From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

Longbourn

Jo Baker

Start date: September 1, 2023

Finish date: September 30, 2023

Discussion: 2023 Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: September 2023 group read for "retelling"…more
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What Members Thought

Jan 10, 2017 Susan rated it it was amazing

I finished Longbourn (which autocorrect wants to make into Bourbon). I enjoyed it very much. The extension of Pride and Prejudice to below stairs was interesting and the characters that, in P&P, are fleetingly mentioned are fleshed out in wonderful detail. The most pleasant surprise was the character of James Smith - and with no spoilers, I will leave it at that. :)

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Dec 23, 2014 Carlie Van Amerongen rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, 2014

People tend to feel strongly about this book, but I didn't really. I enjoyed the story. I thought it was fun and light. I'd probably recommend it. I thought that the incorporation of political and economic history of the time was well done and a nice counterpoint to P&P, which ignores it.

I did not like the various elements that seemed to placed into the plot only to make the book longer. Nor did I like the characters who seemed to be little more than devices later employed to move the plot along ...more

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Oct 15, 2013 CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

I have never before read a book about which I felt so entirely ambivalent. Entirely. I could not care less about any of the characters, didn't care what they did, or how it affected anyone else. The only strong feeling I had was rage about the one particularly stunning revelation involving a character from Pride and Prejudice that really impugned that person's character. I have no problem with making up stories about the silent staff behind the characters in a beloved story (even if not not a si I have never before read a book about which I felt so entirely ambivalent. Entirely. I could not care less about any of the characters, didn't care what they did, or how it affected anyone else. The only strong feeling I had was rage about the one particularly stunning revelation involving a character from Pride and Prejudice that really impugned that person's character. I have no problem with making up stories about the silent staff behind the characters in a beloved story (even if not not a single one of those characters is in any way engaging for me), and working those characters' stories around the events of the earlier book. What I have a huge gripe with is altering in significant ways the nature of a previous character, making them into an utterly unlikeable person. Frankly, no one in the Bennett household escaped this story with their charm intact.
I can't give this book a terrible rating, though. I think it's well-written, in a grammatical and historical sort of way. It's a coherent, consistent, realistic, carefully written, and obviously painstakingly researched piece of work that in no apparent ways deviates from the order of the story from the original novel.
It just isn't enjoyable. One friend from book club only finished 30% of the story before she quit. She said simply that it felt like the author was depressed. I can see that logic. Everything in this book feels sad and gray. There's so little joy in any of it, and maybe that's realistic for the lower classes of the time, but it's not enjoyable to read AT ALL. Not engaging. Not memorable. And certainly not repeatable. I finished this book because I didn't want to waste the time spend already reading it, in my quest towards a number of books read for the year, and also because it marked off the county of Hertfordshire from my counties of England to-read challenge.
The book, aside from that particular burst of outrage, wasn't something I detested, that I couldn't stand to read. I read it slowly, in manageable chunks, learning bits of history and culture along the way. I appreciated the historical and cultural details, but if I'm going to suffer through dry delivery, I think I'd rather read in a non-fiction format any further information on the time and place. For now, I've finished, and I can check this off several lists it satisfies, from book club to reading goals, and move on with my life. There are certainly more enjoyable books out there waiting to be read. ...more

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Jan 24, 2014 Jeff Scott rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, audiobooks, england-fiction, downton-abbey

Jo Baker provides a clever combination of Pride and Prejudice and Downton Abbey in her book Longbourn. The book chronicles the life of a housemaid in the Bennett household, complete with daily travails and the behind the scenes aspect of Pride and Prejudice. While most of the book focuses on the downstairs of the Bennett household, it shows how decisions by the Bennett’s impact them. What’s most clever about the book is how Jo Baker is able to mimic Austen’s work and adapt it to the life of a se Jo Baker provides a clever combination of Pride and Prejudice and Downton Abbey in her book Longbourn. The book chronicles the life of a housemaid in the Bennett household, complete with daily travails and the behind the scenes aspect of Pride and Prejudice. While most of the book focuses on the downstairs of the Bennett household, it shows how decisions by the Bennett’s impact them. What’s most clever about the book is how Jo Baker is able to mimic Austen’s work and adapt it to the life of a servant. Sarah must endure her daily tasks, but the introduction of a new footman, James, complicates matters. Furthermore, the introduction of new neighbors, the Bingleys, impacts both the lives of the Bennett’s and her own life as well.

Sarah’s life is one of drudgery. The story starts off with her getting up before the crack of dawn, filling up buckets of water with a freezing pump handle, and then slipping in pig shit. This is not the most glamorous of positions. Sarah’s life is one of hardship. She is an orphan and remembers the times when she had a family. There is always that time of happiness she can look back upon that contrasts so sharply with the hardship of her daily life. In contrast, the other housemaid Polly has always been an orphan so to her this life is as good as it gets. Everything is thrown into disorder with the introduction of the new footman James who mysteriously enters the household without any notice. Sarah’s growing suspicion of his origin goes along with her growing infatuation of him providing the perfect Austen formula to this story.

Everything mirrors Pride and Prejudice with heady Sarah trying to expose James, becoming infatuated with another (as if he were a suitor), and then a happily ever after…almost. James’s back story is where things are diverted. It’s both shocking and fascinating. It provides a level of detail that terribly missing during the timeline of these books. The Napoleonic Wars are some conversational footnote for the household, but through James’s eyes, we see so much more of what it was like.

Baker paints the main characters from Pride and Prejudice as larger than life. When Sarah addresses Mr. Darcy, she speaks into his cravat. Sarah’s reaction seems to embody how most fans of Pride and Prejudice would feel about the characters, larger than life, god-like. It further makes Sarah’s actions all the more brave and the ending all the more satisfying. ...more

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Oct 22, 2018 Debbie rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

A retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from the servants’ perspectives. An interesting counterpoint to the original story.

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Oct 26, 2013 Chelsea rated it liked it

Loved the setting. A bit slow for my taste, but I am impressed with the author's reimagining of life below stairs in the world of Pride and Prejudice. ...more

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