Jo Baker

Pride and Prejudice was only half the story If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, shed most likely be a sight more careful with them. In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs 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. Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austens classicinto the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Warsand, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.

Sobre el cambiante telón de fondo del último siglo de la historia británica, El álbum de fotos nos relata la historia de la familia Hastings de un modo tan vívido y conmovedor como las postales y las fotografias que la abuela Amelia guardara durante toda su vida en una maleta de carton. Conoceremos primero a William, el joven obrero de una fabrica que combate en la batalla de Galipoli; a su hijo Billy, un campeon ciclista que en la Segunda Guerra Mundial toma parte en el Desembarco de Normandia montado en una bicicleta militar; a Will, su hijo lisiado, que llega a ser academico en Oxford durante los años sesenta; y por ultimo a Billie, la hija de Will, pintora de talento en el Londres actual.Mientras los nombres de todos ellos reverberan sin tregua de generacion en generacion, iremos conociendo sus pequeñas miserias, sus lealtades y traiciones a la familia o a sus vocaciones, los distintos modos de vivir la soledad de las mujeres de los soldados, la importancia de conseguir una barra de labios en plena guerra, el hambre, el exito, la superacion, el legado de las elecciones tomadas, las ocasiones perdidas y los secretos ocultos.

From the best-selling author of Longbourn, a haunting new novel of spies and artists, passion and danger, hope in the face of despair Paris, 1939. The pavement rumbles with the footfall of Nazi soldiers marching along the Champs-Elysees. A young, unknown writerSamuel Beckettrecently arrived from Ireland to make his mark, smokes one last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. Soon he will put them both in mortal danger by joining the Resistance . . . Through it all we are witness to the workings of a uniquely brilliant mind struggling to create a language that will express this shattered world. Here is a remarkable story of survival and determination, and a portrait of the extremes of human experience alchemized into one mans timeless art. From the Hardcover edition.

aris, 1939: the pavement rumbles with the footfall of marching Nazi soldiers along the Champs-Elysees. A young writer, recently arrived from Ireland to make his mark, smokes a last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. As war takes hold, he will put his own life and that of his loved ones in mortal danger by joining the Resistance...With a tale of spies and artists, deprivation, danger and passion, this is a story of life at the edges of human experience, and how one man came to translate it all into art.

From the best-selling author of Longbourn, a haunting new novel of spies and artists, passion and danger, hope in the face of despair Paris, 1939. The pavement rumbles with the footfall of Nazi soldiers marching along the Champs-Elysees. A young, unknown writerSamuel Beckettrecently arrived from Ireland to make his mark, smokes one last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. Soon he will put them both in mortal danger by joining the Resistance . . . Through it all we are witness to the workings of a uniquely brilliant mind struggling to create a language that will express this shattered world. Here is a remarkable story of survival and determination, and a portrait of the extremes of human experience alchemized into one mans timeless art. From the Hardcover edition.

When Rachel arrives in her mother´s isolated country house, she knows that packaging everything up will bring back painful memories of what she has lost. But she quickly senses that there´s something else too; a presence in the house, not quite tangible, trying to make itself known. Cuando Rachel llega a la aislada casa de campo de su madre, sabe que el proceso de empaquetarlo todo le traerá recuerdos dolorosos de lo que ha perdido. Pero rápidamente se da cuenta de que allí hay algo más: una presencia en la casa, bastante sutil, intentando darse a conocer.

¿Y si Jane Austen hubiera dado voz a los criados?Son las cuatro de la mañana en Longbourn, la casa de los Bennett en Herdfordshire. Mientras las cinco hermanas y sus padres, los famosos protagonistas de Orgullo y prejuicio, duermen placidamente, Sarah y Polly, las dos jovenes doncellas, empiezan a trabajar a las ordenes de la anciana señora Hill, la cocinera. Todos llevan años repitiendo la misma rutina, pero saben que la vida es algo mas que un simple ir y venir de trapos, cacerolas y escobas.Sarah es quien mas desea arriesgar, y su pequeño y rutinario mundo finalmente cambia el dia en que James Smith, un nuevo sirviente, llega a Longbourn arrastrando con el un pasado lleno de secretos y un futuro donde cabe la libertad. De repente, los sotanos y los aticos de la mansion cobran vida, y detras de los delantales y los uniformes descubrimos criaturas que tienen mucho que contar. Mientras las hermanas Bennett duermen... sus criados por fin hablan, y vale la pena escuchar.El estilo de Jo Baker, que respeta la escritura de Jane Austen pero tiene un caracter propio, aporta nueva luz a un clasico y lo hace con gran talento e imaginacion.

La història d'Orgull i prejudici re visitada des del punt de vista dels criats que atenen la mansió.Isi Jane Austenhaguésfetparlarelscriats?Són quarts de cinc del matí a Longbourn, la casa dels Benne