A review by l1nds
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly

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!