Podcast Summary: "Our Romance with Jane Austen"

Critics at Large | The New Yorker | December 25, 2025

Episode Overview

In this lively episode of Critics at Large, hosts Alexandra Schwartz, Vinson Cunningham, and Naomi Fry honor Jane Austen in celebration of her birthday and discuss the enduring cultural obsession with her work. The conversation moves through Austen’s central themes, favorite novels, her unique take on romance and social critique, the complexities of her heroines, and the relevance of her stories today. The trio also explores why Austen’s world and its adaptations continue to captivate audiences, and they respond to listener insights about how Austen’s narratives resonate in the 21st century.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Hallmarks of Jane Austen’s Work

• Tropes and Touchstones:
  • Classic “will they/won’t they” romantic tension
  • The “love that dare not speak its name” (in Austen’s case, repressed heterosexual love only spoken in the final pages)
  • The omnipresence of money and the intersection of financial and romantic fulfillment
  • The “smart woman surrounded by idiots” dynamic
  • Satirical figures like insufferable clergymen (Mr. Collins, Mr. Elton)
  • The importance of home, estate, and provincial settings
  • Persistent miscommunication and misunderstanding as narrative engines
  • “If you could say something and get a true answer back...we wouldn't be dealing with, first of all, the novel, and certainly not a novel by Jane Austen.” – Vinson Cunningham (02:19)

Choosing a Favorite Austen Novel: Personal Reflections

• Alexandra Schwartz’s Favorites:

  • Pride and Prejudice: Described as essential—“I don’t want to exist in a world in which Pride and Prejudice wasn’t written.” (05:28)
  • Emma: Her current favorite—lauded for its complex protagonist, Emma Woodhouse, who embodies “main character syndrome.” The novel's richness becomes apparent upon rereading as readers see how Emma persistently misunderstands her world, herself, and others.
    • “Emma is really reading a bad novelist. Emma is writing a novel about her own life, and she sees the people in her life as characters.” – Alexandra Schwartz (07:17)
    • Emma’s uniqueness: the only Austen heroine who is financially independent; Austen aimed to write a protagonist “whom no one but myself will much like.” (08:17)

• Naomi Fry’s Favorite:

  • Persuasion: Austen’s final completed novel, centered on Anne Elliot, 27, unmarried, and considered past her prime, and her long-lost love, Captain Wentworth.
    • A novel about loneliness, “suffering in silence,” and the profound impact of belated communication.
    • Fry praises the intensity and release when the silence breaks—citing Captain Wentworth’s iconic letter:

      “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late... I have loved none but you.” – (15:28)

    • “I just remember feeling so moved by the fact that she is so alone and has to be so watchful on her own.” – Naomi Fry (14:07)

• Vinson Cunningham’s Favorite:

  • Mansfield Park: Noted for its philosophy and narrative complexity; least romantic, most focused on narration as art.
    • Fanny Price’s moral steadfastness and rejection of Henry Crawford is the “moral and narrative crux” of the novel.
    • Cunningham admires how Austen’s narrator explores the gap between social expectation and genuine emotion:

      “They don't miss their father... and his absence was unhappily most welcome. Unhappily, most welcome. So there is the real thing that they should feel and the thing that they sort of, in the context of their moral world, do feel. And these things are at odds, but only in the life of the narrator.” – Vinson Cunningham (19:14)

    • Naomi Fry praises Austen's pragmatic presentation of family—“some people suck. And it’s okay...not to love them.” (21:12)

The Power & Appeal of Love in Austen

• Austen’s romances are “answers to loneliness.” The love stories endure not for mere sentimentality, but for the communication and self-knowledge possible only through true partnership. Alexandra Schwartz emphasizes:

  “Love is the answer to loneliness in these books in a very profound way. The proper love is an answer to loneliness.” (24:40)

• Intellectual connection as erotic:

  “The hotness of the mind is what makes Jane Austen so enduring over time.” – Alexandra Schwartz (25:20)

Satire vs. Sincerity

• Debate about enjoying Austen’s world—are readers “bad fans,” missing satire and cheering for the very societal constraints Austen criticizes?
• Cunningham cites Emily Nussbaum’s “bad fan” idea, noting how fans may enjoy the suspense and love stories even while the books satirize the very structures that produce those plots (26:20).
• Schwartz quotes Virginia Woolf on Austen’s elusive narrative voice—a mix of affectionate intimacy and blank detachment—describing Austen’s “flattering and cajoling you with the promise of intimacy. And then at the last moment, there is the same blankness. Are those Jane Austen's eyes or is it a glass, a mirror, a silver spoon held up in the sun?” (28:12)

