Is Anyone Reading Longbourn by Jo Baker?

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Is Anyone Reading Longbourn by Jo Baker?

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1jnwelch
Oct 18, 2013, 11:02 am

Longbourn came out this month, and is a "downstairs", servants' view of the events in Pride and Prejudice. I got intrigued because of the early positive reviews, including a red star in Publishers Weekly.

So far I'm liking it very much. You get insight into the nitty-gritty of running a house during that period of time, and what was going on behind the scenes as P & P's story unfolds. Baker obviously knows P & P's characters well, and it's fun to get a servant's perspective on the Bennets and others. Where I am now in the book, Mr. Collins has just shown up, and the servants are quite anxious about him, as he is their future employer and may or may not decide to keep them.

2Marissa_Doyle
Oct 18, 2013, 11:24 am

I just downloaded it, but won't be getting to it for a few days...will check back here!

3jnwelch
Oct 22, 2013, 2:31 pm

I finished it, and it was excellent. She combined skillful writing with a great idea - what isn't in Pride and Prejudice, but complements it. For example, many have noticed that Jane Austen in her books rarely brings in the contemporaneous events like the Napoleonic Wars. In Longbourn, one of the new characters is a soldier in Spain experiencing the war. There is a love story that makes a nice contrast with Lizzie/Darcy and Jane/Bingley, too.

4marietherese
Oct 22, 2013, 10:05 pm

I bought this but probably won't get to it for a few months. Still, I am glad to hear that it's good and that it fleshes out aspects of the era that Austen left spare.

5jnwelch
Oct 23, 2013, 10:34 am

Thanks, marietherese. My review of it is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/159942#4334376

6foggidawn
Nov 8, 2013, 12:28 pm

I also just finished it, and have yet to write my review (but I will try to do so soon). I really enjoyed it, as well.

7jnwelch
Nov 8, 2013, 2:10 pm

Glad to hear it, foggidawn. I look forward to your review. As far as I can tell, it's getting a good response in the media, too.

8peggybr
Déc 9, 2013, 4:57 pm

I just finished it yesterday and liked it very much. Being engrossed with 'Downton Abbey,' this book adds texture to the Austen story. As someone who was a full-time parent for decades and did most of the 'dirty' work, I can appreciate what it must have been like to keep the Bennett family dressed and fed, given the lack of modern conveniences. Did anyone read 'March' about the March family (Little Women) from the perspective of the father in the Civil War? It also gave me a more rounded perspective of the era.

9fannyprice
Mar 17, 2014, 9:59 am

I read it back in January. Reposting my review from my ClubRead thread.

I largely enjoyed this retelling of the events of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of the Bennet family's servants, which I read in two chunks of time separated by more than a week. I think my manner of reading may have contributed somewhat to my disjointed response - I was totally sucked in to the first half of the book, which focused more narrowly on life at Longbourn; when I returned to the book later, I found myself less engaged by the portions focusing on the footman's experience of the Napoleonic wars. The book's end also struck me as a bit off, but frankly, I have no idea how one could write an ending to such a book that would be both realistic and satisfying. It's not as though it would have been at all plausible for the maid and the footman to suddenly become gentry and I don't think any reader would have been happy with an ending that left them in service.

I was fascinated by how Baker took familiar characters and refracted them through new eyes - Mrs Bennet is still the same silly woman as before, but her foibles and neediness are not just amusing, they are work-making; Elizabeth's outdoorsiness is less charming to those who are forced to do her laundry; Jane is beloved because she never requires anything extra of the servants. In contrast to other reviewers on LT, I didn't think that Baker portrayed the Bennet family in an excessively negative way, merely in a way that was almost certainly a realistic depiction of the relations between servants and served in a smaller household where the relations are more intimate than in a larger household but where boundaries are policed nonetheless.

However, the Bennet family and the other main characters from P&P are really marginal to this story - their dramas figure inasmuch as they create strain on the servants, but Baker does a skillful job of showing how the servants have emotional and mental lives of their own and concerns quite separate from those of the family. Mr. Collins' visit to Longbourn, for instance, produces quite a different response in Mrs. Hill, the housekeeper, and Sarah, the maid from whose perspective most of the story is told. Both women realize that as the future owner of the house, Mr. Collins has power over their livelihoods; consequently, they are much nicer to him than is the Bennet family.

As I've mentioned, some parts of the story were less successful for me than others - the extended detour into the footman's mysterious past in particular did not work for me and seemed at odds with the rest of the book. Baker seemed at her best when she focused on the meaning in everyday life and the transition to the war setting was too melodramatic for me.

In reading and reviewing this book, I tried to think of it on two levels - first, as a complement to P&P; second, as a standalone book in its own right. I think it works quite well as both and I was glad I read it. Anyone who is interested in a look at P&P from a different angle or depictions of servants in literature would probably enjoy it, but I think responses are going to be very polarized because of the Jane Austen angle.

10jnwelch
Mar 17, 2014, 10:55 am

>10 jnwelch: Love the post, fannyprice. Your reactions to Longbourn were similar to mine. I did like the ending more than you, it sounds like. For me, it made for a fascinating and appropriate contrast to P & P. Sarah turns down life at Pemberly and marries purely for love, with economic security playing no role. A strong theme of P & P, of course, is the economic security importance of marriage to women at that time, as exemplified by Charlotte's agreeing to marry the ridiculous Mr. Collins after Lizzie turns him down. And Lizzie with self-irony says her feelings toward Darcy may have started to change when she first saw Pemberly.

As you say, the book thematically complements P & P. One often-heard comment about P & P and other Jane Austen novels is that we hear nothing of the Napoleonic Wars or other world events beyond the circumscribed lives she portrays. So to me Baker's portrayal of the sordidness of the war is in keeping with all she does to give us a story from the world "surrounding" P & P, including the servants' perspectives.

11fannyprice
Mar 17, 2014, 11:52 am

>10 jnwelch:, Excellent point hidden in that spoiler!