We need to talk about those controversial new Jane Austen book covers

Look, I get it. Book covers are designed with particular demographics in mind, and if a publisher wants to target young adults, it's going to put out a cover that looks like other YA novels. What's more, I'm all for younger readers discovering the classics, especially great female writers like Jane Austen. But even with all that said, I just can't deal with Penguin's new 'TikTok-ified' covers – and thankfully I'm not the only one.

The famed publisher is set to release all of Jane Austen's novels under its children's imprint, complete with introductions by "leading YA authors". And the publisher isn't making any secret of the fact that it's going for a very specific audience: young 'BookTok' fans.

"Fall head over heels for First Impressions, Puffin’s boldly designed new YA Jane Austen collection. Like all the best romcoms, Austen’s novels are full of meet-cutes, missed connections and drama; they are masterclasses in the lost arts of stolen glances and breath-taking gestures," reads Penguin's introduction to the new series, collectively titled First Impressions. With a stunning modern design and forewords from leading YA romance authors, this eye-catching six-book series is an open invitation to escape the brutal nonchalance of modern dating and embrace your inner romantic."

But judging by the response online, the new look isn't appealing to many readers' design (sense and) sensibilities. "It feels a little bit patronising," one Reddit user complains. "When I was young, back in the stone age, I used to hate it when things were written to be ‘cool’ and ‘let's appeal to the kids’. I always felt I was being talked down to, and it made me cringe. In this case, I can’t help but feel that readers with absolutely no prior knowledge of Austen are going to feel a bit deceived. The vibe given by the cover of Mansfield Park is so radically different from the actual novel."

Others take issue with the blurb's framing of Austen's novels as mere rom-coms. "It feels such like a dumbing-down to encapsulate Austen within the confines of a 'romcom'," Another Redditor adds. "She in fact wrote partly as a reaction against excessive sensibility. honestly i think they do austen herself a disservice, when she wrote about some of the most pressing issues of her day. she hints at patriarchy, the economic dependence of her sex, slavery, and so on; reducing them to 'stolen glances and breath-taking gestures' is to negate and ignore so much of her writing."

As many have said, anything that gets more people reading Austen can only be a good thing. The problem here is how cynically obvious the attempt to reframe the novels as TikTok-friendly rom-coms for teens.

Just take a look at the quotes from various BookTok authors used to promote these reissues on Penguin's website. "Anne and Wentworth are legit freaking soulmates," says Krystal Marquis of Persuasion. Meanwhile, introducing Sense and Sensibility, Hannah Grace offers, "If Elinor were real, I’d bet that her favourite Taylor Swift song would be 'This is Me Trying'." Need a palette cleanser? Take a look at the best book covers of January 2025.