Longbourn

by Jo Baker

[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.