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Title: Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

Author: Helena Kelly

Narrator: Emma Bering

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-02-17

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

A brilliant, illuminating reassessment of the life and work of Jane Austen that makes clear how Austen has been misread for the past two centuries and that shows us how she intended her books to be read, revealing as well how subversive and daring - how truly radical - a writer she was.

In this fascinating, revelatory work, Helena Kelly - dazzling Jane Austen authority - looks past the grand houses, the pretty young women, past the demure drawing room dramas and witty commentary on the narrow social worlds of her time that became the hallmark of Austen's work to bring to light the serious, ambitious, deeply subversive nature of this beloved writer. Kelly illuminates the radical subjects - slavery, poverty, feminism, the church, evolution among them - considered treasonous at the time, that Austen deftly explored in the six novels that have come to embody an age. The author reveals just how in the novels we find the real Jane Austen: a clever, clear-sighted woman "of information", fully aware of what was going on in the world and sure about what she thought of it. We see a writer who understood that the novel - until then seen as mindless "trash" - could be a great art form and who, perhaps more than any other writer up to that time, imbued it with its particular greatness.

Critic Reviews:

"Helena Kelly makes the case for Austen as an author steeped in the fear of war and revolution who wrote about the burning political issues of the time.... Meticulously researched.... Through a combination of beautifully precise close readings alongside Austen's biographical, literary and historical context, Kelly shows us that the novels were about nothing more or less than the burning political questions of the day... A deeply welcome book.... A sublime piece of literary detective work that shows us once and for all how to be precisely the sort of reader that Austen deserves." (Caroline Criado-Perez, The Guardian)

"Kelly amply shows her deep research into some of the lesser-known elements of Austen's life and work.... She exposes a depth beyond what at first may seem to be silly characters. A fine-grained study that shows us how to read between the lines to discover the remarkable woman who helped transform the novel from trash to an absolute art form." (Kirkus Reviews)

"A thoroughly engaging read." (Devoney Looser, The Times Literary Supplement)

Members Reviews:

Jane Would Have Approved

This is the best book on Jane Austen and her sparkling novels that I've ever read. In depth, insightful and clear, I was really surprised at how entertaining this was to boot, especially since this could be used as a college text book. I agree wholeheartedly with the review of Donna G. Storey. Unlike the 2nd reviewer, I actually did agree with almost everything in this book, and it helped me to see the bigger picture behind many of the greater themes and the tiny details of each of my six favorite novels.

The Depths of Austen's Vision Revealed

Thanks to Helena Kelly for eloquently arguing what I always knew in my bones--Jane Austen's novels are deeply political and empower the reader's critical sensibility. They would not be so compelling and timeless if they weren't.