A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter

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A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 1,336 ratings · 402 reviews

An eloquent memoir of a young man's life transformed by literature.

In A Jane Austen Education, Austen scholar William Deresiewicz turns to the author's novels to reveal the remarkable life lessons hidden within. With humor and candor, Deresiewicz employs his own experiences to demonstrate the enduring power of Austen's teachings. Progressing from his days as an immature...more An eloquent memoir of a young man's life transformed by literature.

In A Jane Austen Education, Austen scholar William Deresiewicz turns to the author's novels to reveal the remarkable life lessons hidden within. With humor and candor, Deresiewicz employs his own experiences to demonstrate the enduring power of Austen's teachings. Progressing from his days as an immature student to a happily married man, Deresiewicz's A Jane Austen Education is the story of one man's discovery of the world outside himself.

A self-styled intellectual rebel dedicated to writers such as James Joyce and Joseph Conrad, Deresiewicz never thought Austen's novels would have anything to offer him. But when he was assigned to read Emma as a graduate student at Columbia, something extraordinary happened. Austen's devotion to the everyday, and her belief in the value of ordinary lives, ignited something in Deresiewicz. He began viewing the world through Austen's eyes and treating those around him as generously as Austen treated her characters. Along the way, Deresiewicz was amazed to discover that the people in his life developed the depth and richness of literary characters-that his own life had suddenly acquired all the fascination of a novel. His real education had finally begun.

Weaving his own story-and Austen's-around the ones her novels tell, Deresiewicz shows how her books are both about education and themselves an education. Her heroines learn about friendship and feeling, staying young and being good, and, of course, love. As they grow up, they learn lessons that are imparted to Austen's reader, who learns and grows by their sides.

A Jane Austen Education is a testament to the transformative power of literature, a celebration of Austen's mastery, and a joy to read. Whether for a newcomer to Austen or a lifelong devotee, Deresiewicz brings fresh insights to the novelist and her beloved works. Ultimately, Austen's world becomes indelibly entwined with our own, showing the relevance of her message and the triumph of her vision.

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Hardcover, 255 pages

Published April 28th 2011 by Penguin Press

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Feb 12, 2013 Claire rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, jane, non-fiction, read-in-2013, read-in-english, us, about-books, memoir

A few days ago, while I was finishing my reread of Mansfield Park and loving it more than I thought I would, I stumbled, here on GR, on a rather heterosexist (and when I say rather, I mean very) review of Pride and Prejudice that said that women appreciate it because they fall in love with Darcy.
I never loved Mr. Darcy, not really. I like him and all, and I can see the appeal of the likes of Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen, but what I always loved were Elizabeth, Kitty's ill timed coughs and...more A few days ago, while I was finishing my reread of Mansfield Park and loving it more than I thought I would, I stumbled, here on GR, on a rather heterosexist (and when I say rather, I mean very) review of Pride and Prejudice that said that women appreciate it because they fall in love with Darcy.
I never loved Mr. Darcy, not really. I like him and all, and I can see the appeal of the likes of Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen, but what I always loved were Elizabeth, Kitty's ill timed coughs and Mr Collins's Lady Catherines and probably more than anything else I love the talk of money and of the society rules that influence the thoughts and actions of the characters.

It was refreshing to read a book by a man, who writes a sort of long thank you note to Jane Austen, a memoir in which he explains what he learned from her six novels. For the most part Deresiewicz hardly mentions love at all, and focuses on other aspects of Austen that I think are usually overlooked by people who haven't read her books closely, or at all. The importance of friendship, of knowing one's true self, of community (I loved the chapter on Persuasion, about how Anne creates a family of her own with the friends from the navy and distances herself from her poisonous relatives).
The chapter about Sense and Sensibility is the one in which he explores Austen's idea of love, and as I was reading it I thought that people consider her a writer of romance and think that's sort of embarrassing, but then in life almost everybody thinks love and companionship are one the most important things: just, for God's sake, let me not read it in a novel by a woman who writes happy endings.
Deresiewicz argues that Austen is so good at writing love stories, and her heroines are successful in marriage (while there are many examples of unhappy ones, like the Bennets') because, instead of falling in love, they grow into it. Anne Elliot at nineteen wasn't mature enough to stand her ground with her family and friend; Marianne Dashwood was convinced that only someone who mirrored her perfectly could make her happy; Elizabeth Bennet thought herself a great judge of character.
Her world is not a fantasy world, it's a sometimes very cruel one.

