Contributed By: Sara Whitaker
Longbourn is Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice from the viewpoint of Sarah, the Bennet family housemaid. While Elizabeth Bennet may not notice her stained hem after walking accross the fields to Netherfield, Sarah certianly does as she is the one who has to get up at four in the morning to do the laundry. This is not a sequel to Pride and Prejudice but a wonderful stand-alone story of the servants and how their lives and loves are played out in the servant’s hall. It is also revealing look at the practical side of daily life in the early 1800s where staff, knowing their place, worked an 18-hour day, every day.
