Let me say this at once and get it off my chest: I loved this book!
In this book, which uses memoir as a framework for an explanation of Austen's themes, William Deresiewicz frames the six novels of Jane Austen with the story of his own graduate school years, when he was "coming of age" like Austen's heroines.
When I started the book (some time ago, ahem) I looked at the Table of Contents and I was thrilled - because each Austen book had its own discrete chapter. This permitted me to read one chapter at a time, put the book aside, and return to it when I had more time.
I puzzled over where I should begin, and finally decided I should begin with my favorite novel, Persuasion.
I'd recently read Persuasion with my book group and when it was time for us to comment on our reading, I struggled to explain why I loved the novel so much.
I wondered if my love of this novel could merely be wish fulfillment: Anne Elliot is on the shelf for seven or eight years after she rejects the proposal of the man she loves, having been persuaded to make that decision by a dear friend who meant well. At home, she's lonely, bored, and entirely overlooked by her family who doesn't value her good qualities.
She meets Wentworth again after seven years have passed. Ironically, and perhaps cruelly, Wentworth's sister and brother-in-law move into the Elliot family home, Kellynch, after the Elliots are forced to rent it out to offset their proud and profligate spending. She is embarrassed and terribly saddened at the same time. It hurts her that Wentworth barely acknowledges their former acquaintance when they meet once again. Her sister tells her that Wentworth reported that she'd changed so much he hardly recognized her (ouch! -- Anne's sister Mary is not blessed with tact); her sister Mary and Mary's husband, Charles, immediately start speculating about which of their sisters would be most likely to marry Wentworth, "a capital match," as he's wealthy from the cargo French ships he seized as a captain in the British Navy.
All this makes Anne's eventual fate seem like a triumph, when Wentworth not only proposes to her again, but does so in a letter that is the apex of romantic declaiming ("You pierce my soul!").
But all Austen's novels end in advantageous marriages to worthy men (whether wealthy gentlemen or conscientious clergymen).
So what's so special about Persuasion?
Deresiewicz explains that he chose to write about Persuasion for his dissertation because he himself was experiencing a saddening transition. In high school and college, he had taken his friends for granted. As he began graduate school, his friends all began their adult lives, often far away, and he wasn't able to spend time with them or to share their experiences. He'd lost his own personal community.
At the opening of Persuasion, Anne Elliot has no community. Her family doesn't value her, and is happy to loan her out to a married sister to perform a variety of domestic tasks.
But by the end of the novel, Anne Elliot has a community, a group of friends clustered around the Harvilles. Captain Harville's sister was engaged to be married to one of his shipboard colleagues, Captain Benwick. Tragically, Miss Harville died before she and Benwick could marry, but this shared tragedy drew Benwick closer to the Harvilles. The Harvilles are also very close to Captain Wentworth, which is how Anne meets them -- Captain Wentworth invites Mary, her husband, her husband's two sisters, and Anne to join him in visiting the Harvilles in Lyme Regis. The Harvilles, Captain Benwick, and Captain Wentworth together form a kind of family.
Derewiesicz points out how frequently Austen uses the word "friendship" or other variations and how frequently she describes characters as a "true friend."
More importantly, he explains something that I find amazing: he shows that Anne copes with being forced to live with her family in their home in Bath, a place where she's not really included, by spending as much time as possible with her friends, old and new, but especially with the Harvilles (with their "unpretentious warmth," Captain Benwick, Captain Wentworth, and her sister's husband and his family, the Musgroves. Captain Wentworth's Navy "family" (Captain Benwick and the Harvilles) offers a new social circle to Anne, one that she can turn to for kindness, support and intellectual stimulation.
As Deresiewicz points out, Anne's lack of interest in her father and her sister and their affairs becomes so great that when she hears gossip about a scheme that threatens their happiness, she doesn't do anything about it. Implied in this situation is a rejection of the aristocracy (Sir Walter Elliot, Anne's father, is a baronet) for the rising middle class and a notion of meritocracy (the men of the Navy: Captains Harville, Benwick, Wentworth, and Wentworth's brother-in-law, Admiral Croft).
Deresiewicz concludes by saying that Austen taught him that friends are the family you choose. I suspect that that very modern sentiment is why I love Persuasion so much.
I read a review which noted that the frame of Deresiewicz's real life experiences for his discussion of Austen's novels seemed a little creaky - perhaps lacking in color and excitement. Just to prove that there's no accounting for taste, I have to say that didn't bother me at all. I'm constantly thinking about why we read fiction and lately, memoir, and I have to say that I think that one reason we read memoir is to "benchmark" - to compare our experiences with others', undoubtedly to gain wisdom and maturity and I suspect to permit us to feel better about our ourselves.
The themes that Deresiewicz addresses: who will be my friends? who will be my family? how do I relate to my father (copy him?, reject him?, forgive him?, embrace him?), how do I respect my father when I'm more American than he is? are questions that a lot of people confront. Some of them would be very interested in learning about Deresiewicz's experience and about what Jane Austen thought about these questions. Deresiewicz makes Austen relatable rather than just glamourous.
