Longbourn

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Volume 1

Volume 2, Chapters 1-9

Volume 2, Chapters 10-14

Volume 3, Chapters 1-8

Volume 3, Chapters 9-20

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Background

Literary Context: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813 and written by Jane Austen, is considered a classic work of English literature. The novel is a romance and a comedy of manners, an examination of the behavior of a small group of people who are, or consider themselves to be, members of upper-class society. Austen examines, with subtle satire, the concerns of the upper-middle or gentry class of England, considering how manners, mores, and cultural realities like the legal status of women affect relationships, especially love and marriage.

The plot centers on the fortunes of the Bennet family, including five daughters, who live on a small estate in rural England. While subplots include Jane’s romance with a new neighbor, Mr. Bingley, and Lydia’s eloping with a feckless military officer, Wickham, the main plot follows the attraction between Elizabeth Bennet, or Lizzy, and a wealthy landowner, Mr. Darcy, who first spurns her, then is spurned by her, and then wins Lizzy’s hand. As suggested by the title First Impressions, under which Austen first tried to publish the work, and the eventual title Pride and Prejudice, the novel’s main theme explores the consequences of misleading judgments and the eventual humbling of both leads. Austen presents a narrative in which Mr. Darcy falls in love with a woman he considers his inferior in status but a match for him in intelligence and discernment, thus complicating notions of equality. The housekeeper in the Bennet house is named Mrs. Hill, but the servants are not characters in Pride and Prejudice; they are invisible to the family so long as they are doing their work.

Historical Context: England at the Turn of the 19th Century

The world of Pride and Prejudice reflects the 1790s, when Austen first composed the novel. Though the Industrial Revolution was underway, particularly in the cloth industry, England was still a primarily rural, agricultural country. Most farms belonged to larger estates and were leased by tenants; many landowners also had home farms, and the gentry and upper class relied largely on rent and profit from their land for income. Those who were in trades or professions—such as attorneys like Mr. Gardiner, an uncle to the Bennet girls—were considered middle-class, though many aspired to gentlemen’s status by purchasing landed estates. Clergymen occupied a middle ground, as they were employed and paid salaries but were usually born into the genteel or upper classes.

London, in 1801, held one million people. Estimates suggest one-eighth of the population was employed in domestic service. Servants and farm laborers were often mobile, moving about to find work. The country was emerging from an agricultural depression and benefited economically from increasing trade, even though it had lost control of the lucrative American colonies in the Revolutionary War.

Jo Baker’s Longbourn is set around 1813, the time of the novel’s publication. This allows Baker the historical background of the Napoleonic Wars, starting in 1803, which Britain fought against France. England first went to war with France in 1793 to check the ambitions of the French Revolution, which the British government was afraid would spread radical ideals. The conclusion of the novel takes place after 1815, when the war was over and there was less urgent concern on the part of the army about locating and punishing deserters. England outlawed the slave trade in 1807 but did not abolish enslavement in its colonies until 1833.