Austen scholar 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.

In Jane Austen's third published novel after Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice? young Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy uncle and aunt? Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram? at Mansfield Park. Raised among her four cousins? Fanny, the poor relation, often goes unobserved in the household? making her a unique observer of the ethics? morals? attitudes and behavior of English society.

"The summer after university, Emma Woodhouse returns home to the village of Highbury, where she will live with her health-conscious father until she is ready to launch her interior-design business and strike out on her own. In the meantime, she will do what she does best: offer guidance to those less wise in the ways of the world than herself. Happily, this summer brings many new faces to Highbury and into the sphere of Emma's not always perfectly...

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." So runs one of the most famous opening lines in English literature. Setting the scene in 'Pride and Prejudice', it deftly introduces the novel's core themes of marriage, money, and social convention, themes that continue to resonate with readers over 200 years later. Jane Austen wrote six of the best-loved novels in the English language,...

"The twelfth installment in Stephanie Barron's fan-favorite Being a Jane Austen Mystery series. Christmas Eve, 1814: Jane Austen has been invited to spend the holiday with family and friends at The Vyne, the gorgeous ancestral home of the wealthy and politically prominent Chute family. As the year fades and friends begin to gather beneath the mistletoe for the twelve days of Christmas festivities, Jane and her circle are in a celebratory mood: Mansfield...