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Longbourn, by Jo Baker
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A New York Times Book Review Notable Book, a Seattle Times Best Title, a Christian Science Monitor Best Fiction Book, a Miami Herald Favorite Book, and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year
The servants take center stage in this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice. While Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters fuss over balls and husbands, Sarah, their orphaned housemaid, is beginning to chafe against the boundaries of her class. When a new footman arrives at Longbourn under mysterious circumstances, the carefully choreographed world she has known all her life threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended. Mentioned only fleetingly in Jane Austen’s classic, here Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Regency England and, in doing so, uncovers the real world of the novel that has captivated readers’ hearts around the world for generations.
- Sales Rank: #35985 in Books
- Published on: 2014-06-17
- Released on: 2014-06-17
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.99" h x .76" w x 5.19" l, .60 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 331 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The servants of the Bennett estate manage their own set of dramas in this vivid re-imagining of Pride and Prejudice. While the marriage prospects of the Bennett girls preoccupy the family upstairs, downstairs the housekeeper Mrs. Hill has her hands full managing the staff that keeps Longbourn running smoothly: the young housemaids, Sarah and Polly; the butler, Mr. Hill; and the mysterious new footman, James Smith, who bears a secret connection to Longbourn. At the heart of the novel is a budding romance between James and orphan-turned-housemaid Sarah, whose dutiful service belies a ferocious need for notice, an insistence that she fully be taken into account. When an expected turn of events separates the young lovers, Sarah must contend with James&'s complicated past and the never-ending demands of the Bennetts. Baker (The Mermaid&'s Child) offers deeper insight into Austen&'s minor characters, painting Mr. Collins in a more sympathetic light while making the fiendish Mr. Wickham even more sinister. The Militia, which only offered opportunities for flirtations in the original, here serves as a reminder of the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars. Baker takes many surprising risks in developing the relationships between the servants and the Bennetts, but the end result steers clear of gimmick and flourishes as a respectful and moving retelling. A must-read for fans of Austen, this literary tribute also stands on its own as a captivating love story. First printing of 150,000. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates. (Oct.)
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Elizabeth and Darcy take a backseat in this engrossing Austen homage, which focuses on the lives of the servants of Longbourn rather than the Bennet family. Baker’s (The Undertow, 2012) novel finds Sarah, the Bennets’ young, pretty housemaid, yearning for something more than washing soiled dresses and undergarments. The arrival of a handsome new footman, James Smith, creates quite a stir as he’s hired after a heated discussion between Mrs. Hill, the cook and head of the servants, and Mr. Bennet. Sarah isn’t sure what to make of the enigmatic new member of the household staff, but she’s soon distracted by the Bingleys’ charismatic footman, Ptolemy, who takes an interest in Sarah and regales her with his dreams of opening up a tobacco shop. Baker vividly evokes the lives of the lower classes in nineteenth-century England, from trips in the rain to distant shops to the struggles of an infantryman in the Napoleonic Wars. She takes a few liberties with Austen’s characters—Wickham’s behavior takes on a more sinister aspect here—but mostly Austen’s novel serves as a backdrop for the compelling stories of the characters who keep the Bennet household running. --Kristine Huntley
Review
A Best Book of the Year Selection: New York Times 100 Notable, Seattle Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Kirkus Reviews
“Rich, engrossing, and filled with fascinating observations. . . . If you are a Jane Austen fan . . . you will devour Jo Baker’s ingenious Longbourn.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
“Original and charming, even gripping, in its own right.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Masterful.”
—The Miami Herald
“A witty, richly detailed re-imagining. . . . Fans of Austen and Downton Abbey will take particular pleasure in Longbourn, but any reader with a taste for well-researched historical fiction will delight in Baker’s involving, informative tale.”
—People
“A bold novel, subversive in ways that prove surprising, and brilliant on every level.”
—USA Today
“Delightful.”
—The New Yorker
“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.”
—The Guardian (London)
“[A] fitting tribute, inventing a touching love story of its own.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“A freshly egalitarian reimagining.”
—Vogue
“[Baker’s] writing style draws admirably from Austen’s.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Engaging and rewarding.”
—The Washington Times
“Longbourn is told with glee and great wit.”
—The Daily Beast
“The Bennet family’s servants imagined by Baker have richly complicated lives and loyalties. . . . Baker deserves a bouquet. . . . Refreshing.”
—The Seattle Times
“There’s a finale so back-of-the-hand-to-the-forehead romantic, someone should render it in needlepoint.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Excellent. . . . In Sarah the housemaid, Baker has created a heroine, living in the same house as Elizabeth Bennet, who manages to shine despite Elizabeth’s long literary shadow.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“Lively. . . . Baker’s vivid passages about the natural world, working conditions and even of sorrow are . . . well detailed and articulated.”
—The Plain Dealer
“Longbourn is a really special book, and not only because its author writes like an angel. . . . There are some wildly sad and romantic moments; I was sobbing by the end. . . . Beautiful.” —Wendy Holden, Daily Mail (London)
“Inspired. . . . This is a genuinely fresh perspective on the tale of the Bennet household. . . . A lot of fun.”
—Sunday Times (London)
“This clever glimpse of Austen’s universe through a window clouded by washday steam is so compelling it leaves you wanting to read the next chapter in the lives below stairs rather than peer at the reflections of any grand party in the mirrors of Netherfield.”
—Daily Express (London)
“Impressive. . . . An engrossing tale we neither know nor expect.”
—Daily Telegraph (London)
Most helpful customer reviews
255 of 272 people found the following review helpful.
