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

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Overview

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...

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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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More About This Book

Overview

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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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Former Yale professor William Deresiewicz has been reading, teaching, and writing about Jane Austen for decades; now, at the conclusion of his academic career, he describes his almost lifelong personal encounter with an author whose insights transcend those revealed by mere scholarship. A Jane Austen Education illuminates the novelist's craft by showing how her mastery of everyday relationships still speaks to our times. Deresiewicz's unconventional memoir helps explain Austen's extraordinary appeal among readers otherwise immune to classic literature.

Associated Press
"A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter" (Penguin), by William Deresiewicz: There's nothing quite like meeting another admirer of your favorite author, finding in that person a similar vigor for the close reading of that author's works, and sharing the memories you have of what it was like when you first encountered them. Such is the experience for me of reading William Deresiewicz's "A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter." I finished the book with two strong impulses: One, to immediately reread everything Jane Austen wrote, with Deresiewicz's book at my side, and two, to invite Deresiewicz — a former Yale University English professor and now a professional literary critic — over for more Austen talk. Each chapter of his book takes on one of Austen's novels and situates them contextually within various stages of his progression toward adulthood, intertwining his story with hers. He writes with wit, charm and candor, and the result is simply delightful. It starts with Deresiewicz as a 26-year-old self-styled arrogant rebel walking around "in a cloud of angry sarcasm." And then he's forced to read "Emma" for a graduate school seminar and — I say this without a trace of hyperbole — his entire view of the world starts to change. Suddenly a book that doesn't appear to be about anything important turns into a book about the only things in life that do matter — the small, everyday occurrences that shape us. Likewise, "Pride and Prejudice" becomes a story about growing up and learning the necessity of tempering our feelings with reason, and of learning from our mistakes. The wealthy, breezy Crawfords of "Mansfield Park" are likened to Manhattan's social elite whom Deresiewicz found himself amid, with both groups ultimately displaying a cripplingly narrow mindset fueled by an utter lack of curiosity. "Persuasion" is a story foremost about friendship, which Deresiewicz relates to the modern difficulty of forging friendships in adulthood, once everyone's out of school and starting to couple off. The point made each time is nothing new, certainly not to Austen devotees, though it always bears repeating: her work remains ever relevant, to everyone. Deresiewicz also offers a refreshingly clear cultural and historical reading of each novel, and the combination of the scholarly and the personal provides entirely new ways of looking at novels that I thought I already thoroughly knew. This is how "literary memoir" should be defined — not as a fake autobiography, but as a personal account of reading books that matter.
Library Journal
Janeites face the necessity of defending their favorite author against dismissive detractors who say that Austen's world was too insular, and thus she wrote works of mere romantic confection. Deresiewicz (formerly English, Yale Univ.; Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets) agreed with this sentiment until, as a doctoral student beginning his dissertation in English literature, he began studying Austen's works. He then came to appreciate that Austen was actually a deft, often satirical observer of the society in which she lived. But this book is not strictly literary criticism; it's a memoir. As the son of a harsh, overbearing immigrant father, Deresiewicz developed a detached attitude that served him badly in personal and social relationships. He found that through lessons learned in studying Austen's themes, he was able to subjugate his ego, cultivate kindness, and realize the necessity of perpetual growth in order to live a happy and fulfilling life. VERDICT Of the plethora of books about Austen's life and work, this is a standout as it addresses the timelessness of Austen's themes to prove the personal—and universal—relevance of literature.—Lisa Guidarini, Algonquin P.L., IL
Kirkus Reviews

A literary critic confronts his callow youth and finds salvation in the pages of the English romantic novelist.

In the early pages, former Yale English professor Deresiewicz (Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets, 2005) recalls being an unlikely candidate for Jane Austen fandom, let alone the Austen scholar he later became. An aficionado of severe modernist bricks likeUlysses, he first readEmmaonly because he was compelled to for a course requirement. But Austen's skewering of contempt and pretentiousness among the English gentry hit home. "[S]he was showing me my own ugly face," he writes. Each of this book's main six chapters is framed around a particular Austen novel, along with a life lesson Deresiewicz took from it. InPride and Prejudice, he learned not to be so quick to judge; throughNorthanger Abbey, he discovered the importance of understanding others' perspectives;Mansfield Parkimparted a message about the perils of social climbing. The structure is somewhat facile, but his command of Austen's life and works is assured, and he's an engaging penitent, exposing his emotional scars without being manipulative. The Mansfield Parkchapter is particularly incisive, drilling deep into his motivations for befriending a set of upper-crust New Yorkers, and bouncing that experience against the emotional parrying in Austen's novel. Deresiewicz's path of discovery has an Austenish arc. After years of dismissiveness toward others, he learned to become openhearted and—how else could a book like this end?—eventually marry his true love. Though he occasionally ventures deep into the weeds elaborating on a novel's particular plot point—some of the dust of his dissertation work sticks to these pages—he's generally careful to keep the book appealing to both Austenites and those looking for a good memoir.

