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A review by stefhyena
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly
4.0
I found it surprising and perhaps a bit disappointing that having speant the best part of 311 pages arguing that Austen's novels are NOT lovestories in the penultimate sentence Kelly recants in passing. I've never read these as love stories apart from maybe when I was 15 and had no "romance genre" under my belt to compare them to.
I liked the discussion in each chapter (better than the fanciful scenes at the beginning of each) but I wasn't sure how far to buy into it. The claim (for example) that Edward Ferrars cutting up a scissors' sheath is symbolic of sexual violence smacks of Freud and psychoanalysis (Sigmund was not born until decades after Jane died). I very much liked Austen's spinsterhood being to some degree reclaimed as independence rather than tragedy and the insight into things like "Aunt Jane" having to pay for that independence by babysitting for all family members all the time. I also loved the character assassinations on all the male romantic leads of every novel (when I read the wry and wicked Austin I can't be sure she did not mean to paint them all blackguards).
I'll leave it to Jane Austen experts to assess whether anything in this book makes sense to them. Apart from a few contradictions (the most staggering one the one I just pointed out) this was an enjoyable read.
I liked the discussion in each chapter (better than the fanciful scenes at the beginning of each) but I wasn't sure how far to buy into it. The claim (for example) that Edward Ferrars cutting up a scissors' sheath is symbolic of sexual violence smacks of Freud and psychoanalysis (Sigmund was not born until decades after Jane died). I very much liked Austen's spinsterhood being to some degree reclaimed as independence rather than tragedy and the insight into things like "Aunt Jane" having to pay for that independence by babysitting for all family members all the time. I also loved the character assassinations on all the male romantic leads of every novel (when I read the wry and wicked Austin I can't be sure she did not mean to paint them all blackguards).
I'll leave it to Jane Austen experts to assess whether anything in this book makes sense to them. Apart from a few contradictions (the most staggering one the one I just pointed out) this was an enjoyable read.