This is a funny and at times moving book, about the power of literature to influence our worldview and our daily life, about how there's more than meets the eye, in people and in books, and it's a love story between the author and "the most perfect artist among women".
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Oct 09, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jane-austen, memoirs, bookishness

This is a pleasant memoir about a graduate student who reads Jane Austen's novels and sees connections between his own behavior and the behavior of the characters. My favorite chapters were about Mansfield Park and Persuasion. William noticed that some people in his social circle in New York were as shallow and selfish as the Crawfords in Mansfield Park, and he decided to place more emphasis on true friendship and on finding ways of being useful to others.

Austen fans will appreciate the various...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Amy (SpedBug) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book, didnt-want-it-to-end

Anyone who knows me relatively well, knows I love Jane Austen's books. I have read Pride and Prejudice more times than I can remember, own all her works, and quite a few of the movie adaptations of those books.

There are those who dismiss Austen as merely a romance novelist of the Regency period and, while its true that romance is definitely a large component of her work, I think those people who categorize her as such are missing the forest for the trees. William Deresiewicz does a fine job in...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Amanda Griggs rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

A great look at Jane Austen's novels and how they influenced and changed one man's life in an immeasurable way. I love books like this, because they tap into that eternal vein of why we all love books- because they inspire us, they challenge us, they change us, they infuriate us- books inspire emotion in readers. The way the author viewed the books and what he found in them of note made me itch to go back and re-read my favorites, and especially take on the Austens I haven't read yet. I'm almost...more

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Oct 05, 2011 L Greyfort rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, memoir, philosophy

As someone who has continued to fight the good fight against Austen prejudice for a long time ("Oh, nothing happens in those books. It's just a bunch of rich people sitting around talking about the weather and drinking tea." "Yeah, and then a 15-year-old girl disappears with an older man, and her family doesn't know what's happened to her or where she is for weeks...")("Oh, they're so un-realistic - like nothng bad ever happens in them." "Yeah, right, 'Sense and Sensibility' begins with a widow...more

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Apr 14, 2012 ~Geektastic~ rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-books, memoir-biography, non-fiction, owned, pub-2010, reviewed, 2011, austen-acolyte

I don’t read Jane Austen’s novels for life lessons. Neither do I read her for history, romance or social commentary. I read Jane Austen because I have never (and I mean that unequivocally) met an author with such a gift for words. However, this does not mean that I won’t read and enjoy the lessons someone else has gleaned from her work. In fact, I have probably read more words about Austen and her works than she has actually written, the juvenilia and incomplete works included.

As far as critici...more I don’t read Jane Austen’s novels for life lessons. Neither do I read her for history, romance or social commentary. I read Jane Austen because I have never (and I mean that unequivocally) met an author with such a gift for words. However, this does not mean that I won’t read and enjoy the lessons someone else has gleaned from her work. In fact, I have probably read more words about Austen and her works than she has actually written, the juvenilia and incomplete works included.

As far as criticism and commentary go, this book is not a bad place to start. Part memoir, part critical examination, A Jane Austen Education combines the author’s personal experience with a fairly close reading of Austen’s six major works. Each of Austen’s books is given a chapter, and each chapter is structured so as to illustrate Deresiewicz’s personal experience and how it both reflects upon and is reflected by each work.

It would be very easy to argue that the events of his life sync up a little too perfectly with the novels to be entirely true to life, but I don’t think this is the case. Austen’s works, though often saddled with the unfair reputation of being “exclusive” and historically specific are, in fact, highly universal and relatable from nearly any perspective. Now granted, I’m prejudiced in her favor, but I think his success with so clearly delineating the intersection of his life experience and her fiction is a very strong argument for the universal relatability (probably not a real word) of her work. Perhaps the conclusions drawn are a bit trite at times; the subtitle of the work is the first clue that this is a tendency of the author. However, I found his readings of the work very illuminating, and the “intrusions” of memoir are actually not the bulk of the book, and more often operate to reinforce his readings, rather than the books highlighting the events of his life.

