Longbourn

Longbourn (2013) is a work of fiction by British author Jo Baker, who is the author of several other novels of historical fiction and literary suspense. Longbourn depicts what life is like for the servants of the Bennet family of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice. While events in Austen’s book frame this novel, Longbourn follows the inner lives of housemaid Sarah, housekeeper Mrs. Hill, and James Smith, the mysterious footman who shows up looking for work. While paying homage to a beloved classic, Longbourn examines Austen’s themes of romantic love, marriage, and personal satisfaction while depicting the material lives of those of a social “lower class,” investigating the broader social and political setting of Austen’s period, as well as the freedoms, dreams, and luxuries of those in the lower classes. The book was selected by The New York Times as a notable book for the year.

This guide uses the Knopf edition, released in the US in 2013.

Content Warning: The source text and guide include suicidal ideation, sexual assault of children during war, and sexual grooming of a minor.

Plot Summary

Sarah, who was orphaned young, is a housemaid at Longbourn, serving the Bennet family—Mr. Bennet, his wife, and their five daughters. Sarah’s life is an unending cycle of demanding and exhausting toil, and she longs to see more of the world.

She is initially hopeful when James, an unknown young man, joins the household as a footman, but he is polite but not friendly. Sarah looks out for Polly, a second, younger housemaid, and feels grateful to the hard-working and morally upright cook-housekeeper, Mrs. Hill, who has given Sarah a home. She feels the harsh contrast between herself, with her calloused hands and faded dresses, and the soft, lovely Bennet girls, especially when the elder Bennet daughters, Jane and Elizabeth, give Sarah a dress.

The Bennet household is hopeful when a new gentleman, Mr. Bingley, lets the nearby estate of Netherfield and hosts a ball. James is nervous because of the militia, stationed in nearby Meryton. Sarah is increasingly fascinated by Ptolemy Bingley, a footman in the Bingley household. He is biracial, the child of the elder Mr. Bingley and one of the women he enslaved on his plantation in the Caribbean. Ptolemy woos Sarah with talk of London and his dreams of opening a tobacco shop there, and after she kisses him the night of the Netherfield ball, Sarah wants to follow him back to London. James, however, asks her to stay, and Sarah consents, recognizing their deepening attraction.

The servants are kept busy when Mr. Bennet’s younger cousin and heir, the clergyman Mr. Collins, comes to stay with the intention of offering marriage to one of the Bennet girls. Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collins, but when he soon becomes engaged to Charlotte Lucas, a friend of the family, Mrs. Hill retains hope that her household will remain secure when Mr. Collins inherits Longbourn. The night of their wedding, Sarah visits James in his room in the stable loft, and they begin a passionate affair. Sarah’s work is more bearable now that she has James.

Elizabeth visits the new Mrs. Collins in Kent, bringing Sarah with her. London is noisy and overwhelming, and in Kent, Sarah hardly escapes the house. When Mr. Darcy comes to call on Elizabeth, he sweeps past Sarah as if she is invisible. She is glad to return to Longbourn and James. The Bennets throw a farewell party for the militia, and James catches a young officer, Wickham, in the dining parlor trying to kiss young Polly. Wickham suspects James deserted the army, and he threatens to report him. James packs and leaves that night. He doesn’t have the opportunity to bid goodbye to Sarah. When the servants realize James is gone, Sarah is devastated, as is Mrs. Hill.

The novel flashes back to 1788; Margaret, a maid at Longbourn, is pregnant with Mr. Bennet’s illegitimate child. She gives the child to a farm family, the Smiths, to raise. Margaret marries the butler, Mr. Hill, and Mr. Bennet marries the daughter of his attorney. Mrs. Hill helps Mrs. Bennet through her pregnancies, including the birth of a stillborn son. When Mrs. Hill hears that James enlisted in the army, she asks Mr. Bennet to bring him home, but Mr. Bennet refuses.

James is sent to Lisbon as a gunner, fighting the French army in Portugal, then Spain. He is sickened by war and the behavior of his sergeant, Pye. When James is separated from his regiment by accident, he is flogged upon returning, accused of deserting. When the English are defeated in battle and evacuate, James kills Pye and tries to drown himself. He is rescued by a Spanish widow and her widowed daughter, who hope he will stay and take the place of their lost son, husband, and father. James signs onto service aboard a ship and sails to Brazil, then Antigua, then England. In Lancaster, he leaves his crew and walks to Herefordshire, deciding he wants the quiet, verdant peace of the English countryside, and offers himself for service in the Bennet household.

In the present, Lydia runs away with Wickham. Mrs. Hill resents that Mr. Bennet exerts himself to locate Lydia when he has done nothing to search for his natural son. Lydia is located and married, then Jane is engaged to Mr. Bingley, and then Elizabeth is engaged to Mr. Darcy, and she asks Sarah to come with her to Pemberley. Sarah is awed by the size of the house, and while her work as lady’s maid to Mrs. Darcy is much lighter, she feels more trapped than ever. When the Bingleys visit, Ptolemy tells Sarah that he saw James working in a road crew up north. Though the Darcys protest, Sarah leaves their service and sets out to find James. When she locates him, they begin a life of work and travel together, eventually returning to Longbourn with their baby.