Jane Austen, The Secret Radical

Posted on 2016/10/25 , tagged as Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, Literature, Non-fiction, Novels, Regency, Secret Radical

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AUTHOR HELENA KELLY SEARCHES FOR THE REAL JANE AUSTEN

‘However well you think you know the novels, you’ll be raring to read them again once you’ve read this.’
Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller

Almost everything we know about Jane Austen is wrong. Her novels don’t confine themselves to grand houses and they were not written for readers’ enjoyment. She writes about serious subjects and her books are deeply subversive.

We just don’t read her properly – and we haven’t been reading her properly for 200 years. Jane Austen, The Secret Radical puts that right.

In her first, brilliantly original book, Austen expert Helena Kelly introduces the reader to a passionate woman living in an age of revolution; to a writer who used what was regarded as the lightest of literary genres, the novel, to grapple with the weightiest of subjects – feminism, slavery, abuse, the treatment of the poor, the power of the Church, even evolution – at a time, and in a place, when to write about such things directly was akin to treason.

Uncovering a radical, spirited and politically engaged woman, this book will encourage Austen fans to read her all over again.

The Book: Jane Austen, The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly is published on 3rd November (Hardback, £20)

Events: Helena Kelly will be discussing her book at the following venues: