`` The Novels of Jane Austen '' was put in print in Blackwood 's Magazine in 1859 . In there , Lewes praised Austen 's books for `` the economy of easy adaptation of means to ends , with no aid ( help ) from superfluous elements '' . In `` The Novels of Jane Austen '' , published anonymously in Blackwood 's Magazine in 1859 , Lewes praised Austen 's novels for `` the economy of easy adaptation of means to ends , with no aid from superfluous elements '' and compared her to Shakespeare .