It truly is the year of Austen in 2025, which I am so thrilled about. There are plenty of events, things to watch, see and do, and perhaps most importantly, read.

I have my eye on many new Austen titles I’ll share as the year goes on, but today, I’m really pleased to share with you a new book by an incredible, world-renowned Jane Austen and women’s writing scholar, Janet Todd. I have been lucky enough to have been given a copy of this book by its published Cambridge University Press to share with you today: Living with Jane Austen.

This is such a unique book. It’s partly a memoir, meandering through Todd’s life and career and how it has met with Austen and her words, how her opinions and understanding of Austen and her work have changed over time, as well as an incredibly expert close reading of various themes that crop up in not only Austen’s letters and novels, but the things she read herself.

“Jane Austen is not my secret friend … Here in this book I try to stay with her writing, with her novels, letters and jolly tales – and control my desire for intimacy with their author.”

This is a feat in itself, as Todd recognises throughout the book. How many of us think we know Austen and infer things about her by reading her novels or learning her biography? I know I’m guilty of this, and I also try not to do it. I think when an author’s work means so much to so many, and they feel far removed from us because of time, so we can’t ask them personally all the questions we want answering, it’s hard not to.

But Todd gives a masterclass in this. I’ve finished this book feeling like I know Austen’s work in a new way, thinking about details and ideas I hadn’t previously paid attention to, without creating new ideas about the author’s life.

She explores the meaning of Pemberley, the potential darkness of Darcy as a hero, how Austen’s writing style of free indirect speech works to reveal her characters’ thoughts, nervousness and mental health, illness and interactions with nature and the outdoors, as well as giving and taking advice from Austen and her characters.

In some ways, I found that the book not only explored Todd’s life living with Austen as a research subject and enthusiast, but also the idea of living in the work of Jane Austen, as in everyday experiences of her characters and in her letters. I particularly enjoyed the discussions of health and sickness, as well as nerves. We’re so used to thinking about Mrs Bennet being a point of comedy crying over her “poor nerves!” in Pride and Prejudice, that it was really interesting for Todd to weave together a bigger picture of Austen’s world of health and affliction.

In addition, I have to admit, I love a book about Austen with a personal touch. I’ve devoured memoirs relating to Austen: from Amy Elizabeth Smith’s All Roads Lead to Austen to Deborah Yaffe’s Among the Janeites, all the different perspectives are so interesting to me and I have others on my list. (Hello The Jane Austen Remedy by Ruth Wilson and Austen Years by Rachel Cohen.)

Todd gives a light touch with this aspect: but the details that play in make her connection to the subject and her life as an academic in parallel to writing about Austen so relatable. From boarding school experiences, moving frequently as a child and as an adult following a career, to her own health issues and the lives of some of her family members, these little details serve to show how much Austen’s work means to us. Most of all, her discussions of her path to finding an academic approach to Austen through critics she followed and read – F. R. Leavis, Kate Millett, to name a few – are fascinating. Todd writes with an easy, inviting style peppered with so many details that had me looking up Austen’s contemporaries and returning to things I thought I knew.

This is a treasury of life in Austen’s writing and a testament to how important her work is to each and every one of us: and I look forward to returning to her novels with fresh eyes. Living with Jane Austen was published on March 20th and is available now.

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Thank you to Cambridge University Press and Austenprose for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for review.