Another reviewer said, "Ms. Baker seems to be determined to inform the reader that life in that time--at least for the servant class--was dark, dingy, dangerous, unpleasant, painful--and there is nothing wrong with that, but if some information is enlightening, then too much becomes a blunt object concussing the reader." I think that sums up my feelings on Longbourn pretty well. 
 I get what Jo Baker was trying to do, and it's an interesting idea. But I think it was too much, trying so hard to prove a point that the story got lost along the way. I didn't feel like I wound up with a very solid idea of who the characters were or how they changed and grew as the story progressed, and so I just didn't really care about them. 
 Aside from that, the POV switches were enough to make my head spin. Maybe it was because I was listening to the audiobook, but I had to spend way too much time figuring out whose perspective it was, or wandering into a scene and then getting lost when I realized the POV wasn't the character I thought it was anymore. I think if you're going to change perspective, especially that frequently, there needs to be a solid reason behind it, and I just didn't see that here. Almost all of the information that we learned through the alternate POV chapters were things we could have learned other ways. 
 I'm giving it 3 stars because Baker's writing is, for the most part, very good - if she'd just relax into it a little more.