Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, (Paperback)

from nancyadair

Kelly shakes our view of Jane up...a lot! Jane's younger family members grew up in the Victorian Age and tweaked Jane's image to fit the ideal of a pious, quiet, unassuming, Christian woman. Through a deep reading of Jane's novels, Kelly concluded that Jane was a secret radical whose books addres...

from sweetiegherkin

In a series of essays, author Helena Kelly takes a close look at each of Jane Austen's six major novels and analyzes them in the light of the historical context of when they written, doing close readings to determine what Austen 'really meant' when she was writing her stories. This book certainly...

from MickyFine

The tone of this one drove me batty and had me Pearl-ruling it with a vengeance. Kelly's argument seems to be that no one understands Jane Austen but her and that you can only understand Austen by closely reading her novels. While it's fair to attempt to gain insight into an author from their boo...