"The novel as a whole is a phenomenon multiform in style and variform, in speech and voice. In it the investigator is confronted with several heterogeneous stylistic unities, often located on different linguistic levels and subject to different stylistic controls." p 261

-"Discourse in the Novel", M.M. Bahktin

The novel as a genre, is defined by a multitude of languages and dialects, which, broken down on the various spectrums of type, from proper to colloquial speech, class, and age is essential for the novel to in fact be a genre. Furthermore, the author is a sort of conductor who orchestrates, organizes even, the various languages, dialects, and voices of the novel, thereby creating its characteristic features. One characteristic feature in Austen's Northanger Abbey is the use of free indirect discourse. Free indirect discourse as defined by Stefan Oltean...