Almost everyone in the book club finished this months book and everyone enjoyed it. It was found to be especially interesting if you had read Pride & Prejudice first, but it was felt that it lost nothing if you hadn't already read P&P.
We felt that the character of Sarah was maybe a little bit forward for the time period, especially compared to the female characters in P&P. She certainly seemed to like the attentions of the various men within the book hence her attraction to Ptolemy as he made a great deal of her compared to James. We did wonder why the author chose the name Ptolemy given the historical connotations of that name.
We liked the fact that we got to see some of the elements of the war that Jane Austen shied away from in her books. We felt that although there were soldiers in the original book they were simply there as male interest. In Longbourn we saw more of the realities of war such as the floggings etc. Maybe this was because in Austen's time it was frowned on to put that kind of thing into books?
Seeing the main characters from P&P through the eyes of Sarah and the other staff was very interesting. Elizabeth came across as a lot weaker and seemed to be a bit whiney. Mr Bennett seemed to have a whole other life in this book compared to P&P, which was not exactly to everyone's taste as it did give him a very different character. Mr Darcy seemed even more like himself as he had the power to ignore people so strongly that they vanished! Wickham definitely shows his true colours in this book, he doesn't seem to have any other side than the one he shows in P&P.
We enjoyed the ending of the book, it all felt that it ended as it should.
Overall we gave the book 7.5 out of 10.
We felt that the character of Sarah was maybe a little bit forward for the time period, especially compared to the female characters in P&P. She certainly seemed to like the attentions of the various men within the book hence her attraction to Ptolemy as he made a great deal of her compared to James. We did wonder why the author chose the name Ptolemy given the historical connotations of that name.
We liked the fact that we got to see some of the elements of the war that Jane Austen shied away from in her books. We felt that although there were soldiers in the original book they were simply there as male interest. In Longbourn we saw more of the realities of war such as the floggings etc. Maybe this was because in Austen's time it was frowned on to put that kind of thing into books?
Seeing the main characters from P&P through the eyes of Sarah and the other staff was very interesting. Elizabeth came across as a lot weaker and seemed to be a bit whiney. Mr Bennett seemed to have a whole other life in this book compared to P&P, which was not exactly to everyone's taste as it did give him a very different character. Mr Darcy seemed even more like himself as he had the power to ignore people so strongly that they vanished! Wickham definitely shows his true colours in this book, he doesn't seem to have any other side than the one he shows in P&P.
We enjoyed the ending of the book, it all felt that it ended as it should.
Overall we gave the book 7.5 out of 10.
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