Longbourn by Jo Baker
- Method of Obtaining: I purchased my copy.
- Published by: Knopf
- Release Date: 10.08.2013
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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.
I’m not really a fan of books that spin off of classics – with the exception of a few notable works. I loved Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys for the alternate viewpoint it brought and the way it didn’t really touch on the main storyline and themes of Jane Eyre. Instead, it played with the untold story and, as a result, left the bulk of Jane Eyre untouched… except now the reader has seen Mr. Rochester through the eyes of another woman. The same with Budge Wilson’s Before Green Gables, a story that touches on the earlier years of Anne Shirley’s (Anne of Green Gables) life before the Cuthberts, before beautiful Prince Edward Island, before her story began. But Wilson introduces us, again, to the untold story. The story of Anne’s parents and the wee years of Anne’s life and explains why it shaped Anne the way it did. She wasn’t always the red-headed imagination-filled kindred spirit that we have always known. And Longbourn follows along those same lines – touching briefly on the traditions, but only in a way to offer a different viewpoint. She doesn’t play with the romance or the character of the Bennet girls, instead, she takes seemingly trivial things that Jane Austen mentions in her classic book and Baker expands on them. And that is why, out of all of the Pride and Prejudice spin-offs written, if you were to pick just one to read, this would be it.
I’ve tried reading a few of those spin-offs and I always walked away frustrated and annoyed. How dare those authors try to put words in Jane or Elizabeth’s mouths; how dare they besmirch the character of Darcy or make Wickham to be something he isn’t. Baker doesn’t presume to know those characters as well as Austen did; rather, Baker presumes to know the characters behind the scenes. The maids, the housekeeper/cook, the stable man. These are given front and center stage and the little things they do to keep the story running smoothly are finally given the recognition they desserve.
Imagine Elizabeth walking to Netherfield to sit beside her sick sister Jane. We all love the thought of Miss Bingley’s disdain as she looks at the mud-soaked hem of Elizabeth’s petticoat and we praise Elizabeth’s lack of conformity to societal norms. We cheer her on – you walk Elizabeth! You put color in those cheeks and put family before fashion. But how often to we stop to think that the petticoat was pristine when Elizabeth put it on and, sure enough, it’s bound to be pristine again. Then, we never consider that Elizabeth has to pay for the choices that she’s made. It’s not Elizabeth’s hands who will be rubbed raw as she scrubs away the stains in order to bring the garment back to a state that is close to the original as possible. No, it’s the maid’s job to do this, and Jo Baker gives life to that maid by giving her a name (Sarah) and a story.
I remember talking about Pride and Prejudice in various book clubs and in university courses. We always would talk about how Austen wrote to show us a side that was not quite the uppercrust of society but not the slums either. She wrote a story that spoke of the themes of love and life and family and she poked some fun as well at the rules and the strictures binding young women at the time. But there is a decided lack of historical reference in her books. Why were the militia present? What war was happening? Where was Bingley and Darcy’s money from? Who did all the work of putting that food on the table for Mr. Collins to admire, or helped the girls doll up for the upcoming balls and dances?
Longbourn is a beautiful example of a book that incorporates both intimate history in the form of household running with broader history. She touches on racial tensions, romance, war, the brutal treatment of soldiers and the brutal treatment soldiers inflicted on the people of the other side of the war. Through the story of Longbourn, Pride and Prejudice becomes a story that is less about the little pieces of daily life and more about a broader picture of historical significance. Were the Bennet girls that coddled that all they could think about was uniforms and balls? Even Elizabeth, our heroine, never questions Darcy’s money or Jane, the sweet-hearted girl, never considers just where Bingley’s family may have come from. And what about America? Do the girls never think of that new and unusual place across the ocean? Sarah does, that’s certain.
I highly, highly recommend Longbourn as a book club read, as a companion to Pride and Prejudice, and especially for those who enjoy dramas like Downton Abbey or Upstairs/Downstairs. I am extremely pleased to see that books of this quality are being written to complement the classics and I cannot wait to see what Jo Baker does next.
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