A Jane Austen Education

How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter

By: William Deresiewicz

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

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 listen. 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.

©2011 William Deresiewicz (P)2011 Penguin Audio

A nice way to revisit Austen's books...

Would you consider the audio edition of A Jane Austen Education to be better than the print version?

As I have not seen the print version, I cannot say for sure, but I enjoyed the audio edition immensely.

What did you like best about this story?

The way the author interpreted and talked about Austen's books without giving too much away (in case the reader was not familiar with a particular book) was great. It made me think about things I missed from the first time around.

Which character – as performed by Sean Pratt – was your favorite?

As this book is written from the author's point of view, there was really only one character in there to perform. I thought the narrator did a great job with timing punchlines and showing emotion, though.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh a few times, but I'm not sure if that would be the same for someone who is not really familiar with Austen's works.

Any additional comments?

I would recommend this book to any Austen fan for a light read, and also to people who have yet to read any of her novels, as I think this just might be the hook they need.

Austen broken down

Such a beautiful book about the lessons Austen passes through her novels and her way of seeing and perceiving life and what really matters for true happiness and fulfillment.

Mildly interesting

As a fan and more or less indiscriminate consumer of all things Jane Austen, I basically had to listen to this book. If you are also an Austen omnivore, by all means, read it. The guy had some slightly interesting insights into Austen's books and apparently reading them helped him work through some issues of his own--or such is the conceit of the book.

The author sounds like a jerk who "found himself" thanks to Jane. Good for him.

If you are looking for actual insights into Jane Austen's writing, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a good story, look elsewhere. If you are looking for an appealing protagonist, look elsewhere.

As for myself, I finished this mildly interesting book and promptly cleansed my palette with some authentic Austen. Turns out I prefer my Jane Austen books without the benefit of outside explanation--at least not this man's interpretations.


If you want a more specific explanation, I guess I didn't have much faith in the interpretations of Mr. Deresiewicz. The most interesting thing in the book was the background on Jane Austen herself and parallels to her characters. I didn't like being told what the books meant or what Jane Austen was trying to accomplish with them. They seem, to me, to stand so well on their own as to not require interpretation and Mr. D's explanations didn't jibe with my own.

Entertaining and Literate

Where does A Jane Austen Education rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

A great memoir, good story

What did you like best about this story?

I'm very fussy about anything Austen not written by Jane, although I'm guilty of publishing a kind of spinoff myself. But this book is engaging and fun to read over and over.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Stubborn Faulkner-loving male falls for Elizabeth Bennet

Well done!

This lit major managed to write a personal, personable, and wise book, mix it in with a tiny bit of "lit crit" that can be easily understood outside the rarefied atmosphere of academe, and teach me something about Jane Austin and New York society, all in a sympathetic engaging way. Enjoyed the heck out of it. Well read in a clear straight-forward style. It does help if you know a bit about Jane Austin's work.

Great study of Jane Austen

What made the experience of listening to A Jane Austen Education the most enjoyable?

I have loved Jane Austen's works for many years, but never studied them as literature. This author wrote his dissertation on Austen, and in doing so learned a lot about himself and what a shallow jerk he was (like some men in Austen's books). More interesting to me were his scholarly riffs on Austen's characters, but he makes his journey from boy to man interesting, too.

Wasn't able to get into it.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A different story would have made it better. It was annoying and I wasn't able to finish it.

Not Universally Acknowledged

I've a kind of guilty pleasure in all those ersatz Jane books. This one, however, just didn't meet expectations. Although capably narrated, the content can't decide whether to be a literary critique or a rather dogmatic treatise on character and manners. And the style definitely has none of Jane Austen's light and sparkling tone. I learned considerably more about the author's love life than I really wanted to know. It's nice that he demonstrates why men can appreciate Austen, but I'm not sure that, in this case, the tale is worth a whole book.