Jane Austen as a Novelist of Manners: A Critical Estimate

Abstract

Jane Austen is still regarded as one of the best novelists of her era with excellent themes and perfect artistry. She is universally admitted to be a pioneer of English novels, though she had to her credit only half a dozen novels. She occupies a unique position in English literature being neither a Romantic nor a Classic writer, and also being too original and too great to be considered a precursor. Though she worked within a limited field and dealt with materials extremely limited in them, she was able to develop themes of the broadest significance and to present very entertaining and very truthful versions of the human comedy. The great excellance of Jane Austen’s work lies in the novelist’s knowledge of the materials which she could handle with certainty of success and her taking care not to exceed the boundaries she had set for herself. This paper is going to asssimilate the author’s novels on the basis of manners as well as this paper is also going to highlight the imaginative or realistic power of author in creating her novels as the novels of manners.

Keywords: English fiction, Characters, Society, Manners etc.