All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane

Abstract

Taking a cue from Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, literature professor [Amy Elizabeth Smith] decided to set up Jane Austen reading groups in six different Central and South American countries: Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina. She wanted to see how readers in those countries would relate to Austen.

Literature

All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane. By Amy Elizabeth Smith. June 20 1 2. 368p. Sourcebooks, paper, $ 1 4.99 (978 1 402265853). 823.

Taking a cue from Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, literature professor Smith decided to set up Jane Austen reading groups in six different Central and South American countries: Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina. She wanted to see how readers in those countries would relate to Austen. Do Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma translate well at all? In each place she encountered very different groups of readers, from the working class to the intellectual, from housewives who barely have time to read to members of the Jane Austen Society of Buenos Aires. Almost all of them found something in Austen to relate to. Smith makes a point of acquainting herself with some of each country's own writers, but the book is as much about her travels as it is about literature, so we share her discovery of local culture as well as her romantic entanglements and her bout with dengue fever. Narrated in a breezy style, this is a fun twist on the fascination with all things Jane. - Mary Ellen Quinn