What Ho Wee Readers, I hope you haven’t felt too abandoned – but never fear because now I have returned. Yes, I am aware I could have made that a rhyme, but I consciously chose not to, so let’s all just be grown ups and move past it. I’m eager to get started to talking about some of my favourite books – so let us all take a big breath and dive in.

Longbourn

Well, considering the topic of last month’s blog series it’s rather fitting that I start this one with a book that at its core is basically fanfiction itself. Don’t believe me, well walk with me to this cliff edge for just a moment. Think of it – a story featuring the characters of another author, primary focus on a minor character in the original novel – you can count on one hand the number of times Sarah’s name actually appears in the original text – and by doing so it throws the actions of our main characters into far harsher light than they were originally. Oh my dear wee reader, Longbourne isn’t just fanfiction, it’s my favourite kind of fanfiction – a deconstruction fic. Now does this make it any less of a great work of fiction? No, of course not, who would ever think that? But face it people … the only reason it’s not a great piece of fanfiction is because the copyright’s ended. Ooh … I can already hear those pitchforks being sharpened as I speak.

“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 below stairs 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.”

– description on Goodreads

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