Longbourn

By: Jo Baker

Narrated by: Emma Fielding

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 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.

©2013 Jo Baker (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A triumph: a splendid tribute to Austen’s original but, more importantly, a joy in its own right, a novel that contrives both to provoke the intellect and, ultimately, to stop the heart.... Like Austen, Baker has written an intoxicating love story but, also like Austen, the pleasure of her novel lies in its wit and fierce intelligence.... Baker not only creates a richly imagined story of her own but recasts Austen’s novel in a startlingly fresh light.... Inspired." (The Guardian)

Very well done

What made the experience of listening to Longbourn the most enjoyable?

I thought this book might be superficial but it is anything but. Very convincing detail and well thought out.

Fantastic!

I highly recommend this book. Incredibly well written. Makes Jane Austin's characters pale in comparison to the servants.

feels a bit like fan fiction

it just feels like someone wanted to get even with the original characters. it has some merits but the descriptions feel to filmic, like the author is imaging a camera shot sometimes, and those shots don't get across very well.

Is there any society more tedious than the English

Sorry, maybe it's too much Downton Abbey or Jane Austin, but the lifestyle, values, priorities of the English of this era become so tedious and frivolous that I looked forward to the end of this well narrated book.

Beautiful

An amazing story so beautifully written and told. I enjoyed every moment. Perfection! And highly recommended.

A novel for our times.

Jane Austen wrote for the regency period. There was no need for her to mention shoe roses, the regents knew what they were. I normally do not buy Austen rip offs, but in the hands of authors such as P.D. James, A Death at Pemberley or Jo Baker who’s historical novels are spot on accurate, read, Google, read, google, I knew that I was in safe hands.
To all the haters out there try the book again.
Did you love Upstairs Downstairs? Downton Abbey?
This is a genre, a story told from the perspective of the help. If female hygiene grossed you out, where do you think the expression came from? And, the wealthy didn’t do their laundry, my grand mother didn’t, and she didn’t run to Walgreens for supplies either.
My favorite part is without even mentioning Caroline Bingley, Jo Baker puts her in her place. Beautiful.
If this is a spoiler sorry.
Jane Austen is not sacrosanct. She is public domain.
Emma Fielding is a delightful. Beautiful narrative.

One of the Very Best!

Every aspect of this audiobook is clever, well written, wonderful to listen to and with its deep and vivid descriptions, easy to get lost in and travel through.

Bad ending

Well written engaging book, but bad ending. Without giving the ending away it was too brief and highly improbable. So disappointed. Cannot recommend on the ending alone. It’s like the author ran out of ink.

Better than Pride and Prejudice!

I'm making an audacious claim here. I know that it's virtually literary heresy to compare Jane Austen's work unfavorably with a modern novel. However . . .

I came to Longbourn expecting a rehashing of Austen's plot from the perspective of those "downstairs." I was very quickly disabused of this belief. Baker has created her own world of characters living their own independent lives which, now and then, intersect with that of the Bennet family.

Baker must have extensively researched the lives of all types of people during this era, and her ability of portray characters of various lifestyles during this period is uncanny. I am a voracious reader of biographies, diaries and journals, historical fiction and non-fiction. But it is rare that a historical novel, and more an audiobook, gave me the feeling that I was dipping into the lives of real people. Her prose, ad Fielding's interpretation of it, draws the reader in without feeling that it is contrived or overly poetic.

Don't get me wrong. I respect Jane Austen's work. I recognize her ability to reproduce the society in which she lived using fiction. And as an adult (I first read her books as a "teeny-bopper" in the very early 1970's) the consequences that come to foolish young girls are something I can relate to. More, as a parent, understand the turmoil when families are stretched between concern for the welfare of their daughters and fear of losing their social standing.

But all in all, I prefer Baker's re-interpretation of Austen's novel. If it can be called that. Because, when it comes down to brass tacks, Longbourn is only slightly related to Pride and Prejudice. It's much, much better.



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Pleasantly surprised

Where does Longbourn rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This may become one of my favorite books. I loved hearing about the other side of Pride & Prejudice.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved seeing the life at Longbourn from downstairs. I didn't think it would be so enjoyable and it was almost like it had been written by Jane Austen herself, with a few minor tweaks. Those tweaks could be easily overlooked as the story and the characters were so compelling. I loved Sarah the protagonist. In many ways she reminded me of another Austen character Anne Elliot of Persuasion.

Which character – as performed by Emma Fielding – was your favorite?

Definitely Sarah. The story is primarily Sarah's story and she does a wonderful job.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Sarah and Mrs. Hill told each other their secrets.

Any additional comments?

I would happily recommend this to any lover of Jane Austen's books.