William Deresewitz, a New York student, rebel, admirer of James Joyce and Joseph Conrad, was twenty-six years old when he met Jane Austen, the woman who changed his life. The fact that she died almost two hundred years before they met played absolutely no role. He disdained Austen's novels, but the graduate program left him no choice. What happens if a self-confident young man suddenly begins to live according to the advice of the first lady of English literature?