A talk by John Mullan, at the Gainsborough Bath Spa Hotel
Words by Emma Clegg
This year marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, and a recent event at the Gainsborough Bath Spa hotel invited Austen scholar John Mullan to shed some literary light on Austen’s extraordinary fictional world.
Jane Austen’s novels are filled with sparkling dialogue, sharp wit – and a notable amount of misdirection. According to Mullan, Austen was a master of crafting characters who rarely say exactly what they mean. In his book What Matters in Jane Austen?, Mullan explores the art of indirect expression in Austen’s fiction, revealing how much her novels rely on what is not said, or what is said with ironic intent.
Quote on the note
One of the most high-profile illustrations of this is the quote chosen for the Bank of England’s £10 note, launched in 2017: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” It sounds like a ringing endorsement of literature from a revered author, until you realise the words are spoken by Caroline Bingley in Pride and Prejudice. As Mullan points out, Caroline is not a sincere reader. The line is delivered in a scene where she picks up a book purely to impress Mr Darcy and drops it moments later, uninterested. Mullan argues that the quote’s selection demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of Austen’s tone and irony. Rather than celebrating reading, the line is a brilliant skewering of social pretence.
No sincerity phrases
This use of performative language, Mullan noted in his talk, is characteristic of Austen’s work. Her characters often adopt the ‘right’ phrases to fit in or advance themselves socially, regardless of their sincerity. Take Lady Middleton in Sense and Sensibility, who declares the Steele sisters to be ‘very agreeable girls indeed’ purely because they pretend to love children. Lady Middleton herself displays a fondness for children that is clearly more show than substance – something Austen quietly exposes when her daughter Annamaria dissolves into tears mid-visit and receives theatrical fussing rather than true maternal care.
Hidden meanings
Another favourite target for Austen’s irony is Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice, whose every declaration of propriety is betrayed by his obsequious self-interest. Or Mrs Bennet, who claims to be deeply concerned for her daughters’ futures, while fixated almost entirely on marrying them off to wealthy suitors without regard to their happiness.
Mullan’s reading of Austen points to a larger narrative strategy: Austen makes her readers work. Understanding her characters requires interpreting tone, subtext and contradiction. This is particularly evident in Emma, where Miss Bates’s rambling speeches, often ignored by the heroine, actually hold subtle truths about the relationships and tensions in the story. Mullan suggests that Austen uses Miss Bates to remind us how easy it is to miss meaning when it’s wrapped in the unassuming or the long-winded.
Even the phrase “I declare,” Mullan notes, is often a flag that the character doesn’t quite believe what they’re saying. It signals exaggeration, performance or social camouflage, never straightforward emotion.
For Mullan, Austen’s brilliance lies in this layered dialogue: characters conceal, perform and contradict themselves, and in doing so reveal more than they intend. Her novels become richer, more truthful, precisely because not every declaration is to be trusted. In Austen’s world, what’s said aloud is only half the story.
Gainsborough Bath Spa hotel: celebrating Jane Austen
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, 5* The Gainsborough Bath Spa, is delighted to announce that it will be hosting a series of exclusive events and experiences to honour this iconic writer, in partnership with Strictly Jane Austen, a division of Bath-based travel specialists ECT Travel.