from Harrod

Nice addition to the Janeite book list. Deresiewicz mixes his bio with Austen history in a thoughtful mix of stories that iterate how timeless Austen continues to be.

from lycomayflower

Deresiewicz devotes a chapter to each of Austen's six novels, discussing what he discovered about life in that novel (often after reading it several times). His discussion is part literary criticism and part memoir. He illuminates Austen's work but also illustrates how reading her has changed the...

from ReviewsbyMolly

I don't normally review memoirs. They just don't appeal to me, and I have a hard time being "captured" by the memoirs. However, there are rare occasions, such as this one, that I find I become engrossed in the life of the author, and I find myself finished with the book before I ever really got s...

from keywestnan

A nice hybrid of memoir and literary criticism that describes how a young man reaches self-awareness and maturity while (not necessarily through, or at least not entirely) reading the works of Jane Austen. I liked the literary analysis better than the memoir part, if only because each life lesson...

from katiekrug

This is a decent, if not very profound, look at the impact of Jane Austen's novels on one man. It's kind of a memoir, kind of a literary analysis. I appreciated some of his insights into the texts, but the sections where he connected his analysis back to his own life were often clunky and riddled...