OK, that's overly harsh, although it's on his own authority. Like you three, I've been pleasantly surprised by his lively wit, to which the scriptwriters of S&S2 did no service whatsoever by having Hugh Grant portray him as a superior form of slug.

His pleasantness is in no way diminished by a note in the Cambridge edition, which comments on his statement in Ch.19 that "I was therefore entered at Oxford and have been properly idle ever since."

The note states that this might refer to the Oxford class of "gentleman-commoner", which entailed obtaining an honorary MA after three years without having to sit exams or be subject to normal college discipline. (In JA's day Oxford was apparently notorious for its slackness.)