The 2026 Read-Along: Here we go!
Full schedules and info for the 2026 Great Jane Austen Read-Along
So glad you’re here at the Austen Connection, where we seek connection and community through classic literature. You can see all of the Austen Connection conversations including the podcast here. You also can sign up, below, to get all of the conversations and info about the read-along dropped right to your inbox. Join us!
Hello, friends -
Welcome to our second annual read-along! Here’s where you’ll find the complete schedules and dates for the 2026 Great Jane Austen Read-Along. We’re reading All of Austen this year, taking about eight weeks for every novel, which comes out to roughly a chapter a day. We take some weeks off to catch up, and you can jump on or off the read-along train as you wish! Here we go - and cheers!
The 2026 Great Jane Austen Read-Along
Each novel cycle of 4-8 weeks includes a Week 1 welcome/announcement and check-in, a guest post from one of our Read-Along Allstars, usually on week four, a download of read-alikes in a reading list for each novel curated by Read-Along Librarian Tabrizia Jones, and a celebration conversation/video, on the last week of each novel.
Highlights:
Weekly essay posts - you’ll get the essays, the discussions, and the links every Sunday, in time for your morning or afternoon coffee. These are archive read-along posts with close textual reads on the themes from the week’s reading, with new discussions, prompts, links and readers shaping it.
Plus:
Discussion and dialogue - you’ll also see regular prompts on the reading topics with an invitation to talk back, share your insights and questions, and hold conversation with each other. This is the best part!
Guest Posts featuring Austen scholars, authors, creators, and community, one for each novel in this year’s cycle. Some will be our amazing Read-Along all-stars1 from 2025, with some new contributors in the mix.
Celebration Videos featuring discussions of each novel with curators, scholars, and creators, at the end of each novel cycle - which we’ll take from behind the paywall and make free for all.
Curated lists of read-alikes for each novel from Read-Along Librarian Tabrizia Jones who draws from historical and contemporary novels for an expert list of novel pairings that go well with each novel. These are always free and accessible, and are featured at the end of each novel cycle.
Curated links to go with each week’s discussions - linking to podcasts, journalism, and videos connecting to history, pop culture, and the world we’re in.
We hope to add Substack Live chats and more guest posts and fun features as the year rolls out - so stay tuned for more details, and also let us know your ideas for what might make this read-along fun and support your reading as we go!
Who’s in? Grab a book and climb aboard!
All you need to do to ride this read-along train is two things: Grab a book, and get subscribed at the button below, and all the conversations will come right to your inbox:
Get the book! You can get Northanger Abbey from your local library for free, or your local independent bookshop. Other great places to order online include Jane Austen Books, dedicated to Austen and related books, or bookshop.org to support independent book stores. I’ll be reading the Norton Critical edition of each novel, and they come with contextual essays. Any edition is fine, because we won’t refer to pages so much as chapters, so use any edition you adore.
And - subscribe! All the read-along content and discussion will roll out each week, for free the first week, on the Read-Along channel of this Substack. All you a suggested-donation $25 for a “read-along ticket” - below. And if you need to read for free, just Reply to this email and let me know and we’ll sign you up, no questions asked! And - however you’re supporting and reading, thank you! Hi!
The 2026 Read-Along Schedule:
Let’s get in to it: Northanger Abbey is a shorter novel, so we’re going to hit the ground running and do this first novel in one month, reading about eight chapters per week, or about a chapter a day. But no need to rush - you can jump on and off this read-along train any time.
Here’s the full schedule for Northanger Abbey, followed by a snapshot of the dates for the full year of six novels. Each novel cycle is eight weeks, with the exception of the first and last, which are the shortest: Northanger Abbey we’ll do in four weeks, and Persuasion we’ll do in six weeks. The discussions and posts will always drop into your inbox on Sundays throughout the year.
Mark your calendars, here we go!
Northanger Abbey: Sunday, February 1 - Sunday, February 22
Week 1: Chapters 1-8 - by Feb. 1
Welcome, announcement, schedule!
