While the Bennet girls were giggling
over officers and practicing piano, the servants of the household were boiling
laundry and emptying chamberpots. “Longbourn” is Jo Baker’s look at what life
is like downstairs at the Bennet residence during the same period of time as “Pride
and Prejudice.” While Elizabeth Bennet drags her petticoats through the mud to
visit Jane at Netherfield, it is housemaid Sarah who, with cracked and bleeding
hands, has to launder them. And when new shoe-roses are wanted for the upcoming
ball, it is Sarah who is sent out in the rain to get them, only to suffer
miserably from the cold she caught while on her errand.
Elderly Mr. and Mrs. Hill, and young
Polly, a maid, and the sum total of help who run the household of the Bennets
and their five marriageable daughters. That is, until the mysterious James
Smith is hired on as a coachman and all around laborer.
Readers expecting the gentle
narrative of the original book should expect some graphic scenes of war,
flogging, and expletives that the genteel folks would not use. A fresh look at
the Austen classic, and one I thoroughly enjoyed.
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