It is a parody of the melodramatic, sentimental and picaresque novels of the time,[1] and tells the story of a young woman who sets off into the world to make her fortune.
[2] She sets the tone for this style in a dedication – "to Miss Austen" – that parodies flowery literary praise: "Madam, You are a Phoenix [...] Your person is lovely [...] your conversation is rational and your appearance singular".
This readjustment creates a new perspective of accepted motifs and allows Austen to place herself outside of the framework of a single genre, raising fairy tale,[5] or even nursery rhyme expectations,[6] only to disappoint them.
Such flexibility on the part of the author results in richer characterizations: Cassandra is constructed in fewer than thirty sentences and Austen relies on the audience's appreciation of the references she makes to issues of lineage, adventure, expectations of beauty and typical relationships.
Thus, for example at a pastry-shop, Cassandra “devoured six ices, refused to pay for them, knocked down the Pastry-Cook and walked away”, concluding to herself at the end of all her similarly delinquent adventures that“ 'This is a day well spent“.