I've finished The Longbourn Letters by Rose Servitova, and I enjoyed it hugely. What I liked about it most was its consistency in language. Servitova imitates Jane Austen's style in Pride and Prejudice, (and even quotes Austen at points) and her mimicry is inspired and consistent, her style beautiful and engaging. I found her fidelity to the original deeply satisfying. It's a real domestic comedy in which family members, including Mr. Collins, are quite often ridiculous, but one is which the importance of family is emphasized.
It's an epistolary novel, a form I really enjoy, and it's short (150 pages), recording an imagined correspondence between Mr. Bennet, the witty, sarcastic, judgmental and impatient father of the five Bennet girls, and Mr. Collins, his cousin and a socially inept clergyman with a comically pretentious manner.
In the novel, Pride and Prejudice, at a family dinner, Mr. Bennett mocks Mr. Collins' obsequious manner by offering a seemingly innocent question: does Mr. Collins offer "delicate compliments" to Lady Catherine de Bourgh spontaneously or does he practice? Mr. Collins answers the question frankly, by offering that that he does practice in his spare time. Mr. Bennet never betrays through his expression his mockery; the family struggles to hide their mirth.
This gentle mockery is continued in the correspondence of Mr. Collins and Mr. Bennet, and the tone is perfectly maintained throughout. What surprises me is the gradual evolution of a sincere friendship of the two men, despite their great differences (and despite a brief dust-up between the two when Mr. Bennet, urged by Mr. Collins to oppose a match between Kitty and Colonel Fitzwilliam, does absolutely nothing; here, again, Mr. Bennet's talent for doing absolutely nothing seems to benefit his family).
The portrait of Mr. Bennet is entirely consistent with that of Pride and Prejudice, but here is fleshed out so that we learn Mr. Bennet loves a joke, especially those of a practical nature, loves science, and while occasionally sharply satirical in his comments about his wife and daughters, generally accepts them. In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennet is often wry, witty and playful, but is obviously impatient with his wife and daughters. Servitova's exploration of Mr. Bennet's character presents him as a man who enjoys science, etc., softening some of Mr. Bennet's hard edges. The Longbourn Letters suggests the being the only male in a family with six women has the potential to be quite lonely.
Fans of Pride and Prejudice will, I think, enjoy learning the eventual fate of the entire family and I imagine that must have been fun for Servitova to imagine these stories and share them.This is my favorite "Jane Austen spin-off" novel that I've ever read. For fans of Pride and Prejudice, I imagine that it will be pure entertainment.
