What is the secret irony in Jane Austen's opening lines of Pride and Prejudice? | novel analysis

Dr Octavia Cox

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen loves irony! What is the secret irony in Jane Austen's opening lines of Pride and Prejudice? Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice has one of the most famous openings in English literature: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a sing