As I choose not to devote my life to only reading Jane Austen (though I read through the six major works once a year), I love when I can find a book about her work that engages me nearly as much as hers do. This one has its weaknesses, but if you like Jane Austen and are looking for a lay-person’s approach (though he is an English professor) to her work, I definitely recommend it. My only real complaint is that it was too short to do all of his observations justice.
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Jul 16, 2011 Holly rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

Brain-nuking platitudes! I thought this was going to be an interesting little book by the William Deresiewicz who wrote that American Scholar piece on solitude and leadership that blew me away earlier this year. But instead I find dreck. All the Goodreads reviewer but approximately one appear to love it, and the one who didn't is spot on:

Take one intellectual graduate student, force him to read Emma, add one professor whose technique is styled as "stripping the paint off our brains," and mix in

...more Brain-nuking platitudes! I thought this was going to be an interesting little book by the William Deresiewicz who wrote that American Scholar piece on solitude and leadership that blew me away earlier this year. But instead I find dreck. All the Goodreads reviewer but approximately one appear to love it, and the one who didn't is spot on:

Take one intellectual graduate student, force him to read Emma, add one professor whose technique is styled as "stripping the paint off our brains," and mix in some Austen plot synopses. What do you get? In this case, you get a quasi-memoir-cum-appreciation of Jane Austen's major novels that (I believe) would make Austen wince and Oprah applaud.

Ouch. And here is Danish writer Morten Hoi Jensen at Open Letters Monthly:

So you have six trite, facile chapter headings like this: “Emma: Everyday matters”; “Mansfield Park: Being good”; “Sense and Sensibility: Falling in love.” And each chapter, as their headings suggest, offers straightforward, if hard-earned, lessons on each subject. Emma: “Life is lived at the level of the little…Emma’s life finally became real to her, and in reading about her life I felt mine becoming real to me”; Pride and Prejudice: “the novel was really showing me how to grow up”; Northanger Abbey: “the wonderful thing about life, if you live it right, is that it keeps taking you by surprise”; Mansfield Park: “the only people who can really feel are those who have a sense of what it means to do without”; Persuasion: “Friends, Austen taught me, are the family you chose”; Sense and Sensibility: “the essential requirement for love…is simply to possess a loving heart.” [. . . ] You hardly need to read Jane Austen, let alone six of her novels, to come up with such brain-nuking platitudes.[. . .] But Deresiewicz, [. . .] proves almost ludicrously reductive in his approach to the subject and, as a result, preposterously self-serving: the pursuit for the teachings of Jane Austen come at too high a price to Jane Austen; the equilibrium that ought to exist when an author has the nerve to explicate his own life parallel to some of the most beloved literary lives in the world is terminally overturned.

I would add that it is facile and boring; too crafted (over-"produced"); in bad faith, somehow; and the book left me feeling cynical, despite it's lofty life-changing rhetoric. (less)

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Apr 06, 2013 Donna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-books, non-fiction, read-in-2013

I picked this up thinking it would be something light and inconsequential. I am thrilled to find I was mistaken.

Deresiewicz structures this memoir around the Austen novels, describing the life lessons he learned from each book. He begins by telling how he had always dismissed her as a writer but after being forced to actually read her as a graduate student he discovers just how insightful she is about the human condition. He becomes such a fan of Austen that he writes part of his dissertation o...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Sheryl Tribble rated it 4 of 5 stars

Deresiewicz often argues that Jane Austen “intended” her reader to experience her books in a certain way – namely, in the way the author first experienced them. Which I doubt, since we didn’t experience the books in the same way. We both read Emma first, but while Deresiewicz identified with Emma and bought into her perspective in the first half of the book, I regularly wanted to thump Emma and knew darn well her speculations were well off the mark. Where he disliked Fanny in Mansfield Park, I l...more Deresiewicz often argues that Jane Austen “intended” her reader to experience her books in a certain way – namely, in the way the author first experienced them. Which I doubt, since we didn’t experience the books in the same way. We both read Emma first, but while Deresiewicz identified with Emma and bought into her perspective in the first half of the book, I regularly wanted to thump Emma and knew darn well her speculations were well off the mark. Where he disliked Fanny in Mansfield Park, I liked her, and where Mary Crawford reminded him of Elizabeth Bennet, I never saw the similarity until he pointed it out. So I find it hard to buy into his argument that the reader is “meant” to experience the books as he did.

That said, I quite enjoyed the book. Since he’s coming at Jane Austen from a very different perspective, he notices things I don’t and makes connections I hadn’t. He does connect his experiences with the books to his life experiences, which may annoy some but didn’t me.

I particularly appreciated his comments on Northanger Abbey, probably my least favorite JA novel and the only one I didn't re-read the last time I went through her books. It’s never going to be a favorite, but I think I’ll enjoy it more next time with his observations in mind.

Plus he pegs what’s always bugged me most about James Joyce’s Ulysses; so nice to see someone else feels the same way. Heh.

