Scan barcode
A review by nanvdand
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly
4.0
My daughter gave me this book for Christmas because she knows that Jane Austen is my favorite author. Full disclosure - I have read all of Miss Austen’s books just once with the exception of P&P which I have read twice. And I read them several years ago and so my memory of plots and characters have faded. Each chapter of this book is devoted to one of Miss Austen’s books and describes what the author believes to be Miss Austen’s point she was trying to make. While some points are clearly conjecture, most of them have merit based on what historians know about Jane Austen.
An added bonus of reading this book was that I learned a lot about the common thinking and norms of Britain during the late 1700s and early 1800s. This helped me to better appreciate and understand some of the other classic British novels I have read. Topics such as abortion, slavery, the role of the church, unfairness of inheritance laws, and infidelity are all covered aptly.
I now have a significantly better appreciation for who Jane Austen was. And I will definitely read through Jane’s books with a more careful eye.
This may not be fair, but the reason I gave this book a 4 rather than a 5 is that, while interesting, it was not riveting for me. I read it with my morning coffee and then put it aside for more intriguing books. But all in all, I am a smarter person for having read it.
An added bonus of reading this book was that I learned a lot about the common thinking and norms of Britain during the late 1700s and early 1800s. This helped me to better appreciate and understand some of the other classic British novels I have read. Topics such as abortion, slavery, the role of the church, unfairness of inheritance laws, and infidelity are all covered aptly.
I now have a significantly better appreciation for who Jane Austen was. And I will definitely read through Jane’s books with a more careful eye.
This may not be fair, but the reason I gave this book a 4 rather than a 5 is that, while interesting, it was not riveting for me. I read it with my morning coffee and then put it aside for more intriguing books. But all in all, I am a smarter person for having read it.