• Pride and Prejudice was only half the story • If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them. In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the … scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.
Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.
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This book takes you behind the scenes of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice – what life was really like for the hired help. Eye-Opening. Unfortunately for them life didn’t revolve around dances, buying clothes and searching for a rich husband. This was the age of no electricity or indoor plumbing, when the paid help basically were on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I will never read another Jane Austen novel again without appreciating what it was really like to live at that time.
I read this book several years ago and it stuck with me. If you love anything Jane Austen, you really must read this. It’s much better than any of the (many) spinoffs of Pride and Prejudice, with a fresh perspective on the events of that story as they unfolded and completely new and different elements to engage you. The characters are wonderful and it’s very interesting to see the main characters from the original novel treated more as side characters. A very topsy-turvy take that I really loved!
Such an intelligent spin on Austen — what was life like behind the scenes in her time, in her books? This account is both lyrical and gritty, practical and imaginative. Baker takes the Bennets’ world and makes it all her own.
I wasn’t sure what to think of this story in the beginning, but I couldn’t put it down. I kept reading, intrigued, curious, fascinated….but also worried. How would it turn out? Jane Austen’s lovely heroines have a HEA, but what about those servants that worked at Longbourn? What kind of fate would Jo Baker give them? I ended the book, reading fast, just to know. It’s not a light story, but the prose is beautiful and the ending is one of hope and a glimmer of happiness.
This is one of the best books I’ve ever read and I have recommended it to many. I don’t want to say it’s another take on Pride and Prejudice because there’s so many of those but it IS a take on it, without being too involved in the family’s story. It’s about the servants story and is uncompromising and realistic about their plight and their times. It focuses on one maid in particular and really shows the options people of her rank and social standing had. And there are unexpected options as well as you will see. And it is NOT about a maid marrying “up”. It’s much more real than that and touches on so many social issues. It’s a great read by a very good writer. Good in every way.
Great book for anyone missing Downton Abbey or fans of Jane Austen. Today is a great day to try it since I see there’s a BookBub promotion today, February 5th, 2019 for this wonderful book!
Beautifully written. You’ll never think of laundry in the same way again.
Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
Surprise! This book was nothing like I had expected.
I had read excerpts of “Longbourn” before and I thought the story was the life of a young maid at Longbourn. And indeed, the beginning is just that: the unending drudgery needed by the servants to allow a “fine family” to not work at all. In fact, in addition to the fine family doing no work for themselves, they create as much extra work for the servants as they possibly can. Sarah regularly mutters to herself about Elizabeth’s muddy petticoats … if only that girl had to do her own laundry!
A young footman enters service at the Bennet home. Who is he? Where is his home? What is his previous life?
When the footman leaves the Bennet employ, the story flashes back to his life: His birth, his time in the Army.
Few veterans cherish a romantic remembrance of war. War is awful. ~ John McCain
The author stops recounting the daily drudge of a household and begins with the daily drudge of the common soldier – a brutal, violent story.
Elizabeth is not painted with a tolerant brush (talk about a “superior sister”) and comes across as unfeeling to the servants. Especially she fails to understand Sarah when Sarah gives her notice at Pemberley. Darcy, also, has no understanding of why a maid would want to leave a situation where she is treated well and given everything she needs.
The writing is well-done, proofread and compelling. I am giving it a high rating for quality but … it isn’t a story I will ever read again.
In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. ~ José Narosky
I am waiting for a sequel! Doesn’t that say it all!
Had such potential!
Fun to read a story about the back ground characters! Adds a new dimension to reading Austin.
I really enjoyed this book and the twists and turns throughout. Towards the end I loved one quote Sarah says to James about “Never doing this again.” She was a woman who knew what she wanted and went to great lengths to get there. Great addition to another very well known book, which in itself is a huge accomplishment. To be able to write a book as a takeoff with characters from the book Pride and Prejudice and to be able to keep it so similar in style, historical accuracy, and thought truly takes talent. Very well done.
Entertaining take on Austen.
Too wordy. Got bored with story before anything happened.
Particularly lovely if you know the Austen book well; this is a nice expansion of it but also could read as a standalone. Engaging.
new point of view
Great historical fiction on the side of the working class.
I love Jane Austin and this is a interesting different perspective, I liked leaning more about what it would have been like below stairs.
A very enjoyable riff on the Pride and Prejudice story.
I loved that this built upon the Pride & Prejudice story… clever. Gave 4 rather then 5 because the ending could have been much better.