Nothing terribly new or deep here, but OTOH I knew a lot of guys in college who were Modernist in their approach to literature and Romantic in the Romantic Movement sense, and this author could easily have been one of the guys I argued with, so I thought it interesting to watch the author change from that position to someone who appreciates the non-symbolic (at least in the Modern sense) and Rationalist Jane.

I always liked Jane’s stuff because our perspectives on so many things are the same; he appreciates things about her I never did, and comes at her from more “outside,” so although he had a few new things to offer, for the most part it was seeing things I already knew from a profoundly different perspective, which made them new again.
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Mar 01, 2013 Corinne rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars
When our author begins to read his first Austen (Emma), he's sort of, well, a jerk. Maybe "jerk" is too strong of a word. Arrogant? Snobbish? In other words, not a particularly pleasant guy, certainly too intellectual to find life lessons in a ladies novel. Except, somehow, Emma catches him by surprise in a way that no other book has - it teaches him enough about who he is and how he is getting it all wrong that William's life takes an abrupt turn. He not only begins studying Austen wit...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Megh rated it 5 of 5 stars

I understand the cynical take that I've found in other reviews of this book, but I have to say that I unequivocally loved this book. I agree that at points it is over done. But, the viewpoint it brings to Jane Austen and her works is no doubt interesting and relevant. I started reading Austen as a preteen, and hearing someone dissect the lessons I internalized long ago was very interesting. While Deresiewicz maintains an academic tone, he is fittingly casual in places- particularly when the topi...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Kerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really wish Goodreads had a "partially-read" status, as that's what this book is. I read only the first essay -- on Emma -- and don't plan on reading farther at this point. Not because I didn't love it (I did), but because this is the kind of book that can be read in essay form rather than from cover to cover, and it made more sense to me to read each essay in conjunction with a reading of an actual Austen novel.

I'm reading Emma now, and found that Deresiewicz's essay on his own experience rea...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Mary Simonsen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although I enjoy most of what Jane Austen wrote, I never liked Mansfield Park. I found Fanny Price insufferable, and Edmund Bertram a bit of a bore. As for the other characters, with the possible exception of Mary Crawford, I didn’t like them enough to care about them. For me, personally, the novel was a dud, but that was before I read William Deresiewicz’s A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love and Friendship.

According to Deresiewicz, Austen had something to teach us in Ma...more Although I enjoy most of what Jane Austen wrote, I never liked Mansfield Park. I found Fanny Price insufferable, and Edmund Bertram a bit of a bore. As for the other characters, with the possible exception of Mary Crawford, I didn’t like them enough to care about them. For me, personally, the novel was a dud, but that was before I read William Deresiewicz’s A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love and Friendship.

According to Deresiewicz, Austen had something to teach us in Mansfield Park: a form of usefulness. After Edmund encounters ten-year-old Fanny Price, who was crying after being separated from her family and brought to Mansfield Park, he said: “Let us walk out in the park, and you shall tell me all about your brothers and sisters.”

Did Edmund really care about [Fanny’s] brothers and sisters? Probably not. But he cared about her, and she cared about them, and that was enough for him… Austen was not a novelist for nothing: she knew that our stories are what make us human, and that listening to someone else’s stories—entering into their feelings, validating their experiences—is the highest way of acknowledging their humanity, the sweetest form of usefulness. (p. 161)

Deresiewicz was working on his master’s degree when he was “forced” to read Emma, and it changed his life. He soon found himself immersed in all of Austen’s works, and he had something to take away from each of them. Although I do not agree with all of his conclusions, some of his insights were so eye-opening that I found myself saying out loud: “I never thought of it in that way. I might actually like Emma before her reformation.”

After finishing the book, I realized that Deresiewicz had accomplished something I thought impossible: I found that I liked Edmund Bertram a little more and disliked Fanny Price a little less, and I was interested in what made the Bertrams and the Crawfords tick. In fact, I looked at the novel so differently that I might just have to give it another try.(less)

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Jul 22, 2012 Melanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

So, OK. I didn't go looking for this book, it leaped into my hands when I was in Barnes & Noble to get a copy of Stellaluna for my nephew. I looked it over and thought, yeah, so you were a big stupid head and then you read Austen, and now you're not. Really? Reader, I took the book home. And now I'm recommending it. Deresiewicz is an Austen scholar, but this book is a memoir, and he has an interesting story to tell. I enjoyed revisiting some of my favorite books through his eyes, although I...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Vicki Skywark rated it 5 of 5 stars

What an interesting approach to the big questions in life -- a memoir structured by literary analysis. The author puts to rest the idea that Austen is just for women in the first chapter.

