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A review by flappermyrtle
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly
3.0
Firstly, please, please, please, can we stop writing books that claim to 'read Jane Austen in a new manner', books that claim we have been reading Austen 'completely wrongly', books who revel in finding the smallest details and blowing them up completely into a new reading.
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical manages to find some very interesting angles and, indeed, legitimate proof for some of its interpretations. The presence of the militia in Meryton as a threatening rather than aiding presence is explicated excellently, emphasising the fear of war as well as the danger of having so many single men cavorting about the streets with little to do.
However, the book incidentally reads so closely that I felt it lost the bigger picture, as with the Persuasion chapter and its focus on fossils and evolution. Interesting, though not in the least credible to me, unfortunately.
All in all, recommended if you are knee-deep in Austen studies and familiar with many theories on her novels and its deeper layers and wish to be just a little bit surprised, but to be taken with some grains of salt.
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical manages to find some very interesting angles and, indeed, legitimate proof for some of its interpretations. The presence of the militia in Meryton as a threatening rather than aiding presence is explicated excellently, emphasising the fear of war as well as the danger of having so many single men cavorting about the streets with little to do.
However, the book incidentally reads so closely that I felt it lost the bigger picture, as with the Persuasion chapter and its focus on fossils and evolution. Interesting, though not in the least credible to me, unfortunately.
All in all, recommended if you are knee-deep in Austen studies and familiar with many theories on her novels and its deeper layers and wish to be just a little bit surprised, but to be taken with some grains of salt.