Longbourn

A character-driven fan fic that explores the lives, loves and losses of the Longbourne servants. Clever and drly witty at times.
There is a long section about one character's experience of war that I skimmed over because it doesn't really fit with the rest of the story.

A little bit slow starting (especially with all the mentions of chilblains), but I found this book enjoyably different. Baker doesn't just write in the point of view of the servants, she also gives P&P an extra back story. Whilst this may potentially offend purists, I thought it was handled well. I really enjoyed the way that the love story developed slowly and it was obvious that the author had done a great deal of research.

2.5 stars. All this really did for me was to create a hankering to revisit the original - and watch the BBC TV series with Firth's Mr Darcy.

This book was such a delight! It was beautifully written and the new point of view it brought was very interesting. I guess I'll never see Pride and Prejudice the same way from now.

The servants of the Bennet household have a pretty good idea what's going on upstairs, but they don't have time for that crap. They're busy laundering away menstrual blood, disposing of human and animal waste, picking at their blisters, and slogging through mud. Also having love triangles while trying not to get caught at fireable offenses.

Longbourn is quite enjoyable until two thirds of the way through, when it takes a flashback break. It could have conveyed the information by other means, but instead we get mood whiplash. Lots of childbirth (trigger warning!), war atrocities, torture, starvation, and injustice. I would have skipped past it but that's tricky with audiobooks.

This book surprised me. I expected it to be an interesting Downton Abbey-like story of gentry and servants. I did not expect it to be so thoughtful about affluence, and what having it and not having it does to the people who live around it. So thought- provoking!

This is the servants' view of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

The story of what is happening among the Bennet family's servants is woven together with the servants' view of the events of the Austen novel. Familiar signposts from the Austen novel are there, so you always have a sense of where you are with regard to that timeline, but the servants are people with their own concerns and the focus is on them.

Jo Baker's writing makes this a real pleasure to read. For much of the time she maintains a brisk pace, with the humorous observation of social conventions that you expect in a Jane Austen novel. Her humor also has teeth and delivers a satisfyingly sharp bite in a few well chosen scenes.

If I could, I would give 3 stars to the first half, and 5 to the second. The story takes a long time to build momentum, but when it does, it's quite effective and very moving.

it was weird to read it, as if we were hidden in Jane Austen's closet (or under a petticoat). then when I got used to it, I thought it was sweet, lyrical and interesting, even if not life-changing. At times the narrative is messy, and I tried not to be biased but the Bennett family seemed such nasty people to their servants - wonder if it was my reading or the author's intentions. Honestly, for the sake of Austen, let us stick to the real thing. And as far as period novels go, guess it was just ok.

Well done historical fiction, even if you're not a huge Jane Austen fan. Definitely interesting to consider the below stairs action in one of her most famous stories, though. The writing is very well done, I only got a bit disappointed because I thought the ending was going to surprise me, but in the end everything gets wrapped up in a mostly pretty bow.

Magnificent. One of the best books I've ever read.

Well-written take-off on Pride & Prejudice that tells the story of Longbourn's servants, primarily housemaid Sarah. Jo Baker does a good job of reminding the reader about all of the hard work that went on behind the scenes so that the Bennett sisters could sit and fret about finding husbands. The romance between Sarah and the household's new footman, James, is too overstated and sensual to be mistaken for Austen, but yet it doesn't feel out of place. I think Baker gives Sarah a bit too much modern sensibility (would an orphaned housemaid really have existential angst about the meaning of life?) but if you can overlook that lapse, and the ill-advised long detour into James' mysterious past, you will enjoy this novel.

I'm a little puzzled by the negative reviews of this book that bemoan the fact that the main characters in Pride & Prejudice barely feature into the story. Um, maybe because the book isn't about them?