He says: "Sometimes I feel like everything I know about life I learned by reading Jane Austen. The funny thing is, I never wanted to read her in the first place. I was 26, a pompous young graduate student who preferred to associate himself with the big, masculine modernist heroes: James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Er...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Bridget rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

3.5 stars. I was really hot and cold on this one. Sometimes I loved it because it was like talking over all the Jane Austen books with someone who appreciates them just as much as I do, and a literary expert (well, PhD) no less. Plus, the author was really likeable, which is essential in a memoir like this one where all you're doing is spending time with this guy and the thoughts inside his mind. Other times, however, it rubbed me the wrong way because it turned into something like a book club d...more

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May 05, 2012 Sara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-books, memoir

This book starts out with one of the oddest openers for a book about Jane Austen — “I was twenty-six, and about as dumb, in all human things, as any twenty-six-year-old has a right to be, when I met the woman who would change my life. That she’d been dead for a couple of hundred years made not the slightest difference whatsoever” (1). The words themselves are not terribly surprising, but the fact that a man wrote them is. And indeed, in the following pages, Deresiewicz himself confesses to an in...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Tricia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

The author is an English professor/book critic and it shows in his style as he writes about his life lessons learned while reading six Jane Austen novels. It tends to be a bit "scholarly" for lack of a different word. Not that I mind that, but it just wasn't quite the enjoyable read that I had anticipated. It did, however, pique my interest in re-reading the Jane Austen novels that I last read in high school. A summary of his lessons in his words (SPOILER):

EMMA: Pay attention to the everyday thi...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Simone rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-read, favorites

So partially this might have been about circumstance, after weeks of slogging and suffering through "The Gay Place" I stopped by the library on my way to the coffee shop, found this book and was immediately smitten with the thought of reading it enough to grind through the last half of that previous novel so I could turn my attention to this without distraction. And reading "A Jane Austen Enducation" was like taking big gulps of fresh air after being underwater for too long. To sit down and read...more
So partially this might have been about circumstance, after weeks of slogging and suffering through "The Gay Place" I stopped by the library on my way to the coffee shop, found this book and was immediately smitten with the thought of reading it enough to grind through the last half of that previous novel so I could turn my attention to this without distraction. And reading "A Jane Austen Enducation" was like taking big gulps of fresh air after being underwater for too long. To sit down and read this over the course of an afternoon, mainly outside on a beautiful spring day (for a while with some frozen yogurt) was exactly what I had been craving.

This book is part memoir-ish life stories, and part careful consideration of Jane Austen's novels. The author has a Phd in English, but his analysis of Austen is immensely readable and not scholarly in an off putting way. Each chapter covers one of the books, and each book ties to a part of his personal life, a lesson he needs to learn. Some might find the format trite, but it didn't seem like these anecdotes or moments were overly forced, they seemed situational moments or lessons that are likely to occur to someone between the ages of 22 and 30. His consideration of each of the novels is also informed by Austen the person through her letters, which was also really great. Much like the author I had put off reading any of Austen's novels for a while, convinced that I wouldn't understand the language or the nuance of society at question, before breaking down, reading Pride and Prejudice two years ago, and falling in love with it. Rather than feeling outdated and arcane, it felt funny and immensely relatable.

I was also just having a talk with a certain boy about "women's literature" versus the serious fiction that men are always writing. (If The Marriage Plot had been written by a woman instead of Jeffrey Eugenides - would people have taken it so seriously?) And to read such a brilliant, amazing defense of what Austen is doing in her novels, and a defense of the very idea of a novels was also just what I needed. Basically, I can't recommend this book enough if you like Austen's work. (less)

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Mar 18, 2012 Lynn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books, non-fiction

I loved this book. It is charming, funny and touching. It begins with the author William Dersiewicz taking a graduate course called 'Studies in the Novel' and he was introduced to Jane Austen for the first time. Deresiewicz is feeling honest about himself. He shows himself to the reader to be a high-minded modernist, with no interest in 19th century British literature and nothing to think about good for Austen or what she wrote. But Emma changed his mind. Over the course of the novel he begins t...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Hester rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, austen, american-writers