Week 2: Chapters 9-16 - by Feb. 8
Week 3: Chapters 17-24 - by Feb. 15
Guest Post with Bruja Professor Maria DeBlassie
Week 4: Chapters 25-31 - by Feb. 22 - We did it!
Read-Alikes with Read-Along Librarian Tabrizia Jones, and Celebration Video
Sense and Sensibility: Sunday, March 1 - Sunday, April 19
Week 1: Chapters 1-5, Volume 1 - by Sunday, March 1
Welcome, announcement, schedule!
Week 2: Chapters 6-10, Volume 1 - by Sunday, March 8
Week 3: Chapters 11-16, Volume 1 - by Sunday, March 15
Week 4: Chapters 17-22, end of Volume 1 - by Sunday, March 22
Guest Post - Reclaiming Jane’s Lauren Wethers and Emily Davis-Hale!
Week 5: Chapters 1-7, Volume 2 | or Chapters 23-29 - by Sunday, March 29
Week 6: Chapters 8-14, Volume 2 | or Chapters 30-36 - by Sunday, April 5
Week 7: Chapters 1-7, Volume 3 | or Chapters 37-43 - by Sunday, April 12
The Read-Along Read-Alikes List for S&S - from Librarian Tabrizia Jones
Week 8: Chapters 8-14, Volume 3 | or Chapters 44-50 to end - Sunday, April 19
We did it - Celebration Video!
Pride and Prejudice: Sunday, May 3 - Sunday, June 21
Week 1: Chapters 1-8, Volume 1 - by Sunday, May 3
Welcome, announcement, schedule!
Week 2: Chapters 9-16, Volume 1 - by Sunday, May 10
Week 3: Chapters 17-23, Volume 1 - by Sunday, May 17
Week 4: Chapters 1-7, Volume 2 | or Chapters 24-30 - by Sunday, May 24
Week 5: Chapters 8-13, Volume 2 | or Chapters 31-36 - by Sunday, May 31
Guest post - Professor and Author Devoney Looser!
Week 6: Chapters 14-19, Volume 2 | or Chapters 37-42 - by Sunday, June 7
Week 7: Chapters 1-10, Volume 3 | or Chapters 43-53 - by Sunday, June 14
The Read-Along Read-Alikes List for P&P - from Librarian Tabrizia Jones
Week 8: Chapters 11-19, Volume 3 | or Chapters 54-61 - by Sunday, June 21
We did it - Celebration Video!
Mansfield Park: Sunday, July 12 - Sunday, Aug. 30
Week 1: Kick-off - Sunday, July 5
Welcome, announcement, schedule!
Week 2: Chapters 1-6, Volume 1 - by Sunday, July 12
Week 3: Chapters 7-12, Volume 1 - by Sunday, July 19
Week 4: Chapters 13-18, Volume 1 - by Sunday, July 26
Guest post - Jane Austen Society of North America’s Renata Dennis!
Week 5: Chapters 1-6, Volume 2 | or Chapters 19-24 - by Sunday, August 2
Week 6: Chapters 7-13, Volume 2 | or Chapters 25-31 - by Sunday, August 9
Week 7: Chapter 1-6, Volume 3 | or Chapters 32-37 - by Sunday, August 16
Week 8: Chapters 7-12, Volume 3 | or Chapters 38-43 - by Sunday, August 23
The Read-Along Read-Alikes List for MP - from Librarian Tabrizia Jones
Week 9: Chapter 13-17, Volume 3 | or Chapters 44-48 - by Sunday, August 30
Celebration Video - We did it!
Emma: Sunday, Sept. 6 - Sunday, Oct. 25
Week 1: Kick-off and Chapters 1-6, Volume 1 - Sunday, Sept. 6
Welcome, announcement, schedule!
Week 2: Chapters 7-12, Volume 1 - by Sunday, Sept. 13
Week 3: Chapters 13-18, Volume 1 - by Sunday, Sept. 20
Week 4: Chapters 1-6, Volume 2 or Chapters 19-24- by Sunday, Sept 27
Week 5: Chapters 7-12, Volume 2 | or Chapters 25-30 - by Sunday, Oct. 4
Week 6: Chapter 13-18, Volume 2 | or Chapters 31-36 - by Sunday, Oct. 11
Guest post with special guest Georgie Castilla, with Duniath Comics!
