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A review by hannas
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly
4.0
My cup of (over-)analytical tea, or what one could call a gripping read. Mini-me would have had A LOT of fun with this book in English class back in the day. Points for the structure and the writing, which was far from dull and dry.
I kind of didn't want it to end, and would have actually liked a deeper delve into some of the author's interpretations of JA's writing - especially since they seem a tiny bit far-fetched in some parts, which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. JA's books are surely the sum of a lot more than just the angles the author chose to base her analysis on, which is kind of the point, since they are definitely more than the one-dimensional feel-good romances they are widely and ignorantly thought to be. (Many film adaptions are nothing short of cringeworthy, thanks in part to the lack of meaningful female representation in the directorial departments. Aaaanyway...)
We don't, as the author stresses, actually know a whole lot about JA's persona let alone her thought and writing process, so you might as well be bold with your assumptions, right? Well, maybe.
Any book can be interpreted in myriad ways, but it definitely always helps to unterstand the historical context it was written in.
Even if JA herself might not have intended her books as social criticism per se, they still reveal quite a lot more about the lives, opinions and perspectives of (some) women of her time - which is a hell of a lot more than I've ever learned in any history book.
I kind of didn't want it to end, and would have actually liked a deeper delve into some of the author's interpretations of JA's writing - especially since they seem a tiny bit far-fetched in some parts, which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. JA's books are surely the sum of a lot more than just the angles the author chose to base her analysis on, which is kind of the point, since they are definitely more than the one-dimensional feel-good romances they are widely and ignorantly thought to be. (Many film adaptions are nothing short of cringeworthy, thanks in part to the lack of meaningful female representation in the directorial departments. Aaaanyway...)
We don't, as the author stresses, actually know a whole lot about JA's persona let alone her thought and writing process, so you might as well be bold with your assumptions, right? Well, maybe.
Any book can be interpreted in myriad ways, but it definitely always helps to unterstand the historical context it was written in.
Even if JA herself might not have intended her books as social criticism per se, they still reveal quite a lot more about the lives, opinions and perspectives of (some) women of her time - which is a hell of a lot more than I've ever learned in any history book.