Part I: Wild writings. 1. Introduction: Austen gone wild ; 2. Fierce, wild, and ruthless : Austen's juvenilia ; 3. The controversial case of Sophia Sentiment ; 4. Running wild : the winning immorality of Lady Susan ; 5. Wildest : Sense and Sensibility (1811) ; 6. Almost wild : Pride and Prejudice (1813) ; 7. Bewildering Mansfield Park (1814) ; 8. Wild speculation : Emma (1816) ; 9. Wild to know : Northanger Abbey (1818) ; 10. The young people were all wild : Persuasion (1818) ; 11. Wild-goose chase : unfinished Sanditon ; 12. Oh, subjects rebellious : the Watsons and Last words.

Part II: Fierce family ties. 13. Jane, the wild beast, and the progressive Burdetts ; 14. Cousin Eliza's statesman, singer, and spy ; 15. The Leighs as learned literary ladies ; 16. The sensational shoplifting trial of Aunt Jane Leigh Perrot ; 17. Three Austen brothers and the abolition of slavery ; 18. The Austen family legacy, suffrage, and anti-suffrage.

Part III: Shambolic afterlives. 19. Seeing Jane Austen's ghost ; 20. Sense and Sensibility goes to court ; 21. Jane's imaginary lover in Switzerland ; 22. Almost Pride and Prejudice : the wild films that never were ; 23. Wild and wanton : the rise of Austen erotica ; 24. Loving (and hating) Jane Austen ; 25. Coda: Austen after 250.