A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, And The Things That Really Matter (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
I'd rather be locked in a room with 100 Janeites debating Mansfield Park ("the Fanny Wars") than look at this again. I started out thinking I'd be reading another in the recent plethora of "how I was an asshole but became enlightened because of X" memoirs. And it is. Except the author never stops being a snot, and aside from some vague examples of "growing up" from 20 to 30ish, it's a bunch of reductive summaries of Austen's novels. (Oh, and spoiler alert: growing up in this book means learning other people have feelings, but the author's feelings are the most profound.) I don't like to argue Austen: you get her or you don't, and the degree to which you get her is personal. You take away from Jane what you had to begin with. In this case, we have a man who thinks he's a boy wonder* at the start. Then he reads the novels. Now he's a Jane Austen powered boy wonder! Not to ruin it for anyone, but this is another English professor telling people what to think about novels. He's condescending and dismissive. I wanted to kick him in the nuts many times, and I have to admit that's a new reading response for me. *We are supposed to think the author had a terrible upbringing. His father was a professor at Columbia; the author attended undergrad there at no cost. He blames his asshole-ness on being treated either too well or too dismissively, depending on the point he's trying to make. (Perhaps it was terrible, but since he never reveals much, we can't know.) And he may really love his wife, but the way he talks about having to get over her lack of education and coming from the Midwest? Maybe we should check in with him in a few more years. This took me a while to finish because I read a couple things along with it, but I really enjoyed this book. So many great quotes and I loved how he made me look at Jane Austen's books and what she was saying in a completely different way. All of her stories are about her characters growing up, maturing. But that has nothing to do with knowledge and skills and everything to do with character and conduct. Each of her books emphasizes this in a different way and Deresiewicz makes you see it and think on it in a way that relates to your life and your relationships. I thought it was great!
What do You think about A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, And The Things That Really Matter (2011)?
I think a person would appreciate this book if you were Jane Austen fan and have read her books.
—Ash
I like the authors take on Jane Austen's books; his reviews were insightful.
—Icah
Great review of Austen novels. Nicely woven into the author's life.
—trish
A nifty mix of memoir and literary criticism.
—slove
