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
Jane Austen Will brought on a relapse ... but a weak Body must excuse weak Nerves". She continued to work in spite of her illness. Dissatisfied with the ending of "The Elliots", she rewrote the final two chapters, which she finished on 6 August 1816. In January 1817 Austen began "The Brothers" (titled "Sanditon" when published in 1925), and completed twelve chapters before stopping work in mid-March 1817, probably due to illness. Todd describes "Sanditon"'s heroine, Diana Parker, as an "energetic invalid". In the novel, Austen mocked hypochondriacs and though she describes the heroine as "bilious", five days after abandoning the novel