Longbourn

By: Jo Baker

Narrated by: Emma Fielding

Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Pride and Prejudice was only half the story

If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.

In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.

Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic - into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars - and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.

©2013 Jo Baker (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A triumph: a splendid tribute to Austen’s original but, more importantly, a joy in its own right, a novel that contrives both to provoke the intellect and, ultimately, to stop the heart.... Like Austen, Baker has written an intoxicating love story but, also like Austen, the pleasure of her novel lies in its wit and fierce intelligence.... Baker not only creates a richly imagined story of her own but recasts Austen’s novel in a startlingly fresh light.... Inspired." (The Guardian)

Longbourn...a perfect listen on a winter night.

Longbourn
well read...distinctly different charecters
engaging...interesting
wonderful story for our main charecters ..begining to end
many unseen twists and surprises

Too different from P&P but lovely (spoil. alert)

I very much enjoyed this book in many ways. I love Jane Austen and thought the connection to Pride and Prejudice was a neat concept. The author, Jo Baker, writes beautifully. Her ability to describe a landscape, a person, or personal internal experiences such as hunger, tiredness, fear, love, or happiness is profound. Many individual passages were so poignantly written that I was struck by the talent of the writer. Nonetheless, the book needed to be edited to be shorter. The plot to description ratio was too low on plot in comparison to scenery and the story line lagged at some places although in other places, it seemed to go quickly.
The interweaving of different early threads into a full picture is well-done. Several other reviewers I have read expressed surprise at the parentage of one of the main characters, but it seemed pretty obvious to me that that was what had happened.
Three other features affected my opinion. 1. in my opinion, the book would have been better not associated with P&P, even though it was a neat idea. Austen writes in witty, quick, satirical prose. She makes a commentary on class life , wealth, titles, dowries and other realities but does not go into great depth and is humorous. Longbourn may reference the same characters, but it is darker, heavy-handed with issues, and changes the basic nature of some of Austen's characters. Mr Bennett, a generally positive character, in P&P is not so in this book, The bold Elizabeth, happy in marriage to Darcy in P&P, is left hesitant and insecure in this book and her story, like that of most of the sisters, is not enough of the story in Longbourn to require inclusion. The story could as easily be about a different family with daughters and servants.
2. The most difficult reading was the section on James' experiences outside of England. While incredibly well written, it was very harsh and felt like it could have been its own book, or that only a small piece of it was needed to explain James' backstory.
3. While Austen's book had a relatively limited world, Longbourn seems to attempt to cover every justice issue of the time. Slavery, treatment of criminals, poverty, the rights of servants, rights of women, double standard between men and women about pre-marital sex, views of homosexuality, corruption in the military, treatment of children borne out of wedlock, and general cold and harsh weather were all covered. A person can care about all of these issues without wanting them all in the same book. I did like some of the small touches- describing diapers and menstrual cloths having to be washed for example, addressed a reality I have not typically seen in books about that time period. Even so, Austen did not discuss them because they were simply not things to discuss. in public. Some reviewers have protested their inclusion because they were so out of character for a book in the same genre as P&P. Overall, I think the author needed to focus on the parts that drove the story forward. The last section, when Sarah is living with the Darcy's and leaves, does not seem as true to life and is choppier. I would have expected more interaction between herself and Elizabeth and for maybe Darcy to be involved in a solution. The ending does not read at all like an ending Austen would have written. Austen would not have had a couple living a nomadic lifestyle as a realistic option, after seeing how it did not work for James in the beginning of the book when winter came. The narration was good BTW.
TLDR: story addressed too many issues, made some real points, had lovely passages, sometimes lyrical, but the style was too dissimilar from that of Austen to read as intended. It needed streamlining, keeping to the story but was well narrated.

Almost there...

I really liked the story and different perspective of the characters we all know and love. However, it seems like the ending was a laundry list of subplots that needed tying up and when it actually came down to Sarah's plot line, it was rushed.

Sublime in every way ....

I loved it & couldn’t Wait to get back to it to see how the story unfolded.

A very unique twist and a very classic story thank you thank you

Love, Love, Loved It.

It was fascinating. I wish the end had as much detail as the beginning.

Loved it till the end

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I loved the book. I love all of Jane Austen's work, so it was a fun insight to the servants of the Bennett household. I did not like the added homosexual content that was so out of place and unneeded. It really ruined the whole atmosphere the book had spent hours creating.

Plot too thin though some good ideas

Slow reading with not much happening a Story told from point of view of servant housemaid who had lots of drudgery which was passed over quickly Some serials of tools or customs might have lifted story out of monotony Good ideas needed more events

Loved this book!

I won't say it's a "happy" book, but I loved it. It's obvious that the author read pride and prejudice, not just closely, but critically. She shows Mrs. Bennett, Lydia and Mary so much more grace than any adaptation I've ever encountered and makes more human other characters who are usually depicted as near-saints. She took single lines from Austin's book and contextualized them for the modern reader. What exactly does it mean when Austin says that the weather was so bad that "the very shoe-roses for Netherfield were got by proxy?" What is the deeper social context of a flogging in town, or having the militia nearby in the first place? How did Bingley's father amass his fortune? Baker peels back the veneer of Austin's book and shows us a potential reality of the lives of those who made the lives of people like the Bennetts, Bingleys, and Darcys possible. For some, this telling may be too depressing, vulgar or dark in comparison to pride and prejudice. The ending will likely disappoint readers who expect villains to be punished and heroes rewarded with an explicit happily ever after. We get neither of those things. But for those who love Austin critically, and love the messy and complicated nature of humanity, and who understand that usually the most the average real person can ask for in life is a HOPE for a happily ever after, this book is for you. Real life is full of heartache and hope, and Baker doesn't look away from that.

All Pride & Prejudice fans will love this one

Loved it. Imaginative & comforting. I’ve read a few continuations of P&P, but this was better. Bravo!

excellent writing!

I was spell bound by the quality and talent of the author. Bravo! I have heard and read so many P&P variations over the years and this one was top shelf in my opinion. The narration was simply the best. The storyline brought such a clear visual of life, in all its hardships and comradory of the people who maintained this home, Longhorn, Well done.