Longbourn
By Brendan Moody
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the market is oversaturated with Jane Austen pastiches. Toss some zombies or a murder mystery into Austen's elegant accounts of the travails of the landed gentry, and you've got something that lots of people will buy, out of embarrassed curiosity if nothing else. I imagine the marketing of Jo Baker's LONGBOURN will target that audience, but those expecting a lighthearted parody or a return to beloved characters will be disappointed. This is less a companion to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE than a distant cousin, one that interacts with its relative rarely and in unrevealing ways. Fortunately, the story it tells is interesting enough in its own right to make a rewarding experience, albeit one that won't surprise readers who have more than a superficial knowledge of the period.
Where PRIDE AND PREJUDICE left the Bennet servants as faceless ciphers, in LONGBOURN they are the central characters. There are Mr and Mrs Hill, butler and cook; teenage maid Polly; and the heroine, Sarah. To this small, thinly-stretched team is added James Smith, the new footman. At first Sarah is suspicious of James, whose arrival in the household was the subject of a mysterious argument between Mrs Hill and Mr Bennet. As suspicion hardens into dislike, Sarah finds herself drawn toward the charming footman at neighboring Netherfield, who is also the first black man Sarah has ever seen. As she learns more about these two strange and fascinating arrivals, Sarah takes steps that will change her life forever.
The true subject of LONGBOURN is not, however, Sarah's romantic life, which mirrors Elizabeth's from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and is equally predictable. Baker is concerned instead with the life of the lower classes in Regency England, the deprivation and suffering that produced the gilded world through which Austen's characters moved. This is a worthy topic, though not a new one; attempts to give servants equal time in period pieces go back at least as far as the 1970s TV series UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS. But Austen's novels, with their glittering surfaces and unexpressed but forceful themes beneath, are ideal for that purpose, and Baker does a more than satisfactory job of it. At times she emphasizes the parallels between masters and servants too plainly; I got rather tired of reading descriptions of the Bennets' idle melancholy followed by some variation on "Sarah didn't have the luxury of that." But given how glaring the disparities are, it's hard to describe them at all without sounding unsubtle.
With one brief, charming exception, Baker makes no attempt to imitate Austen's prose, opting instead for a more modern and immediate tone that captures the grim fatalism of the servants' day-to-day existence. Apart from a few instances of distractingly contemporary diction, it works quite well, conjuring for the reader the pain of constant labor, the loneliness of lives confined to a radius of a few miles, and the small pleasures that are all servants can hope for. A late section in which one character's backstory moves the scene away from the English countryside is especially intense; Baker has a real gift for spare, bleak descriptions of physical and emotional devastation.
As noted, lovers of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE won't find much new here, though minor characters like Mr Collins and Mary Bennet are shown in a more sympathetic light, and George Wickham manages to be even worse. There is one major twist to a key character late in the narrative. I can't describe it without spoilers, but I don't think it really works, either in terms of the characters as Austen presented them or as drama in its own right. It has the stink of class-conflict melodrama, which the novel has otherwise avoided. But Baker handles this element as well as it can be handled, and the overall resolution echoes Austen without abandoning LONGBOURN's own distinctive voice. It's surprisingly moving: the characters may not be that complex, but they're human enough to engage our sympathy all the same. This is a fine historical novel, especially recommended to thoughtful readers of Austen and those interested in the darker side of the opulent English past.
104 of 109 people found the following review helpful.
A fantastic story within a story
By Erin
At work one morning I got very excited listening to an interview on Australian ABC radio: Jo Baker was being interviewed about her new novel Longbourn. The telling of Pride and Prejudice through the servants eyes. I got very excited and was jumping in my seat (thank goodness it was a quiet day and there was no one there to witness me). I thought to myself: I have to get this book NOW!!!
Pride and Prejudice has always been a favourite story of mine. And I often wonder, daydream and imagine what life was like for Lizzy and Darcy. But I had also wondered what life would have been like for the servants of that household.
I can't imagine dealing with Mrs Bennett on a daily basis, both publicly and intimately (shudder at the thought) being a simple, easy task to undertake.
I was sucked-into Jo Baker's story within the first minute of starting the book. Immediately I liked and cared for the servants and I felt for them as they got along and completed their daily tasks(that turn my stomach and make me thankful that I live in this century!).
I found myself crossing my fingers and holding my breath that servant and gentry alike got to live Happily Ever After.
Jo Baker showed respect and attention to detail in incorporating her voice and imagination into the back-story of Jane Austen's masterpiece.
I have not read any other works by Jo Baker yet, but I intend to now asap.
113 of 123 people found the following review helpful.
Exquisite
By Dr. Eric M. Jones
I've read a number of Pride & Prejudice derivatives. I have praised Pamela Aiden's 'Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman' and Jan Hahn's 'An Arranged Marriage'. 'Longbourn' is my new pick of the litter. Let me quote briefly from Jo Baker's Author's Note at the end of the Kindle edition. "The main characters in Longbourn are ghostly presences in Pride and Prejudic. They exist to serve the family and the story." In 'Longbourn', the main characters of Pride and Prejudice may not be ghostly, but most are bit players. Powerful bit players, too be sure; but not central to the story. The downstairs story and characters Baker has created certainly held my attention and made me care about them. This is not Upstairs/Downstairs, Gosford Park, or Downton Abbey. A hundred years before the setting of those stories, life is grittier. The Longbourn estate is a small one and the household staff only numbers only five. The work is hard; and the days are very long. Baker has done her homework. Bravo!
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