Category: Austen

The last we hear of Kitty Bennet in Pride and Prejudice is that she “spent the chief of her time with her two elder sisters. In society so superior to what she had generally known, her improvement was great.” Carrie Kablean takes us on Kitty’s journey of improvement in What Kitty Did Next. It’s inline with her fate as envisioned by Jane Austen, but I won’t spoil the ending by telling you!

As Kitty matures she’s able to see where she was led astray and why. Carrie agrees with a hypothesis I’ve long held, that Kitty was sick as a child. Lydia was not only the stronger character but also the stronger sister. Lydia remains “a force to be reckoned with” that threatens Kitty’s “peace and enjoyment” putting her “on her guard.”  It’s a shame Lydia is never allowed to grow up – not in the epilogue to Pride and Prejudice or in fanfiction.

Carrie does a fine homage to Austen’s writing with a few gems Austen could have written herself. Some so good, you’ll laugh out loud:

What Katy Did Next is a children’s book from the late 1800’s, published about 70 years after the events in What Kitty Did Next (published 2018). It makes the title of this novel have a familiar ring that you can’t quite place, a little like Carrie’s writing reminds you of Austen’s.

I read several reviews of Jane Austen The Secret Radical before reading the book itself. Reviewers Abigail Bok and John Mullan agree that there isn’t much new. This is amusing as Mullan’s What Matters In Jane Austen* has even less original material. I agree with him that Edward Ferrars and Catherine Moreland’s behaviour is unlikely to have Freudian undertones. But those who view Austen’s novels as romances may be surprised (“Jane’s novels aren’t romantic. But it’s become increasingly difficult for readers to see this.” p. 31); readers who know about Austen herself won’t be. 

Kelly (the author) points out that much of what we take for fact is hypothesis or family tradition. The book includes a lot of historical fact, not all of it solidly tied to Austen.  For example, abortion was legal during part of Austen’s lifetime (an interesting point as there is a movement to legalise it in NZ). She declares the real reason Jane Austen never married is because “sex can kill you” (p. 69). What then for Charlotte Lucas who married Mr Collins a “fate worse than death” (p.137)?

There are some strange ideas; that Mary Musgrove is pregnant, that Catherine never finishes the Mysteries of Udolpho, that Anne and Fredrick aren’t in love at the beginning of Persuasion, that Harriet and Jane Fairfax are sisters. But the most laughably absurd is that Mr Knightley has ulterior motives in marrying Emma and that he’s a “terrible landlord” ( p. 235).

Jane Austen The Secret Radical is written on the premise that “it’s impossible for anyone to write thousands upon thousands of words and reveal nothing of how they think or what they believe” (p. 30). But almost anything can be twisted to mean what you want it to – just look at The Bible. Do give it a read though, she might convince you.

All quotes from Kelly, H (2016). Jane Austen the Secret Radical. London: Icon.

*I recommend you read Jane Austen the Secret Radical over What Matters in Jane Austen. Or read both.

This review is also posted on the Jane Austen Society of Aotearoa NZ