Bingo Square: Backlog This is far from the book that has been in my to read pile longest when all my books are taken into consideration but purely from a Kindle/e-book perspective, it’s definitely towards the bottom of my library. Since I am so late to the game, I doubt there is much I can add to the discussion at this point. The novel is yet another spin on Pride and Prejudice, but instead of telling the story of Elizabeth and Darcy with a new […]
It is a truth, universally ignored, that servants have lives too.
Longbourn joins the very long tradition of auxiliary Jane Austen novels and deftly moves to the head of the class. It is one of the better ones out there and MILES ahead of the hated “Austen novel tittle and monster X” books. The book succeeds largely because Jo Baker doesn’t try to ape Austen’s style or plot, she simply tells a story around the narrative structure of Pride and Prejudice. It’s a fairly compelling book that details the lives of the servants to the Bennet family. […]
Run away with us for the summer, let’s go upstate
I spent most of this book being bummed out or annoyed at the protagonist (which hasn’t happened since Atonement YEARS AGO, yaaaaaay), so I was as surprised as anyone when the ending snuck up on me and brought some tears with it, even though SURPRISE EMOTIONS ARE THE WORST. Longbourn focuses on those who were left out of Pride & Prejudice, the servants. Mr. and Mrs. Hill are in charge (well, Mrs. Hill is in charge), and Sarah and Polly, the two housemaids, round out […]
Life belowstairs
Quick question – can you give me the name of a single servant in Pride and Prejudice? Despite having read the book multiple times and having just finished the audio version of the book, I certainly couldn’t do it. Jo Baker has taken the classic novel and imagined what the lives of the invisible people behind the scenes, so to speak. The very essential people who wash the mud out of Lizzie’s petticoats after she’s been walking the countryside, who help the Bennett sisters do […]