A Jane Austen Education

There's nothing quite like meeting another admirer of your favorite author.

A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love,Friendship,and the Things That Really Matter8221; Penguin,by William Deresiewicz: There8217;s nothing quite like meeting another admirer of your favorite author,finding in that person a similar vigor for the close reading of that author8217;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 Deresiewicz8217;s 8221;A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love,Friendship,and the Things That Really Matter.8221; I finished the book with two strong impulses: One,to immediately reread everything Jane Austen wrote,with Deresiewicz8217;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 Austen8217;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 8221;in a cloud of angry sarcasm.8221; And then he8217;s forced to read 8221;Emma8221; 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 doesn8217;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,8221;Pride and Prejudice8221; 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 8221;Mansfield Park8221; are likened to Manhattan8217;s social elite whom Deresiewicz found himself amid,with both groups ultimately displaying a cripplingly narrow mindset fueled by an utter lack of curiosity.

8221;Persuasion8221; is a story foremost about friendship,which Deresiewicz relates to the modern difficulty of forging friendships in adulthood,once everyone8217;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 8221;literary memoir8221; should be defined _ not as a fake autobiography,but as a personal account of reading books that matter.