That in “Northanger Abbey” Austen describes Catherine Morland masturbating (“Let’s not mince words here”) requires an elasticity of imagination beyond the breaking point for the pusillanimous. … Read them again.” Perhaps, enlightened by her, we can do something about our failing grade. Kelly ends with the schoolmistress instruction: “Read Jane’s novels. Inwardness is the essence of the book - and bossiness. Kelly’s chapters open with biographical fantasias of Jane’s stream of consciousness at key moments. (“Was Jane Austen Gay?” asked Terry Castle in a mischievous essay on the subject of that sleeping arrangement. Moreover, that unique reader is closer to “Jane” (as she chummily calls her) than anyone since Cassandra, the sister with whom Jane shared a bed. There has been, according to Kelly, only one person who has ever read Jane Austen right. As she asserts, almost everything we think we know about Jane Austen is wrong. “Jane Austen: The Secret Radical” sets out to raise hackles. Helena Kelly’s publisher got her kicks in early by scheduling the British release of her book last autumn. We are, as the witty television series put it, “Lost in Austen.” There has been, and will be, a spate of commemorative events, festivals and, of course, books like this. Her face has been chosen to appear on Britain’s 10-pound note (the same amount she was first paid by a publisher). The year 2016 belonged to Shakespeare 2017 is Jane Austen’s, the 200th anniversary of her premature death. JANE AUSTEN The Secret Radical By Helena Kelly 318 pp.
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