I think you should divide this sentence in two.
Well, the semi-colon establishes for the reader that these 2 aspects are part of the same thought, and that is important in a thesis sentence.
Shannon, did you mean intro sentence or thesis sentence. I think an intro sentence should declare something interesting and sort of general... something about life in general, something to which the reader can relate.
Your sentence is good as a thesis sentence, though I don't think it is necessary to talk about how it was news to you. I think you should express the idea that people should go deeper in their understanding about Austen to see how revolutionary and bold she was. That is a solid thesis sentence.
BTW we know that many deadlines passed on the 1st but not all of them, and anyway this forum is not just to help the people who post their essays. We still make sure every essay gets some feedback so that in the future people can use the search function find these threads and hopefully benefit from them. :-)