Longbourn -- Jo BakerVolume One, Chapter Seven

As mentioned in my 2014 Reading Goals post, I'm trying to add more adult fiction into my diet. And, as I like to chronicle this stuff, here I am, chronicling it.

Right now, I'm (obviously) reading Jo Baker's Longbourn, which is Pride and Prejudice from the servants' perspective. 

Feel free to read along! (If you end up posting about it, let me know in the comments and I'll link up.)

Basic rundown:

After Sarah dresses the girls for a ball, Jane and Elizabeth ask her about the dances on the village green, give her pick of their old dresses, and loan her a novel. Later, she tries to express her dissatisfaction with her life to Polly, but is told to "stop moaning" so that Mrs. Hill won't catch them loafing.

Other thoughts:

• Jane is described as being "as sweet, soothing and undemanding as a baked milk-pudding, and as welcome at the end of an exhausting day". Which would make her an ideal employer, I'd think, though maybe a somewhat boring friend. Then again, when compared to the rest of her family, boring might be occasionally preferable.
• Elizabeth also comes off quite well in this chapter, warm and bright and good-humored.
• Oh! And this line—"Lyddie would give anyone anything, just for the asking."—has me quite curious about how she'll be portrayed here. Because that certainly doesn't line up with how she's come across in the past.
• As Sarah gets a hand-me-down because the girls got new dresses, one can only assume that Mrs. Hill was successful in talking Mr. Bennet into buying them.
• It's less than a full paragraph long, but the description of the village dance is GREAT. I could see and hear it all.
• When the Bennet girls leave, it's like they take the light with them, and Sarah is left feeling like she's just a shadow. Which is pretty much this entire book (so far) in a nutshell: her very existence pretty much depends on them, and her life even parallels theirs... but whereas they're meant to be seen and admired, she's meant to stay invisible and hidden.
• And finally, a major facet of Sarah's discontent: she remembers being part of a family, before she was orphaned, before she was in service, and since she was happy once upon a time, she knows what she's missing.

Index.

Comments

[MelissaM]

I enjoyed the way Baker got the Cinderella aspect, how Sarah has to struggle getting the girls ready for the ball, then has to stand and wave to the carriage as it trundles off without her. Also that scene where Sarah gets to pick her hand-me-down is tragic - she's always loved that dress ever since she started washing it. Gah! There's a similar thing that goes on about cake and how the Bennetts even finger off the cake crumbs from the plates so there isn't even that morsel for the servants.

The house also sounds horribly crowded and noisy, with Lydia and Kitty always laughing/squabbling and Mary always trying to improve her music.

[Gillian]

These posts are making me want to read this book SO badly. I might have to pick up a copy soon. I'm a history grad student, and at one point I thought about doing my research on domestic service and gender in the 18th century. I've since moved in a different direction, but maybe someday I'll go back to it!