ladynovella 's review for:

Longbourn by Jo Baker

1.0

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Look, I really did try. I blame the marketing proclaiming this as "Pride and Prejudice" meets "Downton Abbey" (both of which I quite enjoy). But do you know what those two works of fiction have that this book doesn't? Interesting characters. Compelling plot lines. A narrative that I actually WANT to continue reading without the desire to jab a rusty spork in my eye. One hundred pages into "Longbourn" and I could not bring myself to care about anyone that I wasn't already familiar with. Good grief - Elizabeth Bennet's mudstained petticoats had more personality than whatsherface that's supposed to be the main character of this novel. I kept waiting for someone to do something of note, but it never happened - just endless whining about laundry and bread and chamber pots (evidently, the author never read the book "Everyone Poops" in grade school and as such, this novel treats the fact that people in the 18th century had normal bodily functions like it's some great scientific discovery. Next you're going to tell me that sex wasn't discovered until 1965). So yeah - not enamored with this at all. If you love pretentious and elitist literary crap, then you'll have a field day with this one. As for me - I'll stick with Austen's original masterpiece, thank you.