The book's structure is a neat concept--a memoir via Jane Austen's six novels. Our story begins with the narrator an insecure graduate student who is in an intellectual pissing contest with everyone he encounters. His snobbery smacks of sexism, as he dreads reading "chick lit," as he calls the masterpieces of nineteenth century literature written by women. Austen and his mentor, who sounds like he is one of those unknown people who leaves the world a MUCH better place, slowly change his attitude...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a cute almost-memoir of a former professor who wasn't interested in reading Jane Austen as a graduate student and yet found them profound when he did read them and he takes lesson for life from those novels. I'm not entirely sure about the structure of these life lessons but I guess we get our ideas from various places. So that I will actually remember what it was all about, here are the lessons:

Emma. Jane Austen concentrates on the little events, little moments of feeling that life actu...more This is a cute almost-memoir of a former professor who wasn't interested in reading Jane Austen as a graduate student and yet found them profound when he did read them and he takes lesson for life from those novels. I'm not entirely sure about the structure of these life lessons but I guess we get our ideas from various places. So that I will actually remember what it was all about, here are the lessons:

Emma. Jane Austen concentrates on the little events, little moments of feeling that life actually consists of. Deresiewicz states that Austen is arguing for moral seriousness and taking responsibility. As a result, he started to pay more attention to the people around him including how his actions might make them feel and to listen better.

Pride & Prejudice. We are born with a novel's full of errors ahead of us. We cannot learn from other people's mistakes (really?). We must learn from our own and growing up requires feeling the impact of those mistakes. Young people don't see how young they really are, for example, Elizabeth Bennet declares that she will never marry. I do like the message that it is immature to only feel and that reason triumphs over feeling and will.

Northanger Abbey. The author sees this as learning to learn but what I liked about this chapter was what he learned about teaching. His professor always knew that he knew less than he did and recognized that everything was subject to constant reappraisal. The author realized he was asking questions that were really answers disguised as questions. He notes that students do not come to college with open minds but with concepts already acquired that they can't wait to project on what they read. He makes a pitch for reading for the reasons we used to - for fun.

Mansfield Park. I don't love the assumption that rich people are necessarily chronically aimless, miserable because nothing is expected of them! (All of them? Really?) However, I love the message that we need heart and moral seriousness. We should exert on behalf of others and it is important to be dutiful and useful. We should value people according to those who think about others and those who don't.

Persuasion. We need community and friends are the family you choose. Austen's idea of true friendship is putting their welfare before your own. She believes it is important to be honest with our friends including pointing out their mistakes because you want them to be happy. I think one might want to be a bit careful doing that! I do like the pitch that men and women can be friends!

Sense and Sensibility. Love is not something that happens to you but that you prepare yourself for. Fate, soul mates, love at first sight, throwing caution to the winds - these are all myths (hear, hear). There is no one person out there. Anne Elliott says of Benwick that "He had an affectionate heart. He must love somebody" and "He will rally again" and he did. If you have the capacity to love, someone will come along. I'm not so sure about the idea that conflict is good although I do understand that opposite views in a relationship can be good.(less)

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Oct 07, 2011 Adrienne rated it 1 of 5 stars

Ok, I can't say I actually finished this book. I started it earnestly, very ready to hear about how Jane Austen changed this foolish college boy's life, but too much of it was analysis of the stories for me to stay intersted. I confess I haven't read more than three Austen books (I"m getting around to more I promise), and that may have influenced my reading. I wonder, also, if the author was pressured to include so much about the actual text itself by his publishers, so readers would have a basi...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I heard an interview with the author on NPR and was pretty impressed with what he had to say. He gave a commencement address at West Point titled "Solitude and Leadership" that I looked up after the interview (and I loved!), so I was excited to read his new book. Basically he takes each of the Jane Austen novels and dissects the lessons he learned from each while narrating his own life experiences (mainly from graduate school) that applied to this "Jane Austen education". It sounds like he was p...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'd had this title on my Amazon wish list since the day it came out, but was happily surprised to find my library had just acquired a copy. Since I'm pretty frugal, I have to say I'm glad I didn't pay for this...which is not to say it's unworthy. But the book is about 50% memoir, with the remainder given over to professorial analysis of the six Austen novels (and cursory commentary about Austen's actual life). The author is very honest about what a jerk he was, but not warm enough for me to feel...more I'd had this title on my Amazon wish list since the day it came out, but was happily surprised to find my library had just acquired a copy. Since I'm pretty frugal, I have to say I'm glad I didn't pay for this...which is not to say it's unworthy. But the book is about 50% memoir, with the remainder given over to professorial analysis of the six Austen novels (and cursory commentary about Austen's actual life). The author is very honest about what a jerk he was, but not warm enough for me to feel he's not looking for a pat on the back regarding his self-awareness. And he ends his book with a Bronte reference, which makes one feel that he things Austen and (Charlotte) Bronte are interchangeable in the reader's eyes, as far as referential in-jokes go!