Week 7: Chapter 1-10, Volume 3 | or Chapters 37-46 - by Sunday, Oct. 18
The Read-Along Read-Alikes List for Emma - from Librarian Tabrizia Jones
Week 8: Chapters 11-19, Volume 3 | or Chapters 47-55 - by Sunday, Oct. 25
Celebration video - We did it!
Persuasion: Sunday, Nov. 1 - Sunday, Dec. 13
Week 1: Chapters 1-4 - by Sunday, Nov. 8
Welcome, announcement, schedule!
Week 2: Chapters 5-8 - by Sunday, Nov. 15
Week 3: Chapters 9-12 - by Sunday, Nov. 22
Week 4: Chapters 13-16 - by Sunday, Nov. 29
Guest post with author Noreen Mughees!
Week 5: Chapters 17-20 - by Sunday, Dec. 6
The Read-Along Read-alikes for Persuasion - from Librarian Tabrizia Jones
Week 6: Chapters 21-24 - by Sunday, Dec. 13
Celebration video - We did it!
You did it! Celebration Zoom!
✨ Your read-along dreams ✨
Let us know, friends - tell us all your read-along dreams, your ideas and inspirations, and any questions you have about the Read-Along.
Are you planning to join for all or part of this read-along? Did you do any part of the read-along in 2025? Are there any Austen novels you’re tackling for the first time, or a favorite you can’t wait to live through again?! Or is there a novel you’re dreading?!
And, what insights or questions do you have about reading Classics in general. If you’re new to this, let us know your questions or concerns. And if you are a devourer of classics, or fall somewhere in between, let us know: What helps you tackle a classic and get into the world and language of a classic novel? I’ll be thinking about this too, and sharing thoughts as we go - but first, let us know your quesitons and insights! Please share here:
Friends and readers, hope you are having a safe and splendid new year so far. The world outside is challenging, changing, and sometimes heartbreaking. Let’s find time to read fiction, drink tea, and join in conversation and communion with others - along with everything else you are facing right now. Let’s do the things that keep us strong and connect us. And, most importantly, let’s stay well and stay in touch.
Yours so very affectionately,
Plain Jane | PJ
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Again, here’s how to join!
Here are links to the various ways you can join and support the Austen Connection read-along and project - thank you!
📚 Join the read-along by turning on the “read-along” notification - content rolls out free and stays free for one week, here.
📚 Support for $25 - and get a read-along ticket for a suggested donation of $25, and get access to all read-along content all the time, here.
📚 Support as an Austen Connection Member, at $5 per month or $50 per year, for access to all content at all times, here.
If you would like full access but can’t afford to support, simply let us know and you’re in, no questions asked. And in whatever way you choose to join, thank you!
Cool links and community
Heartbreaking Joachim Trier - has anyone else here discovered this director and his trilogy of films that are stunning, visually poetic meditations on family, pain and loss, and the art of film? His latest, Sentimental Values, is winning Golden Globe and Oscar attention, and it’s worth taking a deeper dive into his other works like The Worst Person in the World and the heartbreaking Oslo, August 31. Not sure there are any overt Austen connections to report, but one thing that is striking about Oslo and Sentimental Values is Trier’s intense sense of place, and how the structures of a home can lift us, support us, and envelop us - but yet these beautiful houses that hold us are not enough to contain the pain of our lives. Perhaps there is an Austen connection to this sense of solidity and precarity in a place. And also to the stories about young people navigating their families and their world. Share any thoughts you have if you are watching Trier’s work and his rise. It’s an interesting time to watch films connected to Denmark and Norway.
My dear Cassy, happy new year - backwards! Our esteemed author once wrote to one of her youngest nieces, Cassy Esten Austen, an entire letter, backwards. You can see it at the Morgan Library’s Jane Austen collection. And, thanks, JASNA St. Louis for reminding me that one of my favorite Austen epistolary samples is actually a new-year letter.
