<P> At the time Austen was writing, the historical novels of Walter Scott and early realist novels of Maria Edgeworth had already initiated the realist tradition . Austen's novels are sometimes seen as an outgrowth of these new genres . In an early review of Emma, Scott himself praised Austen's ability to copy "from nature as she really exists in the common walks of life, and presenting to the reader...a correct and striking representation of that which is daily taking place around him". However, as Austen scholar William Galperin has argued, Austen could not have participated in 19th - century realism--the realism with which she later became associated--because it had not yet been fully defined . He argues Austen's novels were part of the beginning phases of realism . Therefore, instead of seeing Austen as a realist writer, he sees her as a picturesque writer on the cusp of realism . Her attention to detail, probability, and oppositionality, lead him to call her the "historian of the everyday". </P> <P> John Wiltshire argues that Austen's works may also be distinguished from the realist tradition in their treatment of illness and health . In the realist tradition, good health is taken for granted, as part of the invisible background, and characters who are ill, or injured, or deformed, become prominently visible for that reason . In Austen's works, the issue of health is in the foreground--Emma's good health, Mr. Woodhouse's hypochondria, Fanny Price's "physical insecurity ." Health (good or bad) is an important part of the characterization of many of Austen's principal characters, and beginning with Mansfield Park becomes a crucial element in the unfolding of her plots . For a woman, health is a commodity, making her more or less appealing to the patriarchal male gaze (e.g. Marianne is more "marketable" after her illness). </P> <P> Jane Austen famously wrote to her nephew James Edward Austen that his "strong, manly, spirited Sketches, full of Variety and Glow" would not fit on "the little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labour ." Austen novels have often been characterized as "country house novels" or as "comedies of manners". Comedies of manners are concerned "with the relations and intrigues of gentlemen and ladies living in a polished and sophisticated society" and the comedy is the result of "violations of social conventions and decorum, and relies for its effect in great part on the wit and sparkle of the dialogue ." However, Austen's novels also have important fairy tale elements to them . Pride and Prejudice follows the traditional Cinderella plot while "Persuasion rewrites the Cinderella narrative, as it shifts the fairy tale's emphasis from the heroine's transformation into a beauty to the prince's second look at her face ." However, Fanny, in Mansfield Park, rejects the Prince Charming character and at least one scholar has suggested that in this Austen is signalling "a general attack on the dangers of' fiction"'. </P> <P> Austen's novels can easily be situated within the 18th - century novel tradition . Austen, like the rest of her family, was a great novel reader . Her letters contain many allusions to contemporary fiction, often to such small details as to show that she was thoroughly familiar with what she read . Austen read and reread novels, even minor ones . She read widely within the genre, including many works considered mediocre both then and now, but tended to emphasize domestic fiction by women writers, and her own novels contain many references to these works . For example, the phrase "pride and prejudice" comes from Burney's Cecilia, and the Wickham subplot in Pride and Prejudice is a parody of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones . </P>

A key narrative style of austen’s novel pride and prejudice is