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| Jane Austen July 2026 Reads |
July Wrap-Up
- Finished: 6
- Started but not finished: 2
- Total pages read: 1,914
- Average rating: 4.2
This was my third year of participating in Jane Austen July, and again, I had a great time. That means that most of the books I read this month were Austen-related.
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The main
goal of Jane Austen July is obviously to read one of Austen’s six main novels.
My pick for this year was Mansfield Park, which was the first Austen
novel I ever read. Fanny Price might be an unusual heroine: shy and
introverted, she lacks the wit and vivacity of Elizabeth Bennet and Emma
Woodhouse. But as an introvert myself, I have a soft spot for Fanny and find
her struggles relatable. It was interesting to reread and annotate the book now
that I’m older and to see how Austen uses the narrative as a social commentary
on the selfishness of rich people. You can find a longer review of the book behind the link.
Sanditon
For a Jane
Austen work that is not one of her six main novels, I decided to read Sanditon.
Sanditon is Jane Austen’s unfinished novel and last work she wrote. She
started the manuscript in January 1817 before her death on July 18, 1817. The
fragment contains the first twelve chapters and does barely more than introduce
the main players that the story would have had. Mr. Parker, an industrious rich
man, is determined to make his seaside village of Sanditon a fashionable
bathing place. After his carriage is overturned, he invites the daughter of the
gentleman who helps him to join him and his wife to experience the pleasures of
the place.
The main character Charlotte Heywood is a practical and sensible 22-year-old woman. Unfortunately, we learn very little about her for her to make much of an impression. She mostly sees and experiences what other people do and say. Presumably she would have ended up marrying Mr. Parker’s younger brother Sidney, but as Sidney only arrives in Sanditon in Chapter 12, we don’t see them interacting with each other. Sir Edward, a wannabe rake, makes an interesting character as well, and it would have been fascinating to see what Jane Austen would have done with rest of the hypochondriac set of characters she created.
An unfinished novel by Jane Austen must always be a little disappointing, not because of the writing or the story, but because we will never know what could have been. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Sanditon to a casual reader, but it’s a must read for any die-hard Jane Austen fan. I gave it five stars.
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England by Daniel Pool
This long
title was my choice for a nonfiction book about Jane Austen and her time. What
Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew is a companion to the
nineteenth-century British novels of Austen, Dickens, Trollope, and the Brontë sisters.
The book is divided into two sections. The first contains an introduction to
life in 19th-century England, giving basic information of things like currency,
basic etiquette, card games and dinner parties, transport, and home life. Part
two is a glossary of terms a reader of 19th-century English literature might
need to know.
This book is dense with information and at points a rather slow read, but it isn’t really intended to be a nonfiction book you devour. It’s more a handbook that you consult when reading a classic novel and coming across something that confuses you or something you wish to learn more about. Unfortunately, the illustrations have too small or low-resolution text to be very helpful, and because the book covers such a broad scope, it inevitably is a rather shallow introduction to everything it discusses. Nevertheless, it is still a valuable guide to English classic literature and life in the 19th-century England. I gave it four stars.
Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price
For a
retelling of Jane Austen’s work, I chose Tirzah Price’s young adult murder
mystery Pride and Premeditation. The murder mystery was interesting
enough, but unfortunately, the book fell flat in the Pride and Prejudice
elements. There was no chemistry between Lizzie and Darcy, and their slow burn
romance was replaced with almost insta-love. I also found myself getting
increasingly annoyed with the historical anachronisms that the book is rife
with (and the author acknowledges herself). However, the average teen reader
might not care about the anachronisms and will probably enjoy the book more
than I did. I ended up giving the book three stars.
Lovers’ Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald
For the book
by a contemporary of Jane Austen, I chose a play that ties nicely with the main
Austen novel I read this year. Elizabeth Inchbald’s Lovers’ Vows (1798)
is a translation or adaptation of an originally German play Das Kind der
Liebe by August von Kotzebue (1790). As it features heavily in Mansfield
Park, this made an interesting contemporary companion to Jane Austen’s novel.
The plot of the play is rather conventional. A destitute woman is reunited with her long-lost son and tells him of how she was seduced and gave birth to him out of wedlock. Meanwhile, the boy’s father is trying to determine whether his daughter is in love with a foppish count. As it turns out, she’s secretly in love with her tutor, a priest.
Because of how the play is talked about in Mansfield Park, I was maybe expecting something more scandalous, but I can see why the Regency audience would have found the play (or at least an engaged amateur actress repeatedly practicing a scene where she embraces another man) morally questionable. Lovers’ Vows isn’t necessarily worth the read as a play, but it does help one to understand Mansfield Park better. I gave it four stars.
Mansfield Park Adaptations
The last
two challenges of Jane Austen July are to watch an adaptation of Jane Austen’s
novel and to watch something related to Jane Austen. I actually decided not to
do the last challenge this year, although I might rewatch Lucy Worsley’s Austen
documentary at some point. For Mansfield Park adaptations, I watched the 2007 TV
movie and a BBC miniseries from 1983. The TV movie obviously heavily condensed
the events of the book, but for the most part the decisions made sense. The
biggest problems were the characterization of Lady Bertram as little more
perceptive than in the book and leaving Fanny alone in Mansfield Park instead
of sending her back to Portsmouth – I’m sure it was due to budget restrictions,
but it didn’t feel like a punishment for Fanny.
The 1983 adaptation is the most accurate Mansfield Park adaptation I’ve seen. I wish they would redo something similar with a bigger budget! The script was mostly fine, if we don’t count the rather silly interaction between Fanny and Edmund where Fanny thanks Edmund for everything he has taught her. I would have replaced it with the thematically pivotal conversation about how Fanny doesn’t believe she could ever be important to anyone. I’m also always a rather distracted by how much Fanny’s actress acts with her hands. But if I’m ever in a mood to watch a Mansfield Park adaptation, this is the adaptation I choose.
August Hopefuls
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| August Hopefuls |
Besides
Jane Austen related books, I had time to start two other books in July that I
will finish in August. Amélie Wen Zhao’s young adult fantasy Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White I’ve already finished and reviewed. I’m also in
the middle of a feminist nonfiction, Marilyn French’s The War Against Women.
It’s a reread; I’ve read the book once about twenty-five years ago.
My goal is to read two other fantasy novels this month: Lena Jeong’s Korean-inspired young adult fantasy And Break the Pretty Kings and M.L. Wang’s adult fantasy Blood Over Bright Haven. I also want to start rereading Betty Friedan’s feminist nonfiction classic The Feminine Mystique.
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If you want to see more about the books I read, check out the YouTube video below:
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