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A review by cornynat
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly
3.0
I thought I was cool because I read Pride and Prejudice before watching any of the adaptations - and don't get me wrong, I enjoy the adaptations (yep, especially the zombie one) - but even without those being my default, I still had barely any of the historical and political context to appreciate it (and it's siblings) as Kelly suggests Jane meant us to. And, as Kelly also suggests, Jane's contemporary audience largely didn't either (due to publication delays)... aka, Jane Austen has always been underrated?
I liked the structure (a chapter assigned to each of Jane's published books, but still cross referencing each other) and it was genuinely informative and thought provoking, but it could have been more concise for my taste (language on the flowery side, which instead of being transportive is distracting when trying to think analytically). And Kelly prefaces everything by challenging some common held beliefs about Austen's life that there isn't very solid basis for, but she still does her fair share of speculation... from what mostly seems like solid stuff (i.e. the socio/political climate she wrote them in, which were not necessarily, as mentioned above, the ones they were published in) but which sometimes felt like a reach (albeit interesting ones).
There are some indignant reviews about some things that Kelly reads into, but Jane isn't around to settle any debates, and ultimately a book means to a reader what they want it to mean. All that being said, I don't know if I actually "liked" this book or if I just found the information being used to support Kelly's claims helpful - either way I'm looking forward to eventually rereading Austen's works with some new perspective.
"Forget the Jane Austen you think you know. Forget the biographies; forget the pretty adaptations. Ignore the banknote. Read Jane's novels. They're there to speak for her: love stories, yes, though not always happy ones, but also the productions of an extraordinary mind, in an extraordinary age."
PAGE 293
I liked the structure (a chapter assigned to each of Jane's published books, but still cross referencing each other) and it was genuinely informative and thought provoking, but it could have been more concise for my taste (language on the flowery side, which instead of being transportive is distracting when trying to think analytically). And Kelly prefaces everything by challenging some common held beliefs about Austen's life that there isn't very solid basis for, but she still does her fair share of speculation... from what mostly seems like solid stuff (i.e. the socio/political climate she wrote them in, which were not necessarily, as mentioned above, the ones they were published in) but which sometimes felt like a reach (albeit interesting ones).
There are some indignant reviews about some things that Kelly reads into, but Jane isn't around to settle any debates, and ultimately a book means to a reader what they want it to mean. All that being said, I don't know if I actually "liked" this book or if I just found the information being used to support Kelly's claims helpful - either way I'm looking forward to eventually rereading Austen's works with some new perspective.
"Forget the Jane Austen you think you know. Forget the biographies; forget the pretty adaptations. Ignore the banknote. Read Jane's novels. They're there to speak for her: love stories, yes, though not always happy ones, but also the productions of an extraordinary mind, in an extraordinary age."
PAGE 293