I was thinking of making gossip my focus for the novel, but the GR got away from me before I could really get started, so I'm just going to mention one example here.

Among her other knowledge and talents, I'm convinced that JA perfectly understood the ins and outs of how gossip works, in a way that many of her modern readers, living in big cities, don't anymore. I mentioned this example during our last GR of "Persuasion", but each time I'm re-impressed by JA's subtlety, so I'll bring it up again.

In ch.10, Louisa tells Captain Wentworth that Charles proposed to Anne before Mary, and that the senior Musgroves are convinced that it was Lady Russell who convinced Anne to turn him down. Now, this fits perfectly with CW's own ideas about Lady Russell, but back in ch.4, the Omniscient Narrator clearly informed us that at the time, LR was all in favour of Anne *accepting* Charles Musgrove. Now, why did JA do things this way? It would have been much simpler just to have the Musgroves jump to the *right* conclusion, and less confusing for the reader.