least twice since then, but it’s been years since I last read it. I love Fanny’s introverted character—there aren’t many heroines like her. I know she can come off as rather boring, but I love her silent strength and see a lot of myself in her. It will be interesting to see how I feel about her and the book now that I’m older.

There’s another reason I’m excited to read Mansfield Park. I watched a 2025 Jane Austen documentary, Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius, earlier this year. The documentary includes a fascinating discussion on Mansfield Park and slavery, and how Fanny’s role as almost as an unpaid servant of the household fits that theme. It will be interesting to read the book from that viewpoint.

 

Challenge 2: Read a Jane Austen work that is not one of her six main novels

Besides her six finished novels, Jane Austen left behind unfinished novels, short stories she wrote between eleven and seventeen years of age, and letters. In previous years, I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s juvenilia, Lady Susan, and The Watsons, and it hasn’t been many years since I read her letters. That leaves me her last unfinished novel: Sanditon.

 

Challenge 3: Read a non-fiction work about Jane Austen or her time

There are tons of nonfiction works about Jane Austen and her works as well as the Regency period in general. I especially recommend the two books I’ve read in previous years: Lucy Worsley’s biography Jane Austen at Home and John Mullan’s literary analysis What Matters in Jane Austen.

This year, my pick is Daniel Pool’s What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—The Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England. This looks like a fascinating and information-packed guide to the rules and customs of everyday life in 19th-century England. It has around 400 pages with rather small font, so we’ll see if I actually finish it in July.

 

Challenge 4: Read a retelling of Jane Austen book or a work of historical fiction set in Jane Austen’s time

There are tons of books to choose from for this challenge as well! This year, I decided to try something slightly different and read an Austen-inspired murder mystery. I don’t usually read a lot of mysteries or detective stories, but for some reason, I feel summer is the perfect time for a little mystery. I chose Tirzah Price’s Pride and Premeditation, a Young Adult murder mystery based on (as the title suggests) Pride and Prejudice.

In previous years, I’ve read Jane Austen retellings by Uzma Jalaluddin, Ayesha at Last and Much Ado about Nada. If you’re interested in reading Austen-inspired tales about Muslim families living in modern day Toronto, Canada, I recommend Jalaluddin’s books. And if you want to support an indie author and would love to read a kiss-only small town enemies-to-lovers romance between a brewer and a vintner, I highly recommend Amanda Darcy’s Pride and Prejudice retelling Of Love and Beer.

And since I am the author of two Jane Austen retellings, I obviously can’t pass the opportunity to do some self-promotion. My debut novel Caytee (*Amazon affiliate link) is a modern Northanger Abbey retelling. The main character is an avid reader of Young Adult paranormal romance novels and absolutely certain that the guy she has a crush on must secretly be a vampire. If you like books that poke fun at overused tropes in YA books, Caytee is a fun light summer read.

My second novel Comes with an Attitude is a modern Pride and Prejudice retelling. The main character Allie Graham is a singer in an alt-rock band. When pop music superstar Will Denham insults her music, she is determined to show him she is more than just a pretty face. There’s also a matchmaking manager insisting Allie takes every opportunity to get more publicity for the band, and a troublesome lead guitarist. If you want a light-hearted kiss-only enemies-to-lovers romance set in the world of modern music industry, Comes with an Attitude comes out July 13. The ebook is now available for pre-order (*Amazon affiliate link).

 

Challenge 5: Read a book by a contemporary of Jane Austen

Another challenge where there is no lack of books to choose from! Some of Austen contemporaries or predecessors I’ve enjoyed are Frances Burney’s Evelina and Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. In previous years, I’ve read Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda and Frances Burney’s Cecilia. I didn’t enjoy them as much as Austen’s novels (or Burney’s Evelina), but I liked them well enough.

But since I’m reading Mansfield Park this year, I want to finally read Lovers’ Vows, Elizabeth Inchbald’s 1798 play. If I have time, I might also attempt to reread Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768). It’s a rather short book that I read about a decade ago, but I don’t remember much about it. It includes the story of a caged starling that Maria Bertram refers to in passing in a private conversation with Henry Crawford.

 

Challenge 6: Watch a direct screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book

For this challenge, I’m going to watch the Mansfield Park miniseries from 1983. Despite looking very low budget, it’s probably the best Mansfield Park adaptation out there, as the two movie versions made the questionable decision to try to make Fanny more “interesting” by adding elements from Jane Austen’s own life. I might give the 2007 Billie Piper TV movie a chance, though.

And let’s not kid ourselves. I’ll most likely rewatch my favorite Austen adaptation yet again. That’s the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and it’s become a bit of tradition for me to watch it every summer.

 

Challenge 7: Watch something related to Austen that isn’t a direct adaptation

This challenge is a little different this year. In previous years, the challenge has been to watch a modern screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book, but this year the hosts decided to expand the challenge to include anything related to Jane Austen. I, for one, welcome this change as it’s a challenge I’ve struggled a little bit in the previous years.

I don’t know yet what I’ll be watching for this challenge. I know there’s a modern vlog-style video series From Mansfield with Love which I might watch, but to be honest, there are not many modern adaptations of Austen that I’m particularly interested in watching. I do love Clueless, and last year I watched—and absolutely loved—The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I usually also watch Lucy Worsley’s Jane Austen documentary, which I’ve probably seen half a dozen times by this point. But at this point, I’m leaving my options open, and we’ll see what I’ll end up watching!

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Are you planning to take part in Jane Austen July? What are you going to read?

You an also watch my Jane Austen July TBR video on Youtube:

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