The novel of Manners: the novel of manners is a subgenre of Literary Realism (satirical tone)

The novel of manners is a realistic story that concentrates the reader’s attention upon the customs and the ways of
thinking and valuing of the people of a social class.

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”.

The novel of manners allows the society able to view themselves with the critical perspective of the novelist,
whose realistic narrative presents the world of the story.

 Jane Austen’s novels: Pride and Prejudice  

Balzak’s novels: 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.

Literary realism
Broadly defined it as "the faithful representation of reality"

It aims to reproduce "objective reality", and focused on showing every day, quotidian activities and life, primarily
among the middle or lower class society, without romantic idealization or dramatization

Satire:

The narrative province of the novel of manners is the satire of a society in which behavior is codified, language
reduced to impersonal formulas of communication, and the expression of feeling and emotion is muted in public and
private life.  is a genre of literature in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally
with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement.( humorous but its
greater purpose is often constructive social criticism)

The Great Gatsby (1925)

F.Scott.Fitzgerald

Themes:

It explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a
portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties .
It exposes the Roaring Twenties as an era of decadence and deteriorated values, marked by the hollow,
unrestrained and unethical quest/greed for wealth and pleasureIt is a cultural, economic, and social
document that records and documents the Jazz Age.
That era, known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music, flapper culture, and
bootlegging and other criminal activity, is plausibly depicted in Fitzgerald's novel. 

The setting reflects the values of those who work or live there:

New York and the two eggs: excess/extravagance/superficiality/ shallowness of the American societ + moral
decay: eg: the lavish parties held at Gatsby’s mansion “an amusement park” “a road house” “the world’s
fair.
The valley of ashes: is the “waste land” (Ts.Eliot) of people’s dreams and hopes. It unveils the sour reality
laying beneath the fictions/myth of the American Dream of limitless opportunities. The imagery of “Dust”
symbolizes the lost, unfulfilled dreams and it also epitomizes death and decay

Tools of characterization:

Books:
 Tom: “The Rise of the Colored Empires” Racism
 Nick: financial and economic books about “banking” and “investment”  Economic prosperity
  Myrtle: scandal magazines+ erotic books Shallowness/superficiality
 Gatsby’s library: not read
Cloths: Myrtle: changing cloths means putting on a mask/ a new identity
Houses: Gatsby’s house
Cars: fancy “yellow” (money/power)

Pride and prejudice (1813)

Jane Austen

Themes:
Marriage:
The opening line of the novel announces: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in
possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." This sets marriage as a central subject.
Marriage becomes an economic rather than social activity. In the case of Charlotte Lucas, for example, the seeming
success of the marriage lies in the comfortable economy of their household, while the relationship between Mr. and
Mrs. Bennet serves to illustrate bad marriages based on attraction and surface over substance.

Wealth
Money plays a key role in the marriage market, not only for the young ladies seeking a well-off husband, but also for
men who wish to marry a woman of means. Two examples are George Wickham, who tried to elope with Georgiana
Darcy, and Colonel Fitzwilliam. Marrying a woman of a rich family also ensured a linkage to a high family as is visible
in the desires of Bingley's sisters to have their brother married to Georgiana Darcy.

Class
The theme of class is related to reputation, in that both reflect the strictly regimented nature of life for the middle and
upper classes in Regency England. The lines of class are strictly drawn. When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, he cites
their economic and social differences as an obstacle his excessive love has had to overcome.