Longbourn

Longbourn is a 2013 novel by the British author Jo Baker. It gives an alternative view of the events in Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice, telling the story from the perspective of the servants at Longbourn, the Bennet family home. It was published by Doubleday in the UK and by Knopf in the US. It has been translated into twenty-one languages, was shortlisted for the IBW Book Award and is due to be made into a film, adapted by Angela Workman and Jessica Swale and directed by Sharon Maguire. Inspiration The novel was in part inspired by the fact that Baker's ancestors had been in service. In an interview with Petra Mayer, Baker says, "I found something in the existing text that niggled me, that felt unresolved, and wanted to explore it further." She states that she feels this novel falls into the same category as Jean Rhys's response to Jane Eyre and Tom Stoppard's response to Hamlet. In addition to her inspiration, Baker discusses the character of Mr Bennet: she believes that TV and film adaptations have made him a "cozier" character than in Austen's novel. Baker feels that she has upheld Austen's Mr Bennet by making him "partial and very jaded" in Longbourn. Plot Sarah is a young woman of marrying age. Orphaned, she came to work for the Bennet family with whom she still resides along with the other servants including the married Mr and Mrs Hill and the much younger Polly. Because of the Peninsular War, manservants are scarce. However, Mrs Hill is able to employ James Smith, a handsome but mysterious man whom Sarah is initially intrigued by. However, Sarah's attentions are quickly caught by a manservant at Netherfield Hall, a handsome black man who later reveals he is a former slave named Ptolemy Bingley. Because of the relationship between the Bingleys and the Bennets, Ptolemy often comes to Netherfield and has the opportunity to talk to Sarah who is intrigued by him. On the night of the Netherfield ball Sarah is tasked with staying up all night to receive the family when they come home. She gets drunk and makes her way to Netherfield where she runs into Ptolemy and the two share a drunken kiss. Shortly after he reveals that the entire Bingley family is returning to London. Sarah decides to join him, running away in the night, but James follows her and begs her to at least write a letter in advance so that she will not be socially ruined. Sarah kisses James in order to have a point of comparison with Ptolemy.