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bookhoarding's review against another edition
3.0
What Janeite doesn't want to dive deeper into her works and find a hidden gem or two? We all want a new way to inhale her novels, or new insight into the rather mysterious woman herself.
This book gives us a whole lot of potential context for reading Austen. I say "potential" because not every hypothesized perspective came off as legitimate. I appreciate the immense research and detail put into this, but I do not feel every chapter was convincing. The Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility chapters felt strongest, but everything else came off very weak.
I appreciate the new info on her life and the era, but her "facts" on how to read Austen are questionable.
This book gives us a whole lot of potential context for reading Austen. I say "potential" because not every hypothesized perspective came off as legitimate. I appreciate the immense research and detail put into this, but I do not feel every chapter was convincing. The Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility chapters felt strongest, but everything else came off very weak.
I appreciate the new info on her life and the era, but her "facts" on how to read Austen are questionable.
crystalvaughan0603's review against another edition
2.0
I'm giving this two stars because I enjoyed reading the history of England at the time that Jane Austen lived and the world she was living in. If the author had stopped there and not gone on with her literary criticism, I would have given the book five stars.
l1nds's review against another edition
4.0
It's a funny old book - it's thoroughly entertaining, it's made me reach for Pride and Prejudice again (which is always a good thing!), but I find many of the arguments very tenuous. I agree that many people undermine Austen, she is much shrewder than many give her credit for (I have never understood how you read P&P as a romantic comedy of manners and COMPLETELY miss the criticism of inheritance laws and the way women are reduced to chattel in the marriage game) but some of her arguments are barely supported by examples from the original texts.
That said, we are reading Emma for book club in the summer and I am going to be looking at Mr Knightley with a VERY critical eye as I found that chapter extremely persuasive!
That said, we are reading Emma for book club in the summer and I am going to be looking at Mr Knightley with a VERY critical eye as I found that chapter extremely persuasive!
berlinbibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked the concept of this book: reading Jane Austen's books for signs of radical thought. I appreciated these readings, which I thought were generally quite convincing, if sometimes taken a bit too far in attributing motives to Jane from very little evidence. The topics are very interesting, especially the analysis of Catherine Morland as a lacking reader, as well as the exploration of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy as a radical utopian relationship.
I thought it was a strange idea to be arguing against viewing Jane Austen as an idealised figure due to popular preconceptions and then make up scenes featuring her out of whole cloth, placing words and thoughts into her mouth which were not her own. I liked these scenes, but they seemed to be contradicting the point of the book in that they portray Jane not through her own words, but through words imposed on her by Helena Kelly.
Nonetheless, the book overall was interesting and well-written.
I thought it was a strange idea to be arguing against viewing Jane Austen as an idealised figure due to popular preconceptions and then make up scenes featuring her out of whole cloth, placing words and thoughts into her mouth which were not her own. I liked these scenes, but they seemed to be contradicting the point of the book in that they portray Jane not through her own words, but through words imposed on her by Helena Kelly.
Nonetheless, the book overall was interesting and well-written.
wickedplutoswickedreading's review against another edition
Found a point made to be too stupid to continue
katyrbw's review against another edition
5.0
was anyone going to tell me that jane austen might not have died when she did if the doctor hadn't given her a massive dose of opium or what
really truly fantastic book. great work
really truly fantastic book. great work
melissadegraffbooks's review against another edition
2.0
The author's tone really rubbed me the wrong way. She wrote very condescendingly, as if anyone who didn't agree with her ideas was a complete idiot. It felt like she was working too hard to make Jane Austen's works fit the "secret radical" image, choosing the most cynical, negative interpretations possible. There was some interesting background info on the social issues of the time, but I did not agree with all the conclusions drawn.
agentbird's review against another edition
4.0
Lots of good points; also a lot that was a big stretch. Lots of things I had picked up on, but a few things I hadn't!