Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First, let me confess my own prejudice: I'm opposed to the current tidal wave of books that rejigger beloved texts. From "March" (based on "Little Women" from the POV of the father) to "The Wide Sargasso Sea" (based on "Jane Eyre" from the POV of the mad wife), I'm totally over it. Why? Because I find the authors lazy. They reap benefits they haven't earned, piggybacking on emotions and effects the original author had to sweat to produce. Also, they insert modern attitudes that distort the intentions of the original work. And publishers encourage it because, as with producing the sequel to a Hollywood blockbuster, they can hitch a ride with a proven winner. (BTW, I don't have the same opinion about fan fiction, which to me is based on love, not commerce.) So you may wonder why, feeling this way, I read "Longbourn." Well, Jane Austen's six books can only be re-read so often. And to its credit, "Longbourn" begins auspiciously. Jo Baker's descriptive powers are exceptional. The reader feels the stiff chapped hands, the dreary cold dawns, the endless, backbreaking drudgery endured by our protagonist Sarah, and by Mrs. Hill and little Polly. There is careful, fascinating detail here about domestic life in the early 19th century. To me, it's the strongest element of the book, and the first third shines because of it. But for me, the plotting falls apart. Two equally unlikely love interests appear for Sarah, one an ex-slave, the other a mysterious stable boy. Sarah falls predictably in love with one of them, and then loses him due to the evil machinations of the wicked Wickham. The book veers into heart-rending depictions of war in Spain (again, very well-written, yet strangely out of place in this narrative.) Finally, Sarah's behavior has improbably shifted from 19th century submissive to 21st century radical; she acts in ways that would have been unlikely for a working class woman in the 1950s, let alone 1810. By the time the ending rolls around, the characters feel manipulated and off-balance. By the way, and somewhat ironically, the connection to the narrative of "Pride and Prejudice" is pretty tenuous. It wasn't necessary and I don't know why Jo Baker didn't simply write her own novel from the ground up. Or rather, I do. And as I said before, I'm getting pretty tired of it.