archangelbelletti 's review for:

Longbourn by Jo Baker

1.0

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I read this book right after Pride and Prejudice. The author takes way too many liberties with the original plot and characters, to the extent that the story seems completely different. Sure, the main plot points are mentioned. But there's no realism in how much certain events (weddings, Lydia's elopement, etc) would impact not only the Bennets but their servants too. The genteel characters, originally created by Austen, are completely different from P&P. Wickham is always described as so well-mannered, charming, and beautiful. Yet here he's insufferable, likes to get in the way of servants, takes advantage even of the little girl who serves in Longbourn alongside the protagonist taking a completely out-of-the-blue pedophile turn. He WAS a bad person in P&P, but he was after money, not little girls. That was a disgusting scene to read. Elizabeth, from the witty and brutally honest strong character she was, now is uptight, occasionally mean, and feels weirdly under a huge pressure to please Darcy after becoming his wife. While she and Darcy almost made a power couple (strong, intelligent bride and powerful, pragmatic husband) in P&P, in this book they lost all their fashion and are just a couple of rich, snobby people. This is a detail, but I cannot understand why in the world Darcy, with his shy personality especially towards strangers would come up inches away from Sarah's face to intimidate her. This is simply NOT Darcy. There's no other way to say this. Mrs Bennet... a pain. A constant whining. But that's the whole book, and this is my next point, so let's not hurry. I loved Mr Bennet's personality in P&P, I loved his sarcastic, witty lines, I loved the fact that he was the one person in the family to suffer and grieve when Lydia got married. Here most of the time he's an asshole who gloats on making Mrs Hill suffer. Completely out of character. Also... what even was that "Mary is in love with Collins" arc? Started and finished in a couple of pages, just a scene scribbled down and forgotten. Same thing happens so often. This book seemed more so like a collection of flash fanfiction all glued together.

There's a general tendency to making it so that the servants are always used and abused, even beyond what was normal at the time. There are instances in P&P where the Bennets talk to servants and treat them like human beings whose opinions they care about. Here the servants are playthings that want to see cry. Insufferable, and, at least as far as P&P is involved, not accurate.

The main plot line feels extremely forced and fake, with Sarah falling for Ptolemy, then changing her mind out of nothing, then falling for James just as easily. They don't bond over anything, they don't have anything in common, they just HAVE to be in love because the author said so.

I did not like a single character in this book. The original characters lost all their appeal, the servants are simply whining all the time, even about things that people wouldn't logically whine about at the time. Their life portrayed as a constant misery was just not only extremely boring but also so disrespectful towards all the people who have had happy lives EVEN in poverty, even in servitude, even in difficulties. The fact that they were working for noble people didn't mean that they woke up hating their lives and went to sleep crying. People LIVED during that time, too, and while exploiting prople is obviously wrong, reducing servants to little miserable beings is just bad.

In general, the prose also sounded weird. There were adjectives juxtaposed with nouns that you wouldn't normally pair them with. Certain sentences such as "She took a step back to put distance between her and his flesh" that baffled me with how uselessly disgusting a normal action was depicted (for context, Sarah here is taking a step back after Darcy comes up too close to her face. "His flesh" is literally just... him. His person).

Overall, wish I hadn't had to read this.