Longbourn question

Pride and Prejudice gives background on the Bennets and their lives. Besides, it's a great book! :) Longbourn tells a separate story in the same setting as characters in Pride and Prejudice, but reading P&P first would make it more interesting, as you'd already have a connection to that world.

Yes, read P&P first. Otherwise you will get confused about all the Upstairs characters. Also, P&P is really fun. I don't think anyone would say that LONGBOURN is really fun.

It depends how deeply you want to read. Longbourn can certainly stand alone as a compelling novel. But I think Jo Baker has also provided a powerful critique of social inequality and of the social class blinders worn by Jane Austen's characters (and possibly by Austen herself). I don't think you'll get this out of Longbourn unless you've read Pride and Prejudice first (although I don't think it's necessary to have read it dozens of times as I have :-) ).

I think you should read Pride and Prejudice firs or as a cheat watch the movie. That said when you read Longbourn I think it only fair to the author to judge it on its own and not try to compare. Longbourn is a great book, well written and interesting, just enjoy it!

I wished I had re-read P&P before reading Longbourn. I couldn't remember most of what was going on upstairs and felt a bit lost & confused. Didn't really enjoy Longbourn until the end of the book.

I didn't read Pride and Prejudice first, but you can't live on this planet without having seen one of the multitudes of screen/tv versions of it. So I was familiar with the story, as I have seen several of them. I really liked Longbourn. My partner, who loves Pride and Prejudice with all his might...did not. He couldn't even finish it, which I found surprising.

Longbourn is a lecture about how people living in Jane Austen's time weren't as sensitive and socially conscious as we 21st century inhabitants. There is certainly no need whatsoever to read P & P to understand what happens in Longbourn- but P & P is a far more entertaining and beautifully written book- if you're only going to read one of the 2- read P & P-otherwise, read both & don't worry about the order

Either read Pride and Prejudice or at least see one of the movies. It will make reading Longbourn more fun.

I'm an Austen fan from top to bottom--who has from time to time picked a modern novel which claims to "finish" one of her stories, or to be in the Austen mode. They always disappoint. I can't say why I picked up Longbourn--having had this experience--but I was glad that I did. The "downstairs" lives were engrossing and the critique of the era rewarding.

I would say you might enjoy it more if you had read P&P prior to reading Longbourne, however, I don't think you need to have read P&P to enjoy the book. The plot/characters of P&P are NOT integral to the plot/characters of Longbourne. They mention happenings from the P&P plot every once in a while, and you go, "Huh, that's cool." but that's about it.

I haven't read P&P, but thoroughly enjoyed Longbourn - it really is a beautiful story, enjoy!

Go on and only read PP. You'll save yourself a lot of time if you skip Longbourn.

Longourn is a "gimmick" in the sense that if the author were writing it as a standalone, it would be a somewhat different book. Since the author intended it to be a subtext or commentary on P&P, it almost seems like missing the point if you don't have P&P under your belt first. I had not read P&P for some years, so I made it a point to go back and re-read it before I started Longbourn, and that turned out to be a good idea.

I would even dare to say just read Pride and Prejudice if you haven't yet and don't really bother with this one.

yes read P&P first. You need the background to understand all the twists and turns of the family's lives. That said the main character isn't even mentioned in P&P and the story takes quite a different tack.
I loved both so it's not really a chore to read the original. enjoy

I just finished it and I was happy to know the backstory. Some of the actions of and connections between the characters of P&P are only superficially explained and touched upon in Longbourn. Mr. Darcy is almost invisible in Longbourn, until at the very last. The Bennets are not the main characters in the story, but their actions interfere with the life of the servants, so it's nice to know the background. That being said I have never read P&P in its entire length, but only seen the movies (multiple times!), and they seem to follow the books rather faithfully.

I don´t think it is absolutely necessary to read Pride & Prejudice first. I didn´t, but I really enjoyed Longbourn. I have seen movies based on Pride & Prejudice of course, so the characters were familiar to me. I´ve started to read Pride & Prejudice many times but somehow I´ve never been able to read more than a few chapters ...

Longbourn is a surprisingly wonderful novel, given its arguably gimmicky premise. Jo Baker pulls it off beautifully, and it stands alone. That said, I was happy to have read the perfect P&P (a couple of times): it deepens the context knowing what's going on "upstairs."