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.

Well done, excellent read or listen, bravo

Would you listen to Longbourn again? Why?

I have listened to it twice and intend to keep it for a good long time. It is written in the manner that feel as though you are looking out through the eyes of the main character. There are points that refer back to Pride and Prejudice, but only as references that enhance to the story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Well written, believable situations and characters, can only leave you with wanting more of the same. Unfortunately, many of them have the consistency of wet toilet paper.

What about Emma Fielding’s performance did you like?

The scenes described, the feelings of the characters are what you would imagine if you were in that situation, very easy to insert yourself, watching it all unfold as you were invisible.

Who was the most memorable character of Longbourn and why?

Nothing, very easy evperience

Any additional comments?

I look forward to more of the same from Ms Baker

Nice period piece but a little predictable

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, especially if they like Jane Austin style books. This one seemed to have all of the elements except the major betrayal of the protagonist.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The headmistress; because she is torn between feeling and disciplining. She understands the conundrum of being too easy and being too hard...

Which scene was your favorite?

The scene when Sarah sneaks into the new houseboys backpack.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No- it wasn't that engaging.