Longbourn

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?