Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

Almost everything we think we know about Jane Austen is wrong. Her novels don't confine themselves to grand houses and they were not written just for readers' enjoyment. She writes about serious subjects and her books are deeply subversive. We just don't read her properly - 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 seen as akin to treason.

Uncovering a radical, spirited and political engaged Austen, Jane Austen, The Secret Radical will encourage you to read Jane, all over again.

About the author

Helena Kelly holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she has taught classics and English Literature. Brought up in Kent, she now lives in Oxford with her husband and son. She is also the author of Jane Austen, the Secret Radical and The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens.

Product details

• Authors: Helena Kelly, Kelly Helena
• Publisher: Icon Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.07.2024
• EAN: 9781837731237
• ISBN: 978-1-83773-123-7
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 25 mm
• Weight: 276 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; European History, English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Women Authors, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Gender studies: women and girls, Literature: history and criticism