Before Jane Austen, William Deresiewicz was a very different young man.
A sullen and arrogant graduate student, he never thought Austen would
have anything to offer him. Then he read *Emma--*and everything changed.
In this unique and lyrical book, Deresiewicz weaves the misadventures of
Austen's characters with his own youthful follies, demonstrating the
power of the great novelist's teachings--and how, for Austen, growing up
and making mistakes are one and the same. Honest, erudite, and deeply
moving, A Jane Austen Education is the story of one man's discovery of
the world outside himself.