Jo Baker. (2013). Longbourn. Unabridged Books on Tape.

Jo Baker. 2013. Longbourn. Books on Tape.

Jo Baker, Longbourn. Books on Tape, 2013.

Jo Baker. Longbourn. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2013.

OverDrive Product Record

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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Baker, Jo
   • bioText: JO BAKER was born in Lancashire and educated at Oxford University and Queen's University Belfast. She is the author of The Undertow, and of 3 earlier novels published in the United Kingdom: Offcomer, The Mermaid's Child and The Telling. She lives in Lancaster.
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2013-10-08T00:00:00-04:00

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title

Longbourn

fullDescription

• Pride and Prejudice was only half the story •
 
If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.
 
In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.
Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own. 

gradeLevels

1. • value: Grade 4
2. • value: Grade 5
3. • value: Grade 6

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Miami Herald
   • content: "Masterful . . . From the same stream that fed Austen's literary imagination, Baker has drawn forth something entirely new and fresh."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Newsday
   • content: "Happily, Longbourn is no mere riff but a fully imagined rejoinder to Price and Prejudice . . . Austen would have appreciated Baker's bracing rewrite from the underdog's point of view."
3. • premium: False
   • source: O magazine
     
   • content: "If you are a Jane Austen fan with a pronounced predilection for Pride and Prejudice, you will devour Jo Baker's ingenious Longbourn as the ambrosia from the Austen gods it is . . . It's an idea that could have felt derivative or sycophantic in its execution, and yet the novel is rich, engrossing, and filled with fascinating observation . . . Dive in and you might even forget to watch Downton Abbey."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Wall Street Journal
   • content: "Intelligent and elegantly written . . . Longbourn reveals these messy backdrops [of Pride and Prejudice] while still, in fitting tribute, inventing a touching love story of its own."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Diane Johnson, New York Times Book Review
   • content: "An absorbing and moving story about the servants at Longbourn . . . Both original and charming, even gripping . . . If Charlotte Brontë had taken up the challenge of a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, she might very well have hit upon the sort of broader, more sympathetic point of view Jo Baker has derived from the servants' quarters."
6. • premium: False
   • source: USA Today
   • content: "Longbourn is a bold novel, subversive in ways that prove surprising, and brilliant on every level. This is a masterful twist on a classic . . . Much more than a frothy, Downton Abbey-like twist on Austen. This novel is moving, filled with suspense, and impressive for the sympathy with which it explores the drudgery of the servants' lives, as well as their heartaches. That said, there's plenty of Austen-worthy wit too."
7. • premium: False
   • source: The New Yorker
   • content: "Delightful . . . The achievement of Baker's reworking is that Sarah is no mere foil for Elizabeth Bennet; her notions of individual agency and the pursuit of happiness push more forcefully against the class and social strictures of her time than any character in Austen's novel. The result is a heroine whom it's impossible not to root for."
8. • premium: False
   • source: People
   • content: "A witty, richly detailed re-imagining of Pride and Prejudice . . . Fans of Austen and Downton Abbey will take particular pleasure in Longbourn, but any reader with a taste for well-researched historical fiction will delight in Baker's involving, informative tale."
9. • premium: False
   • source: The Guardian
   • content: "A triumph: a splendid tribute to Austen's original but, more importantly, a joy in its own right . . . Like Austen, Baker has written an intoxicating love story but, also like Austen, the pleasure of her novel lies in its wit and fierce intelligence . . . Baker not only creates a richly imagined story of her own but recasts Austen's novel in a startlingly fresh light . . . Inspired."
10. • premium: False
    • source: Entertainment Weekly
    • content:
      "Diehards who love Jane Austen and Downton Abbey will fan their corseted bosoms while tearing through this novel."
11. • premium: False
    • source: Kirkus Reviews (starred)
    • content: "Irresistible . . . Sequels and prequels rarely add to the original, but Baker's simple yet inspired reimagining does. It has best-seller stamped all over it."
12. • premium: False
    • source: The Daily Beast
    • content: "Longbourn is a really special book, and not only because its author writes like an angel. Its real achievement is to circumnavigate the world of Austen knock-offs and return, like Francis Drake, with a hold full of treasure . . . There are some wildly sad and romantic moments; I was sobbing by the end . . . A beautiful book." --Daily Mail (UK)
      
      "Longbourn is told with glee and great wit, and will delight diehard Austen fans."
13. • premium: False
    • source: NewYorker.com
    • content: "Inspired . . . This is a genuinely fresh perspective on the tale of the Bennet household . . . A lot of fun." --Sunday Times (UK)
      
      "An especially appealing, and timely, reworking of the classic . . . Much as Jean Rhys's reimagining of Jane Eyre through a postcolonial perspective became
14. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from August 12, 2013
      The servants of the Bennett estate manage their own set of dramas in this vivid re-imagining of Pride and Prejudice. While the marriage prospects of the Bennett girls preoccupy the family upstairs, downstairs the housekeeper Mrs. Hill has her hands full managing the staff that keeps Longbourn running smoothly: the young housemaids, Sarah and Polly; the butler, Mr. Hill; and the mysterious new footman, James Smith, who bears a secret connection to Longbourn. At the heart of the novel is a budding romance between James and orphan-turned-housemaid Sarah, whose dutiful service belies a “ferocious need for notice, an insistence that she fully be taken into account.” When an expected turn of events separates the young lovers, Sarah must contend with James’s complicated past and the never-ending demands of the Bennetts. Baker (The Mermaid’s Child) offers deeper insight into Austen’s minor characters, painting Mr. Collins in a more sympathetic light while making the fiendish Mr. Wickham even more sinister. The Militia, which only offered opportunities for flirtations in the original, here serves as a reminder of the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars. Baker takes many surprising risks in developing the relationships between the servants and the Bennetts, but the end result steers clear of gimmick and flourishes as a respectful and moving retelling. A must-read for fans of Austen, this literary tribute also stands on its own as a captivating love story. First printing of 150,000. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates.

popularity

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   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: Fiction
2. • value: Literature
3. • value: Romance
4. • value: Historical Fiction

publishDateText

10/08/2013

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shortDescription

• Pride and Prejudice was only half the story •
 
If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.
 
In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.
Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars...

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awards

1. • source: Library Journal
   • value: Best Audio Books
2. • source: AudioFile
   • value: Earphones Award

publisher

Books on Tape

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   • description: Fiction / Literary
3. • code: FIC027070
   • description: Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency