Keep Austen Weird: The Familiar and Unfamiliar Pleasures of Jane Austen’s Novels


ID : 2167   

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Jane Austen’s novels are often considered cozy, comforting, and quaint—but in fact, Austen was a radical thinker in many ways, and her literary experiments invented the novel as we know it today. In this class, we’ll read two of Austen’s novels closely and deeply—Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion—and challenge our assumptions about Austen’s work and what it still has to offer us in 2026. We’ll think about the novels in their cultural contexts and look closely at the ways Austen is experimenting at the level of character, story, and structure. In doing so, we will luxuriate in the familiar and in the unfamiliar pleasures of Jane Austen’s novels. 
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Class Details

6 Session(s)
Weekly - Tue

Location
OLLI

Instructor
Jenny Reed 

 

Notice

Please read:  Required Text: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, volumes 1, 2, 3 (Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 2004).

Jane Austen, Persuasion, volumes 1 & 2 (Penguin Classics, 2003).

Pride and Prejudice (2005, directed by Joe Wright) and/or Persuasion (1995, directed by Roger Mitchell). (We’ll decide as a class if we want to watch both, or just one of these two recent movie adaptations of Austen's novels.)

Assignment for first class session: Watch the introductory lecture on Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice, which will be sent to students’ email addresses after registration, and read volume 1 of Pride and Prejudice.

Tuition:  $55.00

Schedule Information

Date(s) Class Days Times Location Instructor(s) Instructional Method
7/7/2026 - 8/11/2026 Weekly - Tue 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM Kingston, OLLI  Map Jenny Reed  ClassRoom

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