William Deresiewicz. A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me about Love, Friendship, and the Things that Really Matter. New York: Penguin Press. 2011.
As reviewed by Ted Odenwald
William Deresiewicz combines literary criticism and memoir, focusing primarily upon how the novels of Jane Austen had awakened him to certain truths about life in general—and had revealed to himself his own foolishness, intellectual snobbery, and social ineptness. As a graduate student in the early 1990’s, Deresiewicz preferred reading the more esoteric writers such as Conrad, Faulkner, Nabokov, and Joyce. He had no desire to touch the “windy,” uneventful, overly simplified “chick lit” of Jane “Yawn” Austen. However, an assigned reading of Emma brought about a mortifying epiphany for the young scholar—mortifying because he had previously failed to appreciate the novelist’s skillful methods of moving plot, of developing characters, and, most importantly, of teaching people how to live—mortifying also because he recognized images of his own behavior in the pigheadedness, self-interest, and cruel condescension of the central character. “The boredom and contempt that [Emma] aroused were not signs of Austen’s ineptitude; they were the exact responses she wanted me to have. She had incited them in order to expose them…showing me my ugly face.”
The memoir portions of this book are mostly humorous and self-deprecatory, as the author considers his arrogant youthfulness, filled with faux pas, which led him to be viewed as an amusing oddity and certainly an outsider among his upper class acquaintances. He ruefully recalls the smugness that led him to end friendships and to strike pre-emptive blows to blossoming love relationships. He reflects on how each of Austen’s six novels helped to make him more civil, as the novelist subtly put forward human behavior that reflected her values—rather than delivering dogmatic sermons.
While the memoir sections are entertaining, revealing how much the author has matured, readers should recognize that the book is also a gem in terms of literary criticism. Deresiewicz takes us through each of Austen’s novels, focusing on key issues of personal growth: she demonstrates that life is all about small, seemingly insignificant events. Her heroines all learn—sometimes painfully—by experiencing challenges. The novelist’s methods of displaying her heroines’ clashes (sometimes successful, sometimes catastrophic) help to instruct the reader concerning basic values. “Like all the great teachers…she made us come to her. She had momentous truths to tell, but she concealed them in humble packages.”
Emma Woodhouse is a potentially pathetic figure, for though she judges and manipulates people’s lives with “supreme confidence,” she invariably makes horrible mistakes of judgment, leading to painful problems for several innocents. She learns a lesson of moral seriousness: “taking responsibility for the little world not the big one—taking responsibility for yourself.”
Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice seems to be the antithesis of the haughty Emma; Elizabeth is “brilliant, witty, full of fun and laughter,” but she is also quick to judge people while failing to see her own (and her family’s) weaknesses; both young women trust their own judgment too much, believing themselves cleverer than everyone. But both heroines learn; to Austen this is what growing up is all about: “growing up means making mistakes.” And it is important to make mistakes: “…being right might bring you a pat on the head, but being wrong could…help you find who you really are….When maturity came, it came through suffering: through loss,…pain, above all through humiliation.”
Catherine Moreland of Northanger Abbey receives a Jane-Austen type of education from Henry Tilney. There are no lectures, no explanations, and no editorials. He teaches by “…provoking her, taking her by surprise, making her laugh, throwing her off-balance, forcing her to figure out what was going on and what it meant—getting her to think, not telling her how.”
Fanny Price, the heroine of Mansfield Park, is an outsider among the socially elite. A victim of “exclusion, alienation, and subordination,” she learns how morally superior she is to her social superiors, whose worshipping of power and luxury actually injures them. She learns that “elegant manners and active minds are two completely different things…fat wallets and active minds have no particular connection.” Fanny becomes a true heroine, a role model, “…someone we were being asked to emulate despite her apparent social insignificance.” The privileged “… had everything they wanted and more; she had little and was willing to make do with less. Instead of responding to adversity with petulance and spite, she handled it with fortitude, resilience, and resignation.” Most importantly and impressively, she is able to put herself aside for other people.
Anne Elliot in Persuasion learns to reject the traditional values associated with feudal order and hierarchy associated with rural England. Even families are not to be trusted. “Friends…are the family that you choose.” She learns that traditional friends are dangerous especially when they “mean well but [can’t] tell the difference between what was good for you and what was only good for them.” The true friend must possess “generosity and self-awareness to remove [her] desires from the equation.”
In Sense and Sensibility Austen personifies two opposing views of love through the Dashwood sisters, Marianne and Elinor. Marianne is a romantic seeking a soul mate. But she fails because she has not come to know herself—nor does she know the person with whom she falls in love. “Austen believes in love…just not in the way we want her to.” The author clearly views Elinor and Edward’s “tepid relationship” to be the novel’s example of true love. It is based upon common sense and a desire on the part of the individuals to truly come to know each other.
Deresiewicz believes that Austen is consistent throughout her novels in terms of dealing with her basic thoughts about goodness, growing up, learning, and friendship. His personal journey through these six novels can be as instructive to the open-minded reader as they were to our author. He has, of course, tapped into the qualities that make Jane Austen’s works classics: they appeal to our understanding of human nature, and instruct through examples rather than through sermons, lectures, or explanations.
Ted Odenwald and his wife, Shirley have lived in Oakland for 40 years. He taught HS English at Glen Rock High School for all of those years plus one more. Now he is enjoying time spent with his family, singing in the North Jersey Chorus and quenching his wanderlust. Ted is also the Worship Leader at the Ramapo Valley Baptist Church in Oakland.