Event Recap: Jo Baker and Pride&Prejudice

When I first heard of the event being held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox featuring Jo Baker, her new book Longbourn, and a viewing of the movie Pride & Prejudice, I really wanted to go. I read Longbourn and enjoyed it (read my review here) and thought it'd be great to see her speak. Not to mention rewatching the 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice at the TIFF theatres would be quite the experience. However, I decided that I couldn't quite justify spending money on getting to Toronto (I'm about an hour and a half drive away) as well as buying a ticket so I decided I wouldn't go. Then, on the Friday before the event (which was on a Monday), International Festival of Authors (IFOA) held a super easy Twitter contest - retweet their tweet about the event and you might win two tickets. Retweet I did and I won! Author, fellow blogger, and friend, Lydia, was my lucky plus one and we had a great evening!

Eleanor Wachtel, host of TIFF's Books on Film and the CBC's Writers and Company, was the event's host. She chatted with Jo for a few minutes before the viewing started. They talked a little bit about her book and the Joe Wright P&P adaptation. Jo mentioned a few of her favourite parts in the movie: the massive pig walking through the house and a scene where the servant girl is walking up the stairs, singing. I remembered the pig from previous viewings of the movie but I couldn't recall the girl. And that's really kind of the point of Longbourn - taking notice of how things were done in Pride and Prejudice. I, along with others I'm sure, made a mental note to pay attention to the scenes involving the servants. Then it was time for the show!

While watching the movie (which I own and have seen multiple times), I was reminded of the feeling I got when I went to film screenings for class when I was in university. Even though a lot of the movies we watched were easily accessible (and therefore able to be watched on our own time...like in our PJs on a Sunday morning), the profs always encouraged us to go to the screenings for the experience. Everyone goes to the screening for the same purpose and you have a much better experience by watching it with others and feeding off their emotions and reactions (laughter, gasps, and so on). I had the same feeling as I watched Pride & Prejudice at this event. You'd think it would be the same feeling as when you go to the local theatre to watch the latest movie but it's not. There's a different sort of camaraderie or companionship when you're watching a movie and trying to get a little more out of it than the simple entertainment factor.

After the movie was over, Eleanor and Jo sat down to talk some more. I found Jo's inspiration for Longbourn to be really interesting. How many of you Austen readers remember the line "...the very shoe-roses for Netherfield were got by proxy" from Pride and Prejudice? (Hopefully that quote is right...found it on the oh so trustworthy internet!) It didn't stick out for me when I read the book many years ago but it did for Jo. She wanted to know who "proxy" was and her novel evolved from there. Another comment that stuck out for me was when Eleanor also asked Jo about the way she portrayed Mr. Collins. Jo said that a lot of people have caught on that she's quite sympathetic to poor Mr. Collins and said "We all have awkward moments...his is just lasting a lifetime." I think that's such a good way to describe it and I must say that I will watch and read about Mr. Collins in a new light after reading Longbourn and hearing Jo talk about him.

Once Eleanor and Jo wrapped up their discussion and the Q&A portion was complete, it was time to line up to get my copy of Longbourn signed. It was already quite late so Lydia headed home (after making sure I knew how to get back to Union on my own...I'm so glad she looks out for little ol' me when I go to the big city!) I was lucky and didn't have to wait too long to get my book signed. Jo is absolutely lovely. The accent helps! I said that I liked that this retelling of Pride and Prejudice was so different and that it made me think about the characters and story in a new way, through the eyes of the servants. Jo said that she thinks of her book as a "subquel", not quite a sequel but close. Interesting way to think of it, isn't it?

Even though I had to rush to the train station in the rain and got home close to 1:00am, I am so glad I went to this event. Jo Baker was lovely (there really is no other word!) and Eleanor Wachtel asked some great questions. I learned a lot about how Jo came to write Longbourn, got to enjoy Pride & Prejudice on the big screen with a great friend, and had another book signed. What more could an Austen fan ask for?

Review: Longbourn

It's not often that I'll allow myself to have (ridiculously) high expectations of a novel. When you start to expect something out of this world amazing you start to set yourself up for disappointment. I think I set the bar too high for the newly released Longbourn. I expected too much from it. Jo Baker's novel was well researched and well written but I found myself feeling only so-so about it as I read it. I enjoyed it as a whole but trying to put my finger on what it was that let me down has been a frustrating process.

Here's the synopsis:

Pride and Prejudice was only half the story.If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.
In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended. 
Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own. 

I do think Pride and Prejudice fans would enjoy this. It's important to note, however, that the Bennets and friends are not the focus of the story. At least, not in the way that a lot of people might want or expect. The novel isn't set up like Downton Abbey where you see both upstairs and downstairs equally. You only see the upstairs when the servants are there. Everything is seen through their eyes - and I liked that. We didn't need anything more because we (at least the people who have read Pride and Prejudice) already know the upstairs story. This allows us to fill in some blanks. I liked that we got to see how the servants would have interpreted the goings on at Longbourn. Did you ever think about how their lives would be changed once Mr. Bennet died and Mr. Collins took over? I never did. This novel makes you realize how dependant the servants are on their masters. I liked knowing what was happening inside while James was waiting outside Netherfield in the carriage or upstairs when Lady Catherine de Bourgh sweeps into Longbourn. These parts of the novel, the adding to Pride and Prejudice, were nice to read about - if slow in the beginning.

I had some trouble determining exactly how much time was passing, especially near the end of the book. It was easy when the servants' story was running parallel to the story we know so well from Pride and Prejudice but once it went beyond the end of that novel I was quickly confused. I want to give examples to show why it was confusing but that would give away the end of the story! It's really not a huge deal but it distracted me a bit from the conclusion and bothered me enough that it warrants a mention.

I liked Sarah, the maid who serves as the heroine in this story. I was invested in her life and wanted only the best for her. There were other little stories that captured my interest as well but were slow to get really moving. We don't know exactly what James' story is, nor do we know why Mrs. Hill seems agitated (though I correctly guessed the reason). Even though I was glad to find out exactly what had happened to James, I wish there had not been 40+ pages devoted to explaining it. The history of it was mildly interesting but I didn't feel like it did anything for the story as a whole. The Mrs. Hill storyline contained a big shocker that Austen fans will probably really dislike because it paints a beloved Pride and Prejudice character in a less than favourable light.

Overall, I liked Longbourn. I didn't love it as I expected to and that probably coloured my review. I think if you go into reading Jo Baker's novel expecting a good story with an interesting and new take on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice you'll probably quite enjoy it. There may be things that irk you, as they did for me, but it is a good story. I just think it could have been a little better. For those of you who have read this one already, what did you think of it? I'd love to hear what you thought!

*A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher, Random House of Canada, in exchange for an honest review.*