Deresiewicz smartly finds the practical value of Austen's prose without degrading her novels into how-to manuals.

Miranda Seymour
…sharp, endearingly self-effacing…Deresiewicz…has considerable fun at the expense of his pompous younger self…
—The New York Times
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781594202889
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 4/28/2011
  • Pages: 272
  • Sales rank: 931,678
  • Product dimensions: 8.32 (w) x 5.78 (h) x 0.92 (d)

Meet the Author

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 Reviewing in 2010. He is the author of Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Temma: Everyday Matters 1

Chapter 2 Pride and Prejudice: Growing Up 39

Chapter 3 Northanger Abbey: Learning to Learn 77

Chapter 4 Mansfield Park: Being Good 119

Chapter 5 Persuasion: True Friends 165

Chapter 6 Sense and Sensibility: Falling in Love 203

Chapter 7 The End of the Story 247

Acknowledgments 257

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Interviews & Essays

An Interview with William Deresiewicz, author of
A JANE AUSTEN EDUCATION
How Six Novels Taught Me about Love, Friendship, and the Things that Really Matter
The Penguin Press / May 2011


Can you describe your initial resistance, as a young graduate student, to reading Jane Austen?
Like a lot of men, I thought Austen was chick lit: soap-opera romance, fluffy and boring. When a friend of mine heard I was writing this book, he said "I expect a lot of sex and dating advice." It was an understandable assumption, and my friend's, no doubt, was based on all those movies—the ones with the beautiful gowns, and the beautiful homes, and the beautiful actresses. The ones with all the swoony music and the lush, romantic lighting, the ones that leave out everything that Austen had to say to us except the love—and then, don't even get the love part right.

What most surprised you about yourself once you discovered Austen's novels and started examining your own life?
If you had told me, when I was eighteen or twenty or twenty-five, that the most important writer I would ever come across would be Jane Austen, I would have said you were crazy. Why should half a dozen novels about provincial young English ladies, published in the 1810s, make any difference whatsoever to a Jewish kid in New York in the 1990s? But I learned that books aren't written by groups, and they don't belong to groups. They're written by individuals, speaking to individuals, and they belong to anyone who loves them.
What was Austen saying to me? Well, first of all, what an idiot I had been about so many things--about pretty much everything to do with relationships. And that I had so much to learn from seeing things from a woman's point of view. But most of all, finally, I think, that I didn't have to be afraid to learn things about myself--didn't have to be afraid, in other words, to be wrong. Aside from all the specific lessons, I think the largest message was simply that I no longer had to be so armored, so defended, so defensive. And that's made it easier to admit mistakes and be vulnerable and keep on growing.

Is that when you came up with the book's subtitle, "How Six Novels Taught Me about Love, Friendship, and the Things that Really Matter"?
Well, a while ago, I was interviewing for a job as an English professor. At the very end, the head of the hiring committee posed a question that she must have been dying to ask me the whole time. Glancing down at my resume—I had written my doctoral dissertation on The Novel of Community from Austen to Modernism, published a book entitled Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets, and was planning a study called Friendship: A Cultural History from Jane Austen to Jennifer Aniston—she asked, "So what's with you and Jane Austen?"
I wanted to give [the dean] her a good answer. But how do you explain your deepest attachments? I tried to muster an intellectually sophisticated response, something about the purity of Austen's prose or the brilliance of her satire, but it didn't feel right, and besides, I'd already given enough answers like that. Finally, I just blurted something that I'd already been telling myself for a long time. "Well," I said, "sometimes I feel like everything I know about life I learned by reading Jane Austen."

What drew you to write this hybrid of memoir and literary criticism?
I've been writing about literature for a general audience for a long time, as a book critic. Actually, the fact that I was more interested in doing that than in pursuing scholarly work is the reason I decided to leave academia. The memoir part is new for me, though, and it's been an interesting challenge: a technical challenge to blend the two and a personal challenge to be so candid in such a public way. The second part is a little frightening. As for why I decided to write the book this way, well, the idea was to convey the lessons I learned by reading Jane Austen, and I realized pretty quickly that the best way to do that would be to actually talk about how I learned them, not just explain them in some kind of abstract and impersonal way.

What do you think her books have to say to contemporary men and women in want of a relationship?
Ha! Great question. The first thing I think she would say is, don't settle. Then, marry for the right reasons: for love, not for money or appearances or expectations. But most importantly--and this is what I talk about in the love chapter, the last chapter--don't fall for all the romantic clichés about Romeo and Juliet and love at first sight. For Austen, love came from the mind as well as the heart. She didn't believe you could fall in love with someone until you knew them, and then what you fell in love with was their character more than anything else--whether they were a good person and also an interesting one. So I guess that means, date someone for a while before you commit, and don't get so carried away by your feelings that you forget to give a good hard look at who they are. As for sex, it's not so clear she would have disapproved of sleeping together before marriage. I think she maybe even would've liked it, as a chance to learn something very important before it's too late.

