# Don't any men read Jane Austen's novels?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 6, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338 "2006-11-06T19:40:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/1 "2006-11-06T19:40:10Z")
Mr. brown, having read and enjoyed the Aubrey/Maturin series, is now more amenable to reading the 19th century English literature which I love. In fact, he’s well into _Vanity Fair_ and loving it, and he would never have considered reading it a few years ago.
However, he is still adamant that he _despises_ Jane Austen’s works. He couldn’t get past page 1 of _Pride and Prejudice_. It then occurred to me that I don’t remember any contributions from male readers in any of the discussions here on the board about JA’s works.
So how about it? Don’t any of you guys read her masterpieces? Are all of her works considered “chick lit”?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/2 "2006-11-06T19:42:52Z")
Sadly, I had a great deal of trouble with **Pride and Prejudice** as well. I had to read it for a literature course, and it was pure torture. Even worse than having to read Henry James.
I’m not joking. I can’t account for exactly why it was so difficult, but it was a disturbing experience. I simply couldn’t get into the book at all. And, of course, I never tried to read anything else by her.
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### Author:  [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/3 "2006-11-06T19:50:21Z")
I had to read “Pride and Prejudice” for a college course. I started it with good intentions, but very quickly grew to dislike it and started using the Spark Notes instead. I’m not sure if I ever actually finished reading it. I’ve never read anything else by her, and I avoid movie adaptations of her books as well (though I have seen “Clueless”.)
My brother had to read the same book for high school, and to this day he is very vocal about his intense dislike of of Jane Austen any time she happens to come up. He claims to hate “Pride and Prejudice.”
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### Author:  [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/4 "2006-11-06T20:14:14Z")
Although I’ll admit to preferring the TV/movie adaptations, I have read many of Jane Austen’s novels. If nothing else, I enjoyed them from the historical perspective of a window into that era.
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### Author:  [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/5 "2006-11-06T20:19:27Z")
You might want to try a different book. A lot of serious Janeites put other titles above P&P in quality. I would suggest _Persuasion_ or perhaps _Emma_. But lots of guys just don’t care for Jane Austen novels. Perhaps their narrow focus and their preoccupation with marriage just isn’t appealing to men (my husband comments–“I know marriage was important to these women. But I just. don’t. care.”).
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### Author:  [@QuizCustodet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuizCustodet)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/6 "2006-11-06T20:33:29Z")
I avoided JA’s work for many years - mostly because of a conviction that they would be too girly to be interesting. I finally got around to _Pride and Prejudice_ as a result of a concerted effort to read ‘classic’ literature, and very much enjoyed it. I still don’t have the visceral enjoyment of it that many of my female friends do - some all but swoon at the mere thought of Darcy, probably because of Colin Firth - but I’ve since read _Emma_, _Persuasion_ and _Sense and Sensibility_ and enjoyed them all.
They’re not high on my list of books to re-read, however. I look back on what I enjoyed and it’s mostly the humor, but I don’t think that any of them made me do more than smile. I don’t think that would be enough to re-interest me in the books, absent the basic interest occasioned by an unfamiliar plot.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/7 "2006-11-06T20:48:43Z")
I have read some Austen and I think I’ve seen all the major cinema adaptations. I prefer the movie versions, because when it comes to reading the actual novel, I find that I usually have no sympathy for the main character.
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### Author:  [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/8 "2006-11-06T21:07:23Z")
Not willingly.
Had to read Emma for a class and it was like pulling teeth. At the time, I likened the experience to being stuck in a car with my Mom during a 16 hour roadtrip when she was in a talkative mood.
Later on during grad school I had to read Northanger Abbey for a class and found myself enjoying it quite a bit.
I think Austen for guys is something that needs to be grown into. Like a lot of classic literature, the audience it’s thrust upon these days is an audience that’s largely unprepared to appreciate it.
You hand a 20 year old a copy of Moby Dick and at the very best, you’ve given him a new doorstop. Hand the same person Moby Dick 30 years later and they might be ready to enjoy it.
Hm. Maybe I should give Emma another shot.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/9 "2006-11-06T21:17:47Z")
Many _girls_ don’t read Austen novels. I personally think she’s a load of tripe, and I am most definitely a girl. And I have never met a man who admitted to reading them.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/10 "2006-11-06T21:21:37Z")
Well, I’ve read all six of her major novels, five of them voluntarily. _Pride and Prejudice_ was a great read, a page-turner. The others I read with varying degrees of effort and appreciation (_Persuasion_ being my least favorite), but all were worth reading.
True, they’re written from a female point of view; maybe some male readers have trouble making the leap to identifying with a character who is both a different sex and in a different century? Or maybe it’s the writing style: I like it, but then, I like Samuel Johnson’s writing style (with whom she has been compared).
(Henry James, on the other hand, is indeed pure torture.)
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/11 "2006-11-06T21:25:53Z")
> [@](#):
>
> And I have never met a man who admitted to reading them.
I’ve read several of them and enjoyed them. Then again, I’m strange like that. I also like Angela Thirkell (different era, I know, but a similar sensibility).
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### Author:  [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/12 "2006-11-06T21:28:46Z")
I’m a man, I’m pretty sure, and have read most of Austen (couldn’t stomach _Mansfield Park_). My manly brother, a cattle farmer with a Grade 10 education, read all of the Austens that I did, and liked them a lot.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/13 "2006-11-06T21:35:47Z")
My father was an English major and wrote one (or maybe both) of his JPs on Jane Austen. It’s funny because I read all of her books from his collection and they had the relevant passages he referenced underlined, and clearly with a ruler! Pop is very precise.
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### Author:  [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/14 "2006-11-06T21:36:44Z")
I tried to read _Pride and Prejudice._ I really did. But after five pages and about sixty instances of the phrase “my dear,” I realized I was forcing myself and just gave up.
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### Author:  [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/15 "2006-11-06T22:37:00Z")
I’m a guy and I’ve read _Pride and Prejudice_ and _Emma_. I liked them both. I liked _Vanity Fair_ as well, since the OP mentioned that.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/16 "2006-11-06T23:24:09Z")
I read _Pride and Prejudice_ and thought it was a great novel. Tripe she is not.
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### Author:  [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/17 "2006-11-06T23:55:40Z")
This one did in high school, as assigned (_P&P_, _S&S_) I didn’t really care for them, but it wasn’t like I had some deep hatred for them either. The follies of the idle English landed gentry failed to move me much, I guess.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/18 "2006-11-07T01:08:36Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika]
Many _girls_ don’t read Austen novels. I personally think she’s a load of tripe, and I am most definitely a girl. And I have never met a man who admitted to reading them.
[/QUOTE]
Yep, it’s the orginial chick lit. I like her books about as well as Danielle Steel’s which is to say not very much at all.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/19 "2006-11-07T01:19:25Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika]
Many _girls_ don’t read Austen novels. I personally think she’s a load of tripe, and I am most definitely a girl.
[/QUOTE]
Thank you for summing up my feelings for her works so very concisely.
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-any-men-read-jane-austens-novels/379338/20 "2006-11-07T01:22:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Yep, it’s the orginial chick lit. I like her books about as well as Danielle Steel’s which is to say not very much at all.
:eek: :eek:
I find this comment simply stunning.
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