India, Sept. 26 -- letters@hindustantimes.com

What comes to mind when you think of Jane Austen? For many, it's the genteel figure of a country rector's daughter, quietly spinning tales of romance and refinement in Regency drawing rooms. The image has endured for two centuries, softened further by costume dramas and afternoon tea tributes.

But a new book, Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, upends that familiar portrait. Acclaimed Austen scholar Devoney Looser reimagines Austen not as a delicate chronicler of polite society, but as a sharp-eyed satirist, a woman of ambition and wit whose insights into human folly crackle with modern relevance.

Looser not only re-examines all six of Austen's completed novels for ...