A couple of comments on the above, Suzanne.
I think I'll remain in the "just don't know" camp when it comes to what Jane Austen intended in her writing. My whole posts have been about what she didn't write about rather than what she did. Effectively, she had a somewhat limited carreer (staying with her finished major works and not worrying about order) and used a small variety of themes from family life and comedy to the somewhat darker themes of Mansfield Park via Northanger Abbey. I'm sure she could not predict her career as a writer would be so sadly short as it was (although her health must have been a worry at times). Where she may have gone next is pure speculation.
Jane Austen lived at the end of an era where she would have seen massive change had she lived a short time longer. War in Europe was over, (although England was usually involved in wars and skirmishes somewhere around the globe.) the arrival of steam, the railways, improved road surfaces, indeed the whole industrial revolution, and yes, the abolition of slave trading (which effectively happened in 1807 policy-wise in Britain) were all waiting in the wings with massive trade implications.The closeted rural world of Jane's topics and subjects was changing. The snobbish attitude of the middle-class to trade would see a major reversal in attitude and Jane Austen and those of her era would have to acknowlege it all as new money gradually replaced the old. All that would quite likely have had influences on writing, even the fictional aspects. It is a great pity we will never know.
