English Literature 16 - Jane Austen and the Novel of Manners

Jane Austen is considered one of the major Romantic writers. Her novels are often focused on romance and marriage, but the background of her fictional works describes the "small world" in which she lived: the conventions of her social class (the gentry) are displayed and also criticized with elegant irony and a smart insight into the mechanisms of her time. For this reasons her works are also defined ad "Novel of Manners" and her six major works are: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Persuasion.