In this book, which uses memoir as a framework for an explanation of Austen's themes, William Deresiewicz frames the six novels of Jane Austen with the story of his own graduate school years, when he was "coming of age" like Austen's heroines.
When I started the book (some time ago, ahem) I looked at the Table of Contents and I was thrilled - because each Austen book had its own discrete chapter. This permitted me to read one chapter at a time, put the book aside, and return to it when I had more time.
I puzzled over where I should begin, and finally decided I should begin with my favorite novel, Persuasion.
I'd recently read Persuasion with my book group and when it was time for us to comment on our reading, I struggled to explain why I loved the novel so much.
I wondered if my love of this novel could merely be wish fulfillment: Anne Elliot is on the shelf for seven or eight years after she rejects the proposal of the man she loves, having been persuaded to make that decision by a dear friend who meant well. At home, she's lonely, bored, and entirely overlooked by her family who doesn't value her good qualities.
She meets Wentworth again after seven years have passed. Ironically, and perhaps cruelly, Wentworth's sister and brother-in-law move into the Elliot family home, Kellynch, after the Elliots are forced to rent it out to offset their proud and profligate spending. She is embarrassed and terribly saddened at the same time. It hurts her that Wentworth barely acknowledges their former acquaintance when they meet once again. Her sister tells her that Wentworth reported that she'd changed so much he hardly recognized her (ouch! -- Anne's sister Mary is not blessed with tact); her sister Mary and Mary's husband, Charles, immediately start speculating about which of their sisters would be most likely to marry Wentworth, "a capital match," as he's wealthy from the cargo French ships he seized as a captain in the British Navy.
All this makes Anne's eventual fate seem like a triumph, when Wentworth not only proposes to her again, but does so in a letter that is the apex of romantic declaiming ("You pierce my soul!").
But all Austen's novels end in advantageous marriages to worthy men (whether wealthy gentlemen or conscientious clergymen).
So what's so special about Persuasion?
Deresiewicz explains that he chose to write about Persuasion for his dissertation because he himself was experiencing a saddening transition. In high school and college, he had taken his friends for granted. As he began graduate school, his friends all began their adult lives, often far away, and he wasn't able to spend time with them or to share their experiences. He'd lost his own personal community.
At the opening of Persuasion, Anne Elliot has no community. Her family doesn't value her, and is happy to loan her out to a married sister to perform a variety of domestic tasks.
But by the end of the novel, Anne Elliot has a community, a group of friends clustered around the Harvilles. Captain Harville's sister was engaged to be married to one of his shipboard colleagues, Captain Benwick. Tragically, Miss Harville died before she and Benwick could marry, but this shared tragedy drew Benwick closer to the Harvilles. The Harvilles are also very close to Captain Wentworth, which is how Anne meets them -- Captain Wentworth invites Mary, her husband, her husband's two sisters, and Anne to join him in visiting the Harvilles in Lyme Regis. The Harvilles, Captain Benwick, and Captain Wentworth together form a kind of family.
Derewiesicz points out how frequently Austen uses the word "friendship" or other variations and how frequently she describes characters as a "true friend."
More importantly, he explains something that I find amazing: he shows that Anne copes with being forced to live with her family in their home in Bath, a place where she's not really included, by spending as much time as possible with her friends, old and new, but especially with the Harvilles (with their "unpretentious warmth," Captain Benwick, Captain Wentworth, and her sister's husband and his family, the Musgroves. Captain Wentworth's Navy "family" (Captain Benwick and the Harvilles) offers a new social circle to Anne, one that she can turn to for kindness, support and intellectual stimulation.
As Deresiewicz points out, Anne's lack of interest in her father and her sister and their affairs becomes so great that when she hears gossip about a scheme that threatens their happiness, she doesn't do anything about it. Implied in this situation is a rejection of the aristocracy (Sir Walter Elliot, Anne's father, is a baronet) for the rising middle class and a notion of meritocracy (the men of the Navy: Captains Harville, Benwick, Wentworth, and Wentworth's brother-in-law, Admiral Croft).
Deresiewicz concludes by saying that Austen taught him that friends are the family you choose. I suspect that that very modern sentiment is why I love Persuasion so much.
I read a review which noted that the frame of Deresiewicz's real life experiences for his discussion of Austen's novels seemed a little creaky - perhaps lacking in color and excitement. Just to prove that there's no accounting for taste, I have to say that didn't bother me at all. I'm constantly thinking about why we read fiction and lately, memoir, and I have to say that I think that one reason we read memoir is to "benchmark" - to compare our experiences with others', undoubtedly to gain wisdom and maturity and I suspect to permit us to feel better about our ourselves.
The themes that Deresiewicz addresses: who will be my friends? who will be my family? how do I relate to my father (copy him?, reject him?, forgive him?, embrace him?), how do I respect my father when I'm more American than he is? are questions that a lot of people confront. Some of them would be very interested in learning about Deresiewicz's experience and about what Jane Austen thought about these questions. Deresiewicz makes Austen relatable rather than just glamourous.
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