Longbourn by Jo Baker
Book Type: It's a Pride and Prejudice retelling!!!! Or is it???
Stereotype Alert: Not as bad as you'd think!
Cover Art: Looks like art. Though I'm going to guess this is a servant from about... 20 years before our story takes place.
Bed/Bride/Bludgeon: Mrs. Hill/John/Wickham
Character Score: 6 out of 10 Mr. Micawbers
What's the Story?: Pride and Prejudice as told by the servants. There's hardly any Darcy/Bingley in here at all!
X-Factor: The great Jane Austen- with a twist.
Stereotype Alert: Readers, I was quite afeared that this would be yet another Jane Austen rip-off/ "What happened after the story ended????" type novel. Not so. Not at all.
Cover Art: Not much to say about this cover. It is clearly a housemaid. So, yeah.
Bed/Bride/Bludgeon: Poor Mrs. Hill! She needs a lover- stat! John is, to use the words of Forever Young Adult, a total MLD (Mysterious Loner Dude). He's hot and has a mysterious past- all good things for a friend with benefits to have. And Wickham. Death to creepy, old Wickham- always.
Character Score: 6 out of 10 seems fair. I might even go as far as a 7. Baker has created a great voice for Sarah and just like with Austen, you fall in love with all of her main characters. But there is surprisingly little of Mrs. Bennet and her five daughters. Glimpses, yes, but the story is driven by those below-stairs.
What's the Story?: Many, many authors have tried to capture the genius that is
Jane Austen (and more specifically, the delight that came from the characters
in Pride and Prejudice). But
Longbourn by Jo Baker isn’t an Austen rip-off. It isn’t even a story that tries to answer
the question “What happened after Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy got married?” Instead, Baker has told the story of the
Bennet household from the point of view of a rather unlikely character: the
Bennet’s housemaid, Sarah.
Sarah (about Ms. Elizabeth Bennet’s age) has been with the
family since she was a little girl. She
does everything that is expected of a housemaid including: soaking and
scrubbing muddy petticoats, feeding the pigs, emptying chamber pots and washing
the never-ending supply of dishes being used by a family of seven. She does not complain. But she does wonder
what it would be like to live a life where no one expected you to do anything
and you could act on your own free-will.
The joyous thing about this novel is that we see only
glimpses of the Bennet family; a line of conversation here and there, but not
much more. The pages are filled with
Sarah’s daily activities and those of the other staff: Mr. Hill and the
housekeeper Mrs. Hill, the young housemaid Polly and a new hired man, James, who
has a shadowy past. There is little here
of Jane’s pining for Bingley or Elizabeth’s annoyance with Darcy. Sarah slowly sets off down a path towards her
own romance but will she end up with the mysterious James or Mr. Bingley’s
handsome and charming servant Ptomely?
Baker takes us with Sarah on her journey from young lady to
woman and we get to see just how much she longs for a world outside of
service. We see her set off with
Elizabeth to Kent to visit the Collinses and her amazement at the metropolis
that is London. When she is given the
opportunity to leave Longbourn and serve at Pemberly, will the grand house be
the new responsibilities and distractions she needs? Will she marry in order to get out of
service? Or will she go a direction all
her own without the help of her benefactors and friends?
X-Factor: The great Jane Austen- with a twist.
Seriously guys, I was kind of worried about reading this book. I am not a fan of Austen retellings. I thought this was just another author who was in lurve with Austen and was trying to write a book in order to express her feelings to the long-dead legend. Not so. Baker has a very unique voice. She is authentic to the time, but does not strive to sound like Austen in any way. You are given glimpses of the girls at Longbourn, but your heart lies with Sarah and her struggles. Even the staunchest Austen fan can enjoy this novel.
Longbourn by Jo Baker is available at all fine bookstores and libraries.
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