Styles and themes of Jane Austen In "Sense and Sensibility", Austen experiments extensively for the first time with this technique. For example, As Austen scholar Norman Page explains, "the first sentence is straight narrative, in the 'voice' of the [narrator]; the third sentence is normal indirect speech; but the second and fourth are what is usually described as free indirect speech." In these two sentences, Austen represents the inner thoughts of the character and creates the illusion that the reader is entering the character's mind. She often uses indirect speech for background characters. However, Page writes that "for Jane Austen ... the supreme virtue of free
The Company of Women (Gordon novel) or fun. Rather, she dreams of the day she can become a great writer like Jane Austen. Felicitas develops as a composite of the older women. The Company of Women (Gordon novel) The Company of Women is a novel by American author Mary Gordon. First published in 1981, it is a coming-of-age story that details the sheltered upbringing of a well-educated Catholic girl named Felicitas, and how her values are challenged and altered by the turbulence of the 1960s protest movement. The book earned Gordon a second Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. Father Cyprian is a Catholic priest whose parishioners include