But I guess that's the point...the book is about what Jane's books taught him, and if he was damaged and jerky and managed to climb out of it a bit through reading and understanding Jane, then good for him. I have to wonder if the author had been a woman, if I might have been more open to his plight.

The biggest problem I found with the book was not what he said, but what he didn't say...enough! He didn't say nearly enough about anything. He seems to recognize Austen's genius in surprising but beside-the-point ways. He's entirely focused on the "moral of the story" aspect and pays no attention to the things I love about Austen books. He practically ignores the men in the books -- indeed, Henry Tilney and henry Crawford are given 10 times, perhaps 100 times the attention that he gives Darcy, Knightly and Edward Ferrars combined!

But he did make me rethink some things. I'd always wondered about Austen's purpose in creating such a dishrag of a character as Fanny Price, so unlike Austen's other heroines, and he explains (in a professorial"this is the reason" approach rather than a gentle "I think this is the reason" nudge) why Austen did so. I'm not sure I agree, but it did make me think.

I'm not sure what to make of his assertion of Marianne Dashwood as a heroine or protagonist. To me, Marianne is no more central to the novel than Jane Bennet is to P&P. His underlying and eventual analysis of the Dashwoo's romantic experiences seems like it's going in the right direction, but in the end, he's off the mark, or so I think.

Blah, blah, blah. The point is, if you don't already love Austen, this book won't mean much, and if you do love Austen, then you'll want to devour this as much as any other modern analysis. It's an easy read, especially given that Deresiewicz is an academician, but it's not exactly a delight. If I were grading it, I'd give it a B. It held my attention, but did not capture my heart.(less)

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Aug 22, 2011 Belinda rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book is a blend of light textual analysis, Jane Austen biography and memoir. As I haven't studied literature beyond high school, I enjoyed the textual analysis and did gain a new perspective of aspects of these texts. I also enjoyed the biographical information, especially the quotes from letters written by Austen and her family.

What I found incredibly frustrating about this book was the memoir aspect. Basically, Deresiewicz says he was a self-centred, arrogant psuedo intellectual who is a...more This book is a blend of light textual analysis, Jane Austen biography and memoir. As I haven't studied literature beyond high school, I enjoyed the textual analysis and did gain a new perspective of aspects of these texts. I also enjoyed the biographical information, especially the quotes from letters written by Austen and her family.

What I found incredibly frustrating about this book was the memoir aspect. Basically, Deresiewicz says he was a self-centred, arrogant psuedo intellectual who is a bit of a wanker. He reads Emma, female fiction he had previously thought below him, and it changed his life. It makes him appreciate the small things; the mutinae of his life and those of his friends and the people around him, and therefore he becomes a better person. So far so good. I have met my fair share of university wankers and have done quite a bit of cringe-worthy arrogant posturing myself, so the picture he painted of himself rang true. I also have read books that have made me appreciate the universe in a different way, so I bought that. However, following the Emma chapter, Deresiewicz takes great pains to draw parallels between the "lessons" of the Austen books and decisions that he made in his own life. This irritated me for two reasons. Firstly, claiming to know what Austen is saying through her characters smacks of the arrogance that Emma was supposed to remove from his behaviour. Determining an author's intentions from the actions of their characters is not possible with the certainty this author uses. Secondly, by the time Deresiewicz gets to Sense and Sensibility he's stretching so far to draw parallels between the novel and his life that the story becomes completely unconvincing. The author also plays cute when describing the novels themselves, rarely stating which characters end up together and not outlining the "spoilers" in Pride and Prejudice. Umm, Bill, you're writing a book on works of fiction which are hundreds of years old and have been adapted for screen many many times. I strongly doubt there are many readers who would read this book instead of reading the original texts. What were you thinking avoiding spoilers?!?!?

I really feel many of these problems should have been identified by the book's editor. Deresiewicz's reflections on his private life take up at least one third of the book yet he does not give a single secondary character a name. Telling us in Chapter 1 that your sense of self-importance was diminished through the influence of the works of Jane Austen and then being the ONLY character given a name in a book that features a whole host of people - epic fail. An inordinately large amount of the book's sentences starts with the simple pronoun 'I', - a major writing no-no. He makes a point of telling us that at his university, literature students held allegiance to either Austen or a Bronte. Obviously he was a Janeite. Then he finished the book with a line that references Jane Eyre!! ARGH!! Too much annoyance!!

