Longbourn: The unputdownable Richard and Judy pick

by Jo Baker

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOKCLUB PICK
'Utterly engrossing' Guardian

It is wash-day for the housemaids at Longbourn House, and Sarah's hands are chapped and raw. Domestic life below stairs, ruled with a tender heart and an iron will by Mrs Hill the housekeeper, is about to be disturbed by the arrival of a new footman, bearing secrets and the scent of the sea.

What readers are saying:

'A novel to be savoured'
'Highly recommended'
'Very enjoyable exploration of the background to Pride and Prejudice'

• ISBN10: 0552779512
• ISBN13: 9780552779517
• Publish Date: 1 January 2014 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
• Imprint: Black Swan
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sarah Says]

I loved the line “If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them”.
I loved Mrs Hill, Sarah and Polly and Felt for them. The twist concerning James’s parentage did not sit right with me and just felt wrong. However, ignoring that I was able to enjoy the story and Bar Mr Bennet, I was happy with Bakers take on the characters and they felt Austen approvable to me.
I really enjoyed reading the servants take on the Bennetts and their dramas. I found it interesting, I had never really thought about who washed and cooked and the entire goings on in the background of Pride and Prejudice as I was always too caught up with Mr Darcy.
The love story: Sarah an orphan taken and raised my Mrs Hill as a housemaid at Longbourn and who gets worked ragged and ends up understandably fed up with her life. James comes along and gets himself a job as footmen and that is when things start to get interesting. Like I said before if you ignore the premises of James parentage his back-story as a on the run disgraced solder is fascinating.
Even though Sarah and James end up together and happy, I felt like the ending was not good enough. All the characters get happy-ish endings; I just felt that James and Sarah deserved more. I mean hell if you are going to go all out and say Mr Bennett had a Love child with his housekeeper Mrs Hill at least have him come clean about it in the end, as then James not Mr Collins would inherit the Longbourn estate and Sarah and James could live happily ever after, safe and sound!

[wyvernfriend]

A look at the lives of the servants behind the story of Pride and Prejudice, particularly concentrating on one servant, Sarah and her involvement with some of the other servants around and with the people of the story. It does reflect how the servants weren't really taken into account by the upper classes, how negligent they were of the feelings and needs of the servants, though it's hard to believe that they would allow servants to read and not take into account their feelings and the fact that they too might want to have lives.

It's still an interesting story, woven into the behind-the-scenes events of Pride and Prejudice. A different slant on the story, but one with a little too much modern takes on things, many servants would have a certain amount of pride in sending their mistresses out looking well and sometimes that would be their way of coping with being a servant. It's not all about being oppressed, it's about having a job and taking a pride in it. Some people would have resented being servants but there would have been others who found a quiet pride in the work and being able to support themselves with their labour. We take a different view of work today, and there will always be tasks that we have issues with, tasks of varying degrees of tedium but we reward ourselves as well with sometimes small things that make the tedioum easier to bear, whether it's a book, a flower, some hidden embroidery, whatever. I'm sure the lives of servants were no different and knowing where Simnel cake comes from I'm sure leftover lace made it's way to undergarments.

Somehow it just didn't ring as true as it might have, interesting but not breathtaking.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Longbourn follows the daily lives of the servants of the Bennet house. Sarah is an orphaned housemaid who spends her day doing laundry, polishing the floor and emptying chamber pots. The house is blooming with romance and heartbreak, not just for the Bennet sisters. One day a mysterious new footman arrives and the servants’ hall is under threat of been completely upended.

A unique reimagining, this novel tells the story of Pride and Prejudice told from the people serving the Bennet’s. I get the sense that this book was inspired more by Downton Abbey more than Jane Austen but never really seems to live up to either. All the drama of Bingley, Wickham, Mr Collins and Mr Darcy play out as a background characters for the drama that is happening with the servants.

I only read Pride and Prejudice earlier this year and absolutely loved it so I was a little wary of trying a spin off novel. The idea of a novel in the style of Downton Abbey did interest me but I felt let down. I got nether Austen’s wit and humour nor the drama for Downton. Some of Austen’s memorable characters didn’t seem to line up too well in this novel either; Mr Bennet comes to mind, his sarcastic humour appears completely absent in this novel. This could be written off as the servant’s perception of the Bennets and other characters.

There are some redeeming qualities in Longbourn; the novel seemed historically accurate, and while I don’t know for sure if this is correct, it did felt like this novel aligns with what I’ve read in Pride and Prejudice. Also I have to admire the way Jo Baker wrote; she is no Jane Austen but the prose was still elegant and I found myself continuously being impressed with her style while always looking for ways she may have ruined Austen’s masterpiece.

I always felt like the Bennets were wealthy enough to allow Mr Bennet to be a man of leisure but not enough to stop Mrs Bennet from worrying. So when servant hall in Longbourn seem smaller than what you would normally expect, it didn’t come as a surprise to me. The arrival of a new footman means that Mr Bennet has finally given into the demands of his wife and in comes the mysterious James. While the servant’s seem pleased with the new addition, Sarah doesn’t and soon she becomes aware of his interests towards her. You can probably guess where this is going and I won’t spoil it for you.

I spent most of the book worried that Baker will do damage to a true classic and I think this did detract from my enjoyment but for the most of it I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I did how ever feel as if this novel dragged on in parts and the fact that this was marked as a book for Downton Abbey fans seemed completely wrong. If you are a Downton fan I would recommend The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro well before I recommend Longbourn.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/10/02/book-review-longbourn/