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vibeke_hiatt's review against another edition
1.0
I just can't do it. There are too many good books to read to waste any more time on this one. There were points in the first chapter I agreed with, such as the fact that we know so little about Jane Austen and we can't really be sure how true the statements from her family were. But then Kelly smugly claims that she can figure Jane Austen out through her novels. She's forgetting one crucial fact about reading: A reader can never read a book without some measure of personal bias. Anything Kelly learns will be tainted by her own experience and beliefs.
She repeatedly refers to Austen as "Jane." Frank Churchill had something to say about that in Emma. It assumes a familiarity that just cannot exist 200 years after Austen's death.
There is nothing wrong with recognizing the romance in Austen's books, as long as you pay attention to the other themes, too. I'm afraid Kelly was so focused on reading between the lines, she forgot to read the lines themselves. Bear in mind that anything she sets forth in this book is opinion, not fact.
Instead of finishing, I think I'll just reread Jane Austen's novels critically for myself and enjoy what they personally mean to me.
She repeatedly refers to Austen as "Jane." Frank Churchill had something to say about that in Emma. It assumes a familiarity that just cannot exist 200 years after Austen's death.
There is nothing wrong with recognizing the romance in Austen's books, as long as you pay attention to the other themes, too. I'm afraid Kelly was so focused on reading between the lines, she forgot to read the lines themselves. Bear in mind that anything she sets forth in this book is opinion, not fact.
Instead of finishing, I think I'll just reread Jane Austen's novels critically for myself and enjoy what they personally mean to me.
alisonvh's review against another edition
challenging
informative
fast-paced
4.0
I did learn a lot from this book, but I noticed a couple of facts she got wrong, and a few of her conclusions relied on too much conjecture.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Slavery and Violence
Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape
soniapage's review against another edition
1.0
At the beginning, the author warns that some Austen fans may not like this book. I'm one of them. It sounded good - an attempt to explore Austen's writings against the backdrop of her times and customs. But, the author goes beyond that with things that she reads into the books. Everyone does this but I prefer to "read into" the books on my own without someone else's (sometimes bizarre) ideas. So, I only got about a third of the way and put it down because I didn't want it to ruin the books which have been my friends since I was a child. I have always known that Austen's books were social commentary and not just romance novels and don't need it explained to me. Every time I read one I see something new and I decided I didn't want to "see" what this author was seeing. In fact, I get the impression that the author does not like Austen's books and is just trashing them.
tilda_bookworm's review against another edition
Feel like I can't really rate this because I'm not exactly the target audience. I have only read one of Jane Austen's novels, have never studied any of her work or literature in any way, I have no knowledge of (or particularly strong interest in) history so it's probably a bit weird that I picked this up and read the whole thing. It did make me want to read most of the novels. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually liked the little fake vignettes about Jane's life; I didn't think they were hypocritical because I read them as tongue-in-cheek, like a bit of an in-joke with the reader. I liked Kelly's writing and enjoyed the arguments made although it was hard for me to know how much weight to give them without reading the texts themselves.
paperbacksandpines's review against another edition
3.0
This was my second Jane Austen July pick this year. I listened to this book on audio, which is usually a medium that I have trouble maintaining attention, but this book failed to disappoint.
Kelly asserts that Austen was a feminist, progressive, ahead of her time in every way. She painted a condensed story of Austen's life, while using each of Austen's main books to argue a different way Austen was unlike the modern viewer's conception of her. Despite reading all of Austen's works, many of them several times, I'd never considered Austen through any of the lenses Kelly presented.
I'm not sure I agree with Kelly on any of her basic assertions but reading this book made me want to go back, reread all of Austen's books and look for Kelly's claims while doing so. I plan on rereading this book again.
Kelly asserts that Austen was a feminist, progressive, ahead of her time in every way. She painted a condensed story of Austen's life, while using each of Austen's main books to argue a different way Austen was unlike the modern viewer's conception of her. Despite reading all of Austen's works, many of them several times, I'd never considered Austen through any of the lenses Kelly presented.
I'm not sure I agree with Kelly on any of her basic assertions but reading this book made me want to go back, reread all of Austen's books and look for Kelly's claims while doing so. I plan on rereading this book again.
secreteeyore's review against another edition
5.0
If I could rate this with 10 stars I would. The author uncovers the layer just beneath the surface of Austen's well-known stories for the modern reader. Some themes I knew of, in the case of Mansfield Park's slavery issue, but Emma's enclosure acts was news to me. My favorite was the Sense & Sensibility chapter. I couldn't believe it, yet it is all there! Fascinating stuff, and so well researched.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
The arguments made about Jane Austen's political leanings (spoiler: she's not a Conservative) are interesting and worth thinking about, whether you agree or not. However, the affectation of placing a fanciful, fictionalized scene from Austen's life at the beginning of each chapter, including the Introduction, is completely unnecessary and hypocritical after taking Austen biographers to task for creating saccharine, unsupported-by-evidence portraits of "our Dear Jane." The editor should had nixed those pages.