Jane on the Brain: Exploring the Science of Social Intelligence with Jane Austen Hardcover – December 5, 2017 by Wendy Jones (Pegasus)

There are many reasons to read this wonderful book: a passion for Jane Austen, a passion for the human brain, questions about how we work and why we work so well, or fail to work so well, together, as people...or curiosity about life, love, empathy, resilience...Wendy Jones presents an elegant, efficient, nuanced, and rigorous account of what current science knows about (and what it doesn't know about) the human brain as a social tool and social product. She also presents an efficient, efficient, nuanced, and rigorous account of Austen's artistry and imaginative world. And she does the one so well because she does the other so well; she does both well because neither is a vehicle for the other and both are served by her deep care and engagement.

The books of pop. science I know tend to repel me slightly by their sloppy metaphors, grotesque analogies. Often (not always of course) the scientists or journalists who write them care so much about the science that they care too little about whatever it is they need in order to make the science come alive. But Jones cares about Austen as much as she cares about the science, so when she tells us about neuroscience through careful description of the characters and language of Austen's novels, she does justice all around.

The books about character and literature can repel me slightly because they pretend to a level of analytical rigor that divests them of humane engagement, or they reduce analysis to the level of second-rate gossip. Here again, Jones triumphs: the neuroscience affords a rigor that is humane, subtle and surprising, and the characters emerge with greater depth. What is best is that she can reconcile Austen's moral universe to the best neuroscience accounts; the virtuous among Austen's characters are destined for happiness on account of their virtue, because that virtue, Jones persuades, owes something to a happy course of neurological functioning. The jump is not from our scientific "is" to Austen's moral "ought," but rather from Austen's moral "ought" to our scientific "is."

This book is deeply intelligent, lucid, and personable--there's no nonsense about it and modesty in its most insightful claims. Jane, one thinks, would have approved.