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The novel of manners is a realistic story that concentrates the reader’s attention upon the customs and conversation, and the ways of thinking and valuing of the people of a social class.〔''A Glossary of Literary Terms'', Seventh Edition, M. H. Abrams, Editor. (1999)〕 As such, the narrative structure of the novel of manners recreates a social world (civil, military, political, business) and shows the spheres of public and private life sufficiently to convey the dominance of social-code mores upon the personal and public lives of the people in the story. The detailed observation of the values and customs of a social-class society, thematically dominate the story. The characters are differentiated by measures of "success" and “failure”; by the degree to which he or she meets the standard of uniform social behaviour; and by the degree to which each character fails at uniformity in language, thought, and action.〔''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', 15th Edition, volume 7, p. 785.〕 The narrative province of the novel of manners is the satire of a society in which behaviour is codified, language reduced to impersonal formulas of communication, and the expression of feeling and emotion is muted in public and private life. In such a society, the observation of “manners” — codified gestures of communication — indicates the existence of a collective mind and soul to society, with which the protagonist must cope to reach the end of the story; both conditions merit the novelist's observation and perception.〔''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', 15th Edition, volume 23, p. 126.〕 The thematic range of a novel of manners varies with the writer's scope of observation, depth of reportage, and opinion of the people being satirised. In the novels of Jane Austen, about the quotidian, domestic affairs of the English gentry in the British countryside, such stories ignore the elemental, human passions (love and hate) and the greater matters (social, cultural, political) of the world beyond the county line. The novel of manners of wide scope in subject and theme was the province of Honoré de Balzac, who reported the complexity of industrial-age life in the 19th century, with realistic and descriptively detailed stories from private life, public life, and military life, as lived in the cities and towns of France.〔''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', 15th Edition, volume 7, p. 785.〕 Culturally, the novel of manners is a literary artefact, an ''objet d’art'' created as symbol of a psychologically secure society able to view themselves with the critical perspective of the novelist, whose realistic, narrative-work records, reports, and presents the world of the story for posterity. Given that in literature the great psychological profundities are eternal and manners are ephemeral, as an artist, the novelist captures the manners of the day, for the reader to know and understand the ''How?'' and the ''Why?'' of the world.〔''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', 15th Edition, volume 23, p. 126.〕 ==Background== Books and notes in this period instructing one how to behave in society are countless. In particular, Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son are a prime example to anyone concerned with propriety. He instructs his son to engage society in a pleasing manner which includes avoiding possibly offensive or controversial subjects, speaking in peaceful tones, and acquiring a poised posture, all in consideration of the company one is in. This obsession with proper social conduct spawned a wave of novels concerned with this sort of behaviour. In 1778, Frances Burney wrote ''Evelina'', a novel whose innovative plot and treatment of contemporary manners made it a landmark in the development of the novel of manners.〔Britannica Educational Publishing (2010). (''English Literature from the Restoration through the Romantic Period'' ), pp. 108-09.〕 Social behaviour in public and private settings accounts for much of the plot of ''Evelina''. This is mirrored in other novels that were more highly popularised in the beginning of the 19th century. Jane Austen's novels are perhaps the most recognisable works in the genre. Because of Austen's works, the novel of manners is mostly associated with the early 19th century. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「novel of manners」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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