Austen’s Life and Legacy

• Austen’s own socioeconomic constraints sharpen her work’s irony and realism. She was neither wealthy nor widely known; her novels published anonymously.
• Her sister Cassandra burned most of Austen’s personal letters, leaving her an enigmatic figure and fueling endless speculation:

  “I almost think it’s having so little information about her... I actually think not knowing very much about her has been a huge boon in some ways for the Austen industry, because you can just kind of endlessly wonder.” – Alexandra Schwartz (32:55)

• Mentions contemporary Austen lore, like “Ms. Austen,” a Masterpiece (PBS) adaptation centering Cassandra Austen.

Relevance and Adaptation in Modern Culture

• Austen’s narrative structure—a seemingly hopeless situation suddenly rescued—forms the blueprint for the modern rom-com.

  “I think it’s just one of the most perfect examples of this genre and earliest examples of this genre.” – Naomi Fry (38:07)

• Her work’s “portability” enables it to be adapted, “modern-dress Austen” compared to Shakespeare (39:20).
• Favorite Adaptations:
  • Pride and Prejudice (2005, Keira Knightley/Matthew Macfadyen):

    “...what’s satisfying about them is like they can show the yearning. We know the yearning must have been there. Right, let’s see it.” – Alexandra Schwartz (41:42)

Listener Interaction and Contemporary Parallels

• Listener Lauren writes about Persuasion’s Anne Elliot resonating with women today who delay or forego marriage out of self-respect, economic necessity, or lack of partners meeting “Austenified standards.” (42:05)

  “My half agony, half hope is that us Annes never stop asking for what we deserve or settle for less. Jane says it best. Time will explain.” – Listener Lauren (43:09)

• Austen’s plots speak to the modern experience: navigating inequality, restrictions, and longing for rare, authentic companionship. The hosts agree:

  “Within unfreedom there is freedom, or something like that.” – Vinson Cunningham (44:57) “It’s snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.” – Naomi Fry (45:12)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I don’t want to exist in a world in which Pride and Prejudice wasn’t written.” – Alexandra Schwartz (05:28)
• “Thinking is sexy and thinking together...makes one worthy of attraction.” – Alexandra Schwartz (15:08)
• “Some people suck. And it’s okay...not to love them.” – Naomi Fry (21:12)
• “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.” – Captain Wentworth’s letter, read by Naomi Fry (15:28)
• “Are those Jane Austen’s eyes or is it a glass, a mirror, a silver spoon held up in the sun?” – Virginia Woolf, quoted by Alexandra Schwartz (28:12)
• “It is a very narrow...form of escapism that says within unfreedom there is freedom.” – Vinson Cunningham (44:57)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [00:25] Austen tropes and themes
• [04:01] Listener poll: favorite novels – Pride & Prejudice’s enduring popularity
• [05:28] Alex’s favorite novel: Emma, with reflections on narrative technique and main character syndrome
• [09:28] Naomi’s favorite: Persuasion; themes of loneliness and Pratt’s reading of Captain Wentworth’s letter
• [14:07–16:29] Power of communication and intellect in Austen’s romance
• [17:41] Vincent’s favorite: Mansfield Park; analysis of narration, morality, and pragmatism
• [24:39] Defense of Austen’s version of love as antidote to loneliness
• [26:20] Sincerity vs. satire in Austen’s storytelling
• [32:55] Austen’s biography, mystique, and the “Austen industry”
• [39:59] Favorite adaptations—Keira Knightley’s Pride and Prejudice
• [42:05] Listener emails and contemporary relevance
• [44:57] Escapism and “victory from the jaws of defeat” motif

Tone & Style

The hosts remain conversational, witty, and transparently subjective in their analyses. Their tone swings between affectionate critique, nerdy enthusiasm, and self-aware humor. Frequent allusions to current pop culture and personal confessions ground the discussion for both Austen aficionados and newcomers.

Conclusion

This episode of Critics at Large offers a rich, multidimensional homage to Jane Austen, blending literary criticism, cultural history, and personal reflection. The hosts show why Austen endures: not just for her “will they/won’t they” romances, but for her psychological acuity, biting wit, and the eternal resonance of her characters’ search for love and freedom within the strictures of their worlds—strictures that, in many ways, mirror our own.