What do you hope your book will bring to people who aren't already Austen fans?
Well, first of all, if they aren't already Austen fans because they have the kinds of preconceptions I did, I hope it helps persuade them to give her a chance. I've imagined the book, in part, as a kind of introduction to her [books] novels. It's not exhaustive or anything--and I think that people who are already Austen fans will find new ways to think about her novels--but it does lay out the basic situations in each book and some of the most important ideas she was getting at. No spoilers, just enough to whet people's appetites. And finally, of course, I want people to see that she isn't just for women. I would love it if the book helped introduce more guys to her work.

What is your favorite Austen novel?
I knew people would ask me this. The weaseling answer is that I love them all, though it's also true. Certainly whenever I'm reading one, that's my favorite. But if I had to pick just one, desert-island style, it would have to be Emma. Not just because it was my first and will always have a special place in my heart, but because I really do think it's the best, the one where she put it all together: the brilliant sparkle of Pride and Prejudice, the emotional depth of Persuasion, the fun, the humor, the superhuman cleverness. There really is nothing else like it.
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 43 )
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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 43 Customer Reviews

  • Posted May 4, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    An Enjoyable Memoir Worth Reading!

    I don't normally review memoirs. They just don't appeal to me, and I have a hard time being "captured" by the memoirs. However, there are rare occasions, such as this one, that I find I become engrossed in the life of the author, and I find myself finished with the book before I ever really got started! Those are the kinds of memoirs I enjoy...the ones that really capture and aren't too boring, yet aren't over the top. A Jane Austen Education is one such memoir, and I am pleased to have had the chance to review it!

    There are some folks out there who may think about buying this book because of Austen alone. She is a great story teller of all time, and I truly enjoy her work. But this isn't strictly about Austen. Yes, it's about Austen but it's not ABOUT Austen. Deresiewicz is a man who creates this enjoyable memoir about his life after reading 6 of Austen's novels. He was a man who laughed at Jane Austen's work. A man who takes each chapter, breaks them down by specific books of Austen, and tells of how each book changed his life in some form or other.

    Through each chapter, Deresiewicz tells of the meaning of each of these "romantic" novels, as they have so often been dubbed. After reading the novels, he was able to see through "romance" to the meaning and life lessons among each one. He took those messages/lessons and filed them away, learning from them and seeing what would make his life different....make his life better.

    This is a four star memoir that I highly recommend you read. If you are an Austen fan, then take a moment or two to read this novel. You will see her stories in a whole new light! High praises to the author of this enjoyable memoir.

    5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 3, 2011

    Austen for a man

    I loved this book already being an self-professed Austenite. I think it is though very useful and enjoyable to get a masculine perspective on Austen. I enjoyed Mr. Deresiewicz's narrative and perspective. I do highly recommend it!!

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 19, 2012

    Great read!

    For all Jane fans!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 2, 2011

    I Also Recommend:

    To Say Nothing of the Dog

    Amazing Insight into the Genius of Jane Austen

    Mr. Deresiewicz gives an intelligent summary of the life lessons in Jane Austen's novels that are useful for anyone looking to further enhance their already fine character: choose wisdom over wit, love with your head AND your heart, and most of all strive for kindness and usefulness.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted May 11, 2012

    To any and ALL Jane Austen fans out there, read this, "A Ja

    To any and ALL Jane Austen fans out there, read this, "A Jane Austen Education: how six novels taught me about love, friendship, and the things that really matter" by William Deresiewicz. Seriously. I'm in the SAME giddy raptures of delight that I get into after watching an Austen adaptation, and this is only a memoir about how six novels changed a man's life.

    Now, more than ever, I'm determined to wait, not for the man who "completes me", but the one who, by God's grace and divine awesome love, stretches and grows me while letting me stretch and grow him as we grow together in God. I'm quite happy to wait for my Darcy and my Wentworth, my Edward and my Mr. Knightley.

    This memoir follows a man as he writes his dissertation on community in nineteenth-century England. He took a class in college on English lit and was blessed to have one of those great professors who teach not to teach, but to be taught. William Deresiewicz, the author, was totally not into Jane Austen- "Why do we have to read some sappy Romantic author? Are you kidding me? Let's read Dostoevsky instead!"- but realized as he read Emma, that neither was Jane Austen. She strove to be separate from her Romantic peers, and instead write about community, friendship, affection, and lastly true love. Austen laughed at the people (her characters) who "fell into love", writing them as being the biggest fools of all. Deresiewicz uses each of Austen's six novels to explain some part of society--explanations that apply to our modern world as well--and to show how the brilliant, honest thoughts of Austen changed his life.

    This book is well written, with humor, meaning, and connection, and expands each Austen story in a way that I never would have done on my own. (Though, to be fair, I haven't read all six novels, and the two I have read were a few years ago. Just like for Austen's beloved characters, growing up changes things.) It's a rare book that can change a person's viewpoint, and I can say that I will not be about to watch an Austen adaptation--or read her books--the same way ever again.

    Heck, even if you're not actually a fan of Austen at the moment, read this, and you just might end up being one. There are worse things.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

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