A review by tilda_bookworm
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly

Feel like I can't really rate this because I'm not exactly the target audience. I have only read one of Jane Austen's novels, have never studied any of her work or literature in any way, I have no knowledge of (or particularly strong interest in) history so it's probably a bit weird that I picked this up and read the whole thing. It did make me want to read most of the novels. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually liked the little fake vignettes about Jane's life; I didn't think they were hypocritical because I read them as tongue-in-cheek, like a bit of an in-joke with the reader. I liked Kelly's writing and enjoyed the arguments made although it was hard for me to know how much weight to give them without reading the texts themselves.