5/25/2023 0 Comments Longbourn by jo baker![]() ![]() These servants are merely hinted at in Pride and Prejudice, but here they take centre stage. "If Elizabeth had the washing of her own petticoats," thinks Sarah, the heroine of Jo Baker's impressively assured debut novel, Longbourn, "she'd most likely be a sight more careful with them." Sarah is one of the two housemaids who work at Longbourn, the Bennets' family home, under the guidance of the housekeeper Mrs Hill. ![]() I never thought about who would have to wash the clothes afterwards. The image of those dirty stockings and that muddy petticoat always made Elizabeth seem like a real person to me. Mr Bingley's sisters are horrified ("I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep in mud," says one), but Darcy (and the reader) is charmed by her vivacity and lack of affectation. Having tramped across the muddy fields, she arrives "with weary ankles, dirty stockings and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise". One of my favourites scenes in Pride and Prejudice has always been Elizabeth Bennet's arrival at Netherfield to see her sick sister Jane. ![]()
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