#longbourne

I've been using Cottage Living as an excuse to make Pride and Prejudice Sims and I am so pleased.

It's been about three weeks since I finished reading Longbourne by Jo Baker, but I couldn't go without writing up a short review for it. I didn't think I would like this book as much as I did – I thoroughly enjoyed it! For those unfamiliar with the premise, it is essentially the story of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, but from the servants' point of view. It's really more about the servants' lives, but details of the other Pride & Prejudice characters' lives do play a significant part in the story. The story really pulls you in and invests you into the character's lives, and the way the author writes about the characters and what they feel and go through makes them feel real and very relatable. I wouldn't say it's a light book, but it's not particularly heavy either – though there are some heavy parts. All in all, if someone's looking for a good book to end the summer with, go with this one!

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#fridayreads #Longbourne by Jo Baker. So far, so good! It's becoming the #summer #read I was craving! 📚📖 #books #bookworm #readwell

A telling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from the servants Hall, Jo Baker’s Longbourn is an intriguing new take on a well known classic. Longbourn is the home of the Bennett family and the setting of this novel. Mr and Mrs Hill, the housekeeper and butler, have helped to raise Sarah the maid who they took from the workhouse as a child. Another young servant comes to work at Longbourne and after a fraught beginning the two fall in love but it is only a matter of time before James’s dark past means he is forced to leave again. Longbourn can be easily divided into two sections, first where the lives of those above stairs rule the plot and the second, longer section which becomes a story in it’s own right. Baker deals well with keeping the upstairs characters as readers of Pride and Prejudice would expect them to be. There are also new and interesting character developments occurring such as Wickham who appears to wish to ruin James and the other maid Polly simply for the pleasure of it. However, other characters such as Mr Bennett and Mr Hill change beyond all recognition for what seems to be only to produce a twist or a shock in the reader. Jo’s prose style feels natural and she easily takes you with her to the house and grounds. She quickly establishes a warm friendliness between characters, particularly Sarah, Mrs Hill and Polly which pulls the reader in as well. These women have formed their own family downstairs and are protectively fond of each other. The relationship between Sarah and James is touching and beautifully mirrors the fraught relations between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy upstairs. Baker frequently illustrates that the temptations are just the same upstairs as down and that they are all as equally likely to succumb to them. Longbourn is full of twists and turns, some of them fairly obvious and some more inventive but it does not disappoint. It is just as good a read whether you already know the characters or not. It compliments Austen’s work and it is also a well written novel in it’s own right. On a personal note I am thrilled to see Jo getting such recognition and praise for her writing as she has been for Longbourne because she was one of my creative writing tutors at Lancaster University and a thoroughly nice and talented lady.

Wish me luck, I'll need it. 

Longbourne: The Bennet Family Home, Pride and Prejudice (via apt therapy, librarian tells all and my P&P)