THE WORLDS OF JANE AUSTEN: IN CONVERSATION WITH DR HELENA KELLY

 

 

Today, on the very day of its release—25th September 2025—we are delighted to celebrate Dr Helena Kelly’s new book, The Worlds of Jane Austen (Frances Lincoln). Published to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, this fascinating work invites readers to step beyond the familiar image of drawing rooms and tea parties, and instead discover the turbulent world of revolution, war, and social change that shaped Austen’s life and writing.

Helena Kelly, already well known to Austen readers for her groundbreaking Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, brings her characteristic insight and lively style to this beautifully illustrated volume. Drawing on the latest research, she shows us an Austen who is sharper, bolder, and more engaged with the great issues of her time than many have imagined—an author whose voice still resonates powerfully today.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Helena about her new book, Austen’s enduring relevance, and the surprising connections between the novelist’s world and our own.

Interview

The Worlds of Jane Austen coincides with the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth. What inspired you to write this book now, and how do you see it fitting into current conversations about Austen’s legacy?

I was actually approached by a publisher, Quarto, who specialize in illustrated books. They produce lots of children’s books, lots on gardening and cookery and they have quite a few ‘Worlds of …’ books, which are aimed at different fandoms. Their books are beautiful. But what I found so exciting – and inspiring – about the project was that they weren’t just looking for fan-service. They were clear right from the beginning that they wanted some of the more challenging historical context to be included – colonialism, slavery, warfare. They wanted a book which engaged with some of the big conversations that we’ve been starting to have in recent years.

Many readers picture Austen’s world as quiet and genteel, yet your book emphasizes revolution, war and social upheaval. Which historical context do you think is most overlooked when people talk about Jane Austen?

I think the biggest and most significant piece of historical context that tends to get overlooked is that Britain was at war for nearly the entirety of Austen’s life. Some of those wars were distant but the largest, longest one – with France – was very close indeed. The two brothers closest to Jane in age were in the Royal Navy. There was also a genuine fear of invasion and that wasn’t baseless: France attempted to invade the mainland and it landed troops in Ireland to support the Uprising of 1798.

It's rather odd, really. It’s been claimed repeatedly that Austen chose to ignore the war in her fiction when she doesn’t. She mentions French refugees in Sense and Sensibility, for example. All of Pride and Prejudice is set during wartime – that’s made clear at the end of the novel. Persuasion is set precisely within the ‘false peace’ of summer 1814 to March 1815, with the main narrative finishing the very week Napoleon escaped from Elba. It’s a violent world; it’s one that’s full of threat and uncertainty.

In your research, did you come across anything that genuinely surprised you about Austen’s life or the influences shaping her writing?

There were two things that did come as a surprise – perhaps not coincidentally things that Jane’s nephew James-Edward Austen-Leigh carefully failed to mention in his still highly-influential Memoir. My first book on Austen was much more literary criticism than biography and so this project was the first time I’d properly delved back into the family tree and people’s wills and so on.  I was genuinely amazed to discover that Austen’s paternal grandmother, Rebecca, was not only one of five daughters, with sisters who were named Jane, Elizabeth, Mary and Kitty, but that she had got married more or less secretly in London. And I was also amazed to discover that Rebecca’s entire family exploited enslaved individuals in Jamaica. It’s something that’s barely been talked about even when people have been writing about the family’s connections to slavery and we do need to talk about it. I think it’s clear that Austen’s own sympathies were strongly pro-abolition, but that really doesn’t seem to have been the case for her family.

 

Read our interview with Helena Kelly about Jane Austen the Secret Radical

You’ve written previously about Austen as a “secret radical.” How does The Worlds of Jane Austen build on or diverge from the ideas you explored in Jane Austen, the Secret Radical?

In Jane Austen, the Secret Radical I was making a particular argument: that Austen was always engaging with big and controversial issues but that because three of her six novels were published so long after they’d first been written readers never quite got to grips with how topical a writer she was – and then didn’t know how to deal with the more obviously topical material in her other work.

With The Worlds of Jane Austen I’m not really making an argument or insisting on one particular interpretation – instead I’m taking readers on a journey through Austen’s world, and the worlds she’s inspired. It also ranges much more widely than Secret Radical: we go from Jane’s grandparents all the way down to this year and there are chapters which look at Jane’s cultural legacy through the Victorian period and the world wars and the founding of the Jane Austen Society and Austenmania. I touch on Bridgerton and Sanditon and Fire Island and Miss Austen, on how Austen’s popularity has spread around the world, and on fans and merchandise. It’s an exploration and a celebration.

 

Austen’s works often feel timeless to readers. In what ways do you think her observations on gender, class or politics remain most relevant today?

I think part of the reason Austen’s work feels timeless is because she and her characters are living through the birth of the modern world. Her novels speak in very modern ways about individuality and self-worth and the process of learning how to think deeply and ethically for yourself. Austen teaches us interrogate authority, to question whether birth or wealth or titles demonstrate any innate superiority. She gives us heroines who don’t simply accept what they’re told, who don’t defer to their elders or their menfolk to tell them what to think.

The book includes illustrations alongside your analysis. How did the visual elements shape the storytelling, and what do they add to our understanding of Austen’s world?

The pictures were part of the structuring and planning of the book from the beginning. There were certain ideas and events and places that I wanted to show readers, not just tell them about, and I wanted to explore as well how the adaptations and Austen-adjacent films and TV series compare to what was happening in reality during Austen’s lifetime.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Worlds of Jane Austen invites readers to see one of Britain’s most beloved authors in a completely new light.

Far from the quiet world of country houses and tea parties, Austen lived through revolution, war and major social change, and her sharp, observant fiction reveals just how engaged she was with the issues of her time.

This lively and accessible guide explores the people, politics and places that shaped Austen’s life and work.

It features expert insight from bestselling author Helena Kelly alongside over 150 photographs, artworks and illustrations that bring her world vividly to life.

Whether you are discovering Austen for the first time or returning to her novels with fresh eyes, The Worlds of Jane Austen is the perfect companion for curious readers, literature lovers and admirers of classic storytelling.