Abstract
Among the novelists of the closing decades of the eighteenth century and opening nineteenth is one who holds high rank among the writers of comedy. Jane Austen sweetened the world's fiction by her contributions, while her censoring did much to revolutionize the novel of her day. Calmly, placidly and quietly she mingled comedy and realism. At a first perusal of her books the reader may think that she wittily mocked or censored all ^persons and things. She loved the absurd, as the depiction of her many inconsistent characters clearly shows. Her Mrs. Norris, Lady Bertram, Mrs. Bennet, and Mrs. Allan are among the best comic characters found in fiction. She was most truly a realist of the school of Crabbe and Cowper, whose influence may easily be seen in her works.