It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is the funniest and the wittiest of all great writers.
In a recent reread of Pride and Prejudice, Mr Hurst suddenly came to my attention as a brilliantly rendered comic character. Austen first introduced him with a subtle shade:
Mr Bingley was good looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women, with an air of decided fashion. His brother-in-law, Mr Hurst, merely looked the gentleman.
*
Mrs Hurst, who had married a man of more fashion than fortune […]
By the time Elizabeth reaches the breakfast-parlour of Netherfield,
Mr Darcy said very little, and Mr Hurst nothing at all. The former was divided between admiration of the brilliancy which exercise had given to her complexion, and doubt as to the occasion’s justifying her coming so far alone. The latter was thinking only of his breakfast.
Mr Hurst’s descriptions are made even more comical right next to Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy. It’s as if his sole purpose is to highlight the wide gulf between the real gentlemen™ and the faux ones like himself. Austen definitely knew what she was doing by introducing him with the novel’s protagonists ;)
As Elizabeth starts to spend more time in Netherfields, Austen no longer holds herself back on Mr Hurst’s character.
Miss Bingley was engrossed by Mr Darcy, her sister scarcely less so; and as for Mr Hurst, by whom Elizabeth sat, he was an indolent man, who lived only to eat, drink, and play at cards, who when he found her prefer a plain dish to a ragout, had nothing to say to her.
*
… suspecting them to be playing high she declined it, and making her sister the excuse, said she would amuse herself for the short time she could stay below with a book. Mr Hurst looked at her with astonishment.
‘Do you prefer reading to cards?"‘ said he; ‘that is rather singular.’
That is the only complete sentence he has spoken in the entire novel.
It is as though Austen considers him unworthy of further direct speech. The only other occasion when he spoke was in the narrative, where he was ‘very glad’ at Jane’s recovery.
And when Jane got better, Mr Hurst also made her a slight bow, and said he was ‘very glad’.
When no one intends to play cards,
Mr Hurst had therefore nothing to do, but to stretch himself on one of the sophas and go to sleep.
And that was the last we heard of him in the entire book. Brilliant.