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Everybody is On the Make
In Austen, everyone suffers from "on the make" syndrome. Listening to Pride & Prejudice, I was struck, moreso than I have been in the past, by the hardheadedness underlying all that sensibility. Elizabeth gets angry over Darcy's interference with Bingley & Jane, but her anger is undercut by the fact that everybody is interfering with everybody all the time. Her aunt gives her advice. Elizabeth gives her sister and Charlotte advice. Charlotte gives Elizabeth advice. It's just an orgy of opinion giving! What is comes down to is: everybody wants love but nobody wants to be poor (see my post Romance and the Weird Relationship to Money for why this makes sense).
The most respectable of historical romance novels, such as Georgette Heyer's work, try to capture this on-the-make quality of Regency life. Georgette Heyer, who did a large amount of research on the dress and setting of the periods she wrote in, never marries her lords to peasant girls. She's no more democratic than Austen, and there are some Austenish ziggers in her comedy, although in general her comedy is lighter and less consequential.
In truth, Heyer's writing can be very funny, but she was less concerned with underlying causes and more concerned with writing a good story. Everyone is on the make but somehow that fact never rises entirely to the surface. Heyer keeps it carefully under control. Lovely young ladies turn out to be heiresses. Handsome young men turn out to her heirs. Supposed changelings turn out to have Viscounts for fathers. Don't worry. There's no angst here (thankfully).
Plot versus Story
Austen is about plot. Heyer is more about story. In Heyer's These Old Shades, the non-changeling changeling gets captured by her despicable father, rescued by her saturnine lover, presented to all of Paris, confronted with the supposed fact of her illegitimacy at which she runs away to save her lover from her supposed bad reputation. She is finally recovered by her lover and restored to all her rights and privileges (I'm using lover in the old sense of the word; nobody sleeps with anybody until they are married, although the dandies and members of the ton sometimes have mistresses; all the sex occurs off-stage).
Now, in all honesty, These Old Shades and other Heyer books are a whole bunch of fun--and the books are not devoid of plot; there is always a conflict that gets paid-off. But they are not quite the same as plot-driven books. With plot, the ending is incipient in the beginning. There's an inevitability about it. No twist is necessary to bring about a particular denouement. It lies in wait, inviolate, known (although not necessarily unveiled yet to the reader). The parts of the narrative hold together like a statue or shape. As one reads, one gets a sense of an emerging totality.
Take Elizabeth and Darcy. Both undergo an enlightenment, a point when they reorganize their thoughts and feelings. Elizabeth is angered, then humiliated and aggrieved by Darcy's letter. Darcy is angered, then embarrassed by Elizabeth's accusations of "ungentlemanly" behavior. But the argument, letter, and realization are a long-time coming. The mutual feelings of attraction and irritation have been hovering since Day One (I side with those who argue that Elizabeth was always attracted or at least interested in Darcy since "slow burn" does not mean, "Oh, I had no real interest--now, I suddenly do!" which is why romances--despite stereotypes--rarely use the "I don't take lack-of-interest for an answer" hero).
Elizabeth's visit to Pemberley isn't contrived. Darcy's intercession with Wickham & Lydia isn't a lucky chance. It is made necessary by Darcy's behavior at Netherfield Park, where he purchases reputation at the expense of Lydia's future (who might not matter but Elizabeth and Jane certainly do). This is behavior he must rectify.
Conclusion
I'll go so far as to say that all great works have plot, rather than just story. However, story is a good alternative to a lousy plot. Heyer's fun and roller-coaster-ride stories never fail to satisfy.
