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Jane Austen through her microscopic study of life gives a macroscopic picture of her time. Discuss.

Interesting question. Much of what is written in history books concerns wars, battles, monarchs and the big advances in knowledge. What Jane Austen does is different. Through her, we get a picture of what life was actually like for people living in the early 19th century. By the way she writes of what is acceptable behavior, and the way people think of each other, we get clear ideas of the forces shaping the culture of England at that time. Women could not inherit property. The first born son was the heir to the family fortune, and later-born sons had to find work in areas acceptable to their social class, for example the ministry or the military. Austen never sits down and spells those things out, but shows them by the way her characters interact.

Austen shows the history that is not in the history books, except peripherally, and brings it to life.