REVIEW: Longbourn

A short review of Longbourn by Jo Baker.

This is not the first Jane Austen spin-off novel I have read, and it certainly won’t be the last. But was it my favorite so far? Not even close. 

Longbourn, as you may have assumed, is set at the Bennet family home, where we spend much of Pride & Prejudice. But instead of being focused on our favorite Austen characters, we look into the world behind them, the world of the servants, barely mentioned in the original novel. The story centers around Sarah, the maidservant, her life and her dreams, and her romance with the mysterious new manservant.

I appreciated the idea of this book, namely that servants during this time had their own lives, loves, and troubles. I enjoyed being able to read about them, which are so rarely written about. But I was ultimately disappointed. I first found the story to be entirely implausible. The character of Sarah was unrealistic, and the romance between her and James Smith even more unconvincing. The likelihood of servants in that time being as highly educated as Sarah was incredibly slim, which made me raise my eyebrows at her character for most of the novel. Her romance with James was entirely far-fetched: they barely spoke and then suddenly ended up together. There is only so much ‘love at first sight’ I will believe when it comes to novels, and this storyline did not work for me. Even more shocking was when they slept together for months with no one discovering their tryst or her getting pregnant. 

I also did not appreciate the ending (spoiler alert). Maybe I am in the minority, but I do not find an ending where the woman sacrifices everything good she has ‘in the name of love’ very romantic. While Baker managed to wrap everything up in a pretty bow on the last few pages of the novel, I already had a sour taste in my mouth about the main relationship. 

I appreciate the fact that it is extremely difficult to write a high quality book set in Austen’s world. I tend to run these books through a test of sorts: would the book hold up on its own if it were simply set in the same time as Austen rather than within Austen’s world? With Longbourn I am ultimately not sure. I think the story might work on its own, but with such excellent historical servant romances already existing, I wonder whether this book would have been successful without the connection to Austen.

On the whole, given its initial promise, this was a disappointing attempt at bringing us back to the world of Longbourn. If you are missing that world, you might just  reread Pride & Prejudice or watch Downton Abbey and save yourself the time.

2 stars

Where to buy online: https://www.waterstones.com/book/longbourn/jo-baker/9780552779517

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