Final answer:
Jane Austen is celebrated as a great novelist based on her influential works, such as 'Pride and Prejudice,' which depict the 18th-century English upper class with wit and realism. Her sharp characterizations and elegant prose style remain admired and are considered difficult to emulate.
Step-by-step explanation:
Jane Austen's reputation as one of the world's greatest novelists is based on the publication of her novels which portray the lives, society, and manners of the 18th-century English gentry with keen perception and skillful narrative. Her celebrated works, such as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma, have been admired for their ironic wit, dialogue, and realistic character portrayal, which includes both "flat" and "round" characters. Austen's writing style reflects the romantic ideals of her time and remains popular with readers today for its elegance and insightfulness.
Austen's ability to create characters like Mrs. Bennet as rather one-dimensional, yet memorable figures, contrasting them with complex and evolving characters like Elizabeth Bennet, showcases her literary genius. Furthermore, her prose style has been celebrated but never matched entirely, as even parodies and homages fall short of the original's nuanced dialogue and pitch-perfect social observations.