A Novel of Manners
Jane Austen's 1813 masterpiece uses the marriage plot as a vehicle for razor-sharp social observation and psychological insight. Through Elizabeth Bennet's journey from prejudice to understanding, Austen created a narrative voice that is simultaneously intimate and ironic, warm and critical.
Invented the modern novel of character. Austen's technique of free indirect discourse—blending narrator and character perspectives—became the dominant mode of literary fiction.