the characterization of the Reeds and the Ingrams reminded me of Austen.

I love how Blanche Ingram would likely be the "heroine" in any other novel (even Eliot had Rosamund), but by the time we are immersed in her unpleasant personality, she's actually sort of ugly, or certanly revealed as self-serving and grasping. The portrait of her "hammering" away on the piano babbling about how she "dotes on Corsairs" is priceless.