What to read after reading Persuasion - here’s the finale of our 2025 read-alikes series from read-along Librarian and Substack writer Tabrizia - thank you, Tabrizia for the thoughtful, insightful, amazing recommendations specially curated for this community. You can also find Tabrizia’s community and conversations at the Substack Cup of Tea With That Book and here:
“This is what community looks like” - it’s a chant from citizens, clergy, and community members in Minneapolis coming out in below-freezing temperatures to come together, pack and deliver food for each other, and express the will for safe community. Here’s what that looks like, from AP livestream yesterday, below. There is no real Austen connection here, but it’s on everyone’s minds I know - and perhaps there is the fact that Austen is writing at a time when life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and how these rights and aspirations get structured, upheld, and enforced in society, are all being decided - and it’s all in the background of these six classic novels. We’ll explore this year, in the 250th year of these United States such as we are.
Screenshot of AP livestream from January 24, 2026 And here’s who they’re saying this to - masked, armed federal agents on the streets of an upper Midwest city:
Screenshot of AP livestream fro January 24, 2026 More Shakespeare discussions:
Shakespeare and Hamnet - Chloé Zhao once sent a 58-minute WhatsApp voice-note to Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell when they were collaborating through WhatsApp on the film adaptation. They talk about it in the Folger Library’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, here.
And, HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? At the end of an extremely emotional final scene on a set that replicates Shakespeare’s Old Globe and is full of film extras, everyone puts on Rihanna, cranks the volume up, and busts out the dance moves. Cannot get enough of this - the sound of the extras roaring like they’re in a dance club heals the trauma that is the experience of this film and is the world right now. Turn it up and enjoy:
The grumpiest review ever - and it’s on Substack by a legendary historian who is also on Substack, AN Wilson - and grumpy as he is, he’s not necessarily wrong:
Shakespeare and second chances - a new book from the always-compelling Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt2 explores how so much of Shakespeare is about a second chance, after all hope is lost. Sound familiar? One of literary history’s greatest Shakespeare fans, Jane Austen, explores this in her last published novel, Persuasion. And we’re hoping to explore the connection between Shakespeare, Austen, and second chances this spring - a great season for second chances. Stay tuned! And meanwhile, here’s the conversation with Greenblatt on the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast.
Also, Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast talked with Professor Patricia Matthew, director of The Race and Regency Lab, in this episode about the Regency, race, and Jane Austen. Enjoy.
The book retreat!
And we’re also hitting the road for a retreat in England - there are just a couple more spaces before this group is finalized, if you want to join us at a grand house in England for a restful reading and discussion retreat. Info below!
Reach out with any questions!
Here are more highlights about what we’re looking forward to in this community in 2026, including some cool screen adaptations! Here we come, 2026!
Have a wonderful week, readers! -PJ
If you enjoy this community - or know of someone who might like to join The Great Jane Austen Read-Along - invite a friend by sharing this post!
The Read-Along All-Stars!
Is Stephen Greenblatt on Substack? And if not, why not?!
Five of my six Austen novels are copies from college — they're old (1980s) Signet Classics (most priced at $2.99!!!) and the front or rear covers of three of them separated from the paperbacks during last year's reading. (I suspect "close" readings meant that I kept the books fully open longer than during all previous readings, and they just cracked along the edges where the covers meet the spines. Plus, each copy has so many Post-it tape flags that each looks looks like it has multicolor eyelashes. But each book is beloved, so I'm keeping them until they literally disintegrate!
I'm looking forward to the daily distraction from what's actually going on in the US. Each morning has me doing my best (worst?) Dorothy Parker impression, shouting out, "What fresh hell is this?" Knowing I can push away the social media and pick up Jane with the expectation of conversing with all of you is giving me my precious moments of zen.
Meanwhile, I'm happy to be starting on Northanger Abbey again, as I didn't fully appreciate it last time around. (It's the one Austen I've read the fewest times, and I was too focused on Austen's lack of sophistication in her first published outing.) However, at Tabrizia's urging, I've been reading Jane Austen's Bookshelf (by Rebecca Romney) and the chapters on Frances Burney and Ann Radcliffe are the perfect preparation for NA, giving me a depth of context (re: gothics and the satire thereof)!
Ready to roll!