Click to receive personalized book recommendations daily.
Before you go...
Check Out These
21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
See the List
Best Seller
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly
Read An Excerpt

Look Inside

Read An Excerpt
Read An Excerpt
Read An Excerpt

Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

By Helena Kelly

By Helena Kelly

By Helena Kelly

By Helena Kelly

By Helena Kelly

By Helena Kelly

By Helena Kelly
Read by Emma Bering

By Helena Kelly
Read by Emma Bering

Paperback $17.00

Apr 03, 2018 | 336 Pages

Hardcover $27.95

May 02, 2017 | 336 Pages

Ebook $12.99

May 02, 2017 | 336 Pages

Audiobook Download $22.50

May 02, 2017 | 880 Minutes

All Formats
+
    Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly
    Paperback
    Apr 03, 2018 | 336 Pages
    See All Formats (3) +

    Paperback
    –

    • Paperback $17.00

      Apr 03, 2018 | 336 Pages

    Hardcover
    +

    • Hardcover $27.95

      May 02, 2017 | 336 Pages

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook $12.99

      May 02, 2017 | 336 Pages

    Audio
    +

    Buy the Audiobook Download:

    About Jane Austen, the Secret Radical


    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.

    About Jane Austen, the Secret Radical


    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.

    About Jane Austen, the Secret Radical


    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.

    About Jane Austen, the Secret Radical


    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.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    About Helena Kelly

    HELENA KELLY grew up in North Kent. She has taught classics and English Literature at the University of Oxford. She lives in Oxford with her husband and son.

    About Helena Kelly

    HELENA KELLY grew up in North Kent. She has taught classics and English Literature at the University of Oxford. She lives in Oxford with her husband and son.

    About Helena Kelly

    HELENA KELLY grew up in North Kent. She has taught classics and English Literature at the University of Oxford. She lives in Oxford with her husband and son.

    About Helena Kelly

    HELENA KELLY grew up in North Kent. She has taught classics and English Literature at the University of Oxford. She lives in Oxford with her husband and son.

    Product Details

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Criticism

    Paperback | $17.00
    Published by Vintage
    Apr 03, 2018 | 336 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780525432944

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Criticism

    Hardcover | $27.95
    Published by Knopf
    May 02, 2017 | 336 Pages | 6-1/4 x 9-1/4 | ISBN 9781524732103

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Criticism

    Ebook | $12.99
    Published by Vintage
    May 02, 2017 | 336 Pages | ISBN 9781524732110

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Criticism | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $22.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    May 02, 2017 | 880 Minutes | ISBN 9781524783044

    Inspired by Your Browsing History

    Also in Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs

    ‹ ›
    Room to Dream
    Room to Dream
    David Lynch and Kristine McKenna
    The Birds and the Beasts Were There: The Joys of Birdwatching and Wildlife Observation in California's Richest Habitat
    The Birds and the Beasts Were There: The Joys of Birdwatching and Wildlife Observation in California’s Richest Habitat
    Margaret Millar
    Life in the Garden
    Life in the Garden
    Penelope Lively
    Reporter
    Reporter
    Seymour M. Hersh
    It All Adds Up
    It All Adds Up
    Saul Bellow
    Autumn in Venice
    Autumn in Venice
    Andrea Di Robilant
    Mother American Night
    Mother American Night
    Robert Greenfield and John Perry Barlow
    Ghostbuster's Daughter
    Ghostbuster’s Daughter
    Violet Ramis Stiel
    Long Players
    Long Players
    Peter Coviello
    A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun
    A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun
    Angela Jackson
    Vacationland
    Vacationland
    John Hodgman
    What Falls Away
    What Falls Away
    Mia Farrow
    Otis Redding
    Otis Redding
    Jonathan Gould
    Like Brothers
    Like Brothers
    Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass
    Spring
    Spring
    Karl Ove Knausgaard
    Just Let Me Look at You
    Just Let Me Look at You
    Bill Gaston
    The Language of Kindness
    The Language of Kindness
    Christie Watson
    The Destiny Thief
    The Destiny Thief
    Richard Russo
    On the Road and Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein
    On the Road and Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein
    Charlie Harmon
    Churchill and Orwell
    Churchill and Orwell
    Thomas E. Ricks
    Travels with Myself and Another
    Travels with Myself and Another
    Martha Gellhorn
    House of Nutter
    House of Nutter
    Lance Richardson
    Failure Is An Option
    Failure Is An Option
    H. Jon Benjamin
    The Times of My Life and My Life with The Times
    The Times of My Life and My Life with The Times
    Max Frankel
    Leading Lady
    Leading Lady
    Stephen Galloway
    Goodbye to All That
    Goodbye to All That
    Robert Graves
    The Art of the Wasted Day
    The Art of the Wasted Day
    Patricia Hampl
    Infinite Tuesday
    Infinite Tuesday
    Michael Nesmith
    Sense of Wonder
    Sense of Wonder
    Bill Schelly
    Air Traffic
    Air Traffic
    Gregory Pardlo
    Hourglass
    Hourglass
    Dani Shapiro
    Becoming Leonardo
    Becoming Leonardo
    Mike Lankford
    Double Vision
    Double Vision
    William Middleton
    My Dead Parents
    My Dead Parents
    Anya Yurchyshyn
    Time Pieces
    Time Pieces
    John Banville
    Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?
    Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?
    Gregory Thornbury
    Twentieth-Century Boy
    Twentieth-Century Boy
    Duncan Hannah
    Other Colors
    Other Colors
    Orhan Pamuk
    When the World Stopped to Listen
    When the World Stopped to Listen
    Stuart Isacoff
    Walk Through Walls
    Walk Through Walls
    Marina Abramovic
    A Tokyo Romance
    A Tokyo Romance
    Ian Buruma
    Astral Weeks
    Astral Weeks
    Ryan H. Walsh
    Bachelor Nation
    Bachelor Nation
    Amy Kaufman
    Found and Lost
    Found and Lost
    Alison Leslie Gold
    Take a Stand
    Take a Stand
    Jorge Ramos

    Praise

    “A sublime piece of literary detective work. . . . Kelly shows us that the novels were about nothing more or less than the burning political questions of the day.” —The Guardian
     
    “Do we read Jane Austen’s novels as she intended? In this riveting literary-biographical study, the answer is a resounding no . . . An interpretive coup that is dazzling and dizzying . . . You won’t read Austen the same way again.” —The New Yorker
     
    “A fresh take on the life and work of the beloved writer Jane Austen . . . Reveals the subversive rebel soul behind [the] towering classics.” —Elle

    “An important revisionary work. . . . Kelly’s readings are indeed eye-opening.” —The New York Times Book Review

    “Ambitious . . . illuminating, provocative. . . . Kelly offers a salutary argument for reading Austen’s novels with the serious attentiveness they invite and deserve.” —The Spectator

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    Download our Spring Fiction Sampler Now
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Books for Better Living

    Inspiration for the best you

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read
    TASTE img

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    Signature

    Making Well-Read Sense of the World

    LitFlash

    The eBooks you want at the lowest prices

    Read it Forward

    Read it first. Pass it on!
    First to Read

    First to Read

    Early access to Penguin Random House’s hottest new titles
    Unbound Worlds

    Unbound Worlds

    Exploring the science fiction and fantasy universe