Avoid this book if you are easily irritated.(less)

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Jul 02, 2011 Jaci rated it 4 of 5 stars

Deresiewicz [Look, Amy, another child with a -wicz at the end] does a phenomenal job of relating his life experiences to those Jane Austen taught in her novels. Friendship, love, growing up...it's all here in a beautifully readable format. Whether he intended to, he provides a good argument for rereading Austen as one gets older just to see if one has learned anything. One might have done.
p.35: "Like Austen, Joyce was saying that every life, including yours, is heroic in its own way."
p.50: "You...more

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Jun 12, 2011 Ciara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: autobio-memoir, read-in-2011

i wasn't sure what to expect from this book, as i am not a huge jane austen fan. i picked it up because i read a few glowing reviews, & i was pleasantly surprised to find that i agreed! the book is divided into six sections, one for each of jane austen's novels. the author focuses on a particular lesson that he learned from each book, such as "growing up" or "learning to love". he focuses mainly on literary analysis of said topic, relying on liberal quotations from the novels & descripti...more i wasn't sure what to expect from this book, as i am not a huge jane austen fan. i picked it up because i read a few glowing reviews, & i was pleasantly surprised to find that i agreed! the book is divided into six sections, one for each of jane austen's novels. the author focuses on a particular lesson that he learned from each book, such as "growing up" or "learning to love". he focuses mainly on literary analysis of said topic, relying on liberal quotations from the novels & descriptions of the characters, plotlines, & settings. but he also weaves some of his own biography into the mix, which was the aspect i enjoyed most. he is not shy about making fun of his youthful self & his many pretensions, assumptions, & mistakes. i don't think you have to be well-versed in jane austen's ouevre in order to enjoy this book, but i'm sure it wouldn't hurt.

one of my favorite things about the book is the fact that the author acknowledged that when he started graduate school, he had his little stable of favorite authors, all of them, all of them writing about masculine topics, like war or hunting. when he was assigned a jane austen book for a class, he balked, thinking of her as the godmother of chick lit, writing only about frivolous topics of no interest to a man with his many opinions about the western canon. but over the course of reading emma & relating to the smug, opinionated main character, he realized that austen's strength was in turning the mirror on a self-satisfied reader & showing him the folly of his ways. throughout the rest of the book, the author draws connections between austen's characters & themes & feminism, both in mariage & property law, & in canonical literature. it is SO RARE to read a book written by a man that even uses the word "feminism" in passing, let alone applies a feminist lens to the subject matter. & usually when it does happen, it's all botched & embarrassing. so in that respect, this book was a tremendous breath of fresh air. maybe i will read some of austen's books myself this summer. (less)

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May 18, 2011 Lydia Presley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, memoirs, non-fiction

A man? Writing about Jane Austen? Really?

Those were the first thoughts through my head when I took this book out of the shipping envelope it came in. Then I remembered why I requested it - because I loved the cover and for that cover alone I was willing to give it a shot.

And as I began reading I began to really understand just why it's a bit significant that a man wrote this book.

If you are anything like me, you've attempted to get at least one boyfriend to read Jane Austen. And then you have he...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Rose rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: austen, favorites

After reading all of Jane Austen's novels at least once, I've been interested in learning more about the broader themes addressed in each of her six novels. I found A Jane Austen Education to be the best place to start! William Deresiewicz delves deep into each novel and surfaces with several instructive points to consider that clarify Austen's simple yet layered writing. I really enjoyed reading this book, as Deresiewicz does a masterful job of weaving his own life lessons with how Austen's nov...more

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About William Deresiewicz

William Deresiewicz was an associate professor of English at Yale University until 2008 and is a widely published book critic. His reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Nation, Bookforum, and The American Scholar. He was nominated for National Magazine awards in 2008 and 2009 and the National Book Critics Circle's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Rev...more

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“There's no doubt about it: fun people are fun. But I finally learned that there is something more important, in the people you know, than whether they are fun. Thinking about those friends who had given me so much pleasure but who had also caused me so much pain, thinking about that bright, cruel world to which they'd introduced me, I saw that there's a better way to value people. Not as fun or not fun, or stylish or not stylish, but as warm or cold, generous or selfish. People who think about others and people who don't. People who know how to listen, and people who only know how to talk.” — 15 people liked it

“...Novels--which, after all, are training grounds for responding to the world, imaginative sanctuaries in which to hone and test our ethical judgments and choices.” — 3 people liked it

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A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter

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