So after my hiatus from the blog to deal with the end of school craziness, it took me longer to get back into the "swing of things" than I thought. Essentially, I hadn't read in a while, so I wanted to read some first, so I would have some new books to review!
Which has now happened. Here I am, even though it is not Thursday, to do a quick book review for Longbourn, by Jo Baker.
Longbourn is the name of the location for much of Pride and Prejudice, which, if you know me at all, you know I adore. (I often say it's my favourite novel; I reviewed all of the Austen's last year here, and talked about my experience at a Pride and Prejudice ball here.)
Longbourn addresses the servants of the Bennet family, namely, the housemaid, Sarah.
"If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them."
It has a lot of the elements and style that makes Pride and Prejudice lovely, including the pacing of the romance, and a female character who is determined to stay true to her ideal self. I love the concept of this book, this attempt to look at such a beloved, well-known story from another angle. I loved the references to the sisters, the family, the events, and how it all swirled in the background of focus of the story - Sarah and the other servants in the Bennet household.
With the exception of the flashback chapters, the author includes quotations from Pride and Prejudice at the beginning of each chapter. I liked this nod, but sometimes felt that the chosen quotation didn't fit the storyline very well.
Some of the characters from Pride and Prejudice were looked at in a new perspective or in more depth. The servants are particularly fond of Mr. Collins, for example, and definitely not fond of Mr. Wickham. I enjoyed some elements of this, again, and not others so much.
That seemed to be my overall response to this book. Some things I liked, some I didn't. And often it was all in the same elements and aspects.
Another example: I liked how well-researched the book is. It really, really is. But then, in the same sense, it sometimes felt like the author relied so much on those details it actually detracted from the story. Sometimes the character development, tension and conflict was lost in descriptions of mud and chamber pots. It is a tough line to walk, I'm sure, in revealing information (and so much of it is very interesting!) without getting lost in that information. Provide detail but not too much. The author doesn't seem to be able to walk that line, unfortunately.
There is also something... irksome... about the contemplations that Sarah and Mrs. Hill have. I don't think Sarah, a teenage orphan, would be able to look at her world through the lens she does, pointing out how unfair her workload is. She would accept things as they were. And Mrs. Hill, the housekeeper, has a realization at the end that was just too far for me, about how poor or not poor did not matter, since they all ended the same way. I do not doubt that Sarah could have accepted her life, even questioned her difficulties, but I do doubt that she would be mentally questioning the society's realities.
“Perhaps it was not an easy thing, to be so entirely happy. Perhaps it was actually quite a fearful state to live in--the knowledge that one had achieved a complete success.”
I did enjoy the "after" details about the characters from Pride and Prejudice. We got to see Elizabeth settled into Pemberley. Mary coming into her own, the Bennet parents settling into an almost-empty-nest.
“It is not, perhaps, an entirely happy situation after all, to gain something that has been wanted for long years. The object itself, once achieved, is often found not to be exactly as anticipated. It has perhaps become tired and worn over time; flaws that had been overlooked for years are now all too apparent. One finds one does not know what to do with it at all.”
Sarah as a protagonist was fine. I liked her well enough, and James, as her love interest, was also fine. I liked his story, though I guessed it long before it was revealed. But their relationship just seemed... okay. It started with some tension, which was good, and then escalated in a flurry, which, again, was good enough, but then... I didn't find the chemistry there to support the depth of feeling and attachment. Even for the time period, there was something lacking in the romantic elements.
So, this book was a solid "okay". There wasn't anything particularly problematic with it, and it was lovely and rich in writing style. But neither was there anything particularly amazing about it. I enjoy historical fiction and have been swept into those worlds before; this was simply not one of those times.
Do you enjoy historical fiction? How about different variations or "spin-offs" of time-tested favourites?
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