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    Villette
    Ebook687 pages11 hours

    Villette

    By Charlotte Bronte

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    About this ebook

    Lucy Snowe travels to the fictional city of Villette to teach at an all-girls school where she is unwillingly pulled into both adventure and romance.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSovereign
    Release dateSep 15, 2012
    ISBN9781909438798
    Author

    Charlotte Bronte

    Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sister authors. Her novels are considered masterpieces of English literature – the most famous of which is Jane Eyre.

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    Reviews for Villette

    4/5

    1,497 ratings67 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I found it a rather slow read. Parts were in untranslated French, which I couldn't understand. Other than going off to Vilette Lucy was very passive. She just watched what was going on around her. Because she held so much back it was hard to care about her. Her romance with M. Paul seemed jarring. Suddenly once he is leaving she loves him. Up till than it didn't seem like she even really liked him and he wasn't very likeable.
    • 5/5
      I can't express how wonderful this book is. Villette shows great insight into human nature, and the narrator's perspective of other characters was fascinating.
    • 4/5
      This radio dramatization of Villette is good, but not great. The writing does a good job of compressing the novel to fit into the format, and the acting is fine, but I found the direction/production a bit off-putting and at times even a bit confusing. So I rate this four and a half stars for the story, three and a half for the production, for an overall four stars.
    • 3/5
      Villette tells the story of an English girl (young woman) who finds work a a teacher in France. Unfortunately, I don't think Villette has aged as well as other books from this time period. Lucy is not a very sympathetic main character; she can be quite whiny. I think that is actually my main problem with the book: a lot of things are very repetitive, as well as a bit predictable. I didn't hate the book, but I wouldn't really recommend spending time on it.
    • 4/5
      Villette is the semi autobiographical story of Lucy Snowe, a young woman of 23 who travels to Villette, a fictional town but modeled after Brussels, Belgium, where the author and her sister did travel for teaching positions. Ms Snowe does not know French, travels alone and is fortunate to find a position as a teacher in a boarding school because she speaks English. While traveling she befriends a young, shallow woman by the name of Ginevra Fanshawe, reunites with her Godmother and her son and becomes friends with M. Paul Carlos David Emanuel. She also runs into a former acquaintance named Polly, a serious young woman of high virtue. This is a Gothic romance and there are spectres of a nun and love that is met with adversity. Themes include the clash of protestantism and catholicism and gender roles and isolation.
      This is the author's third novel, the first being Jane Eyre. The first is probably a better story in scope but this novel is enjoyable, the protagonist has many admirable characteristics and the men in the book are generally of good qualities. This novel was criticized at the time for not being suitably feminine in portraying Lucy Snowe, therefore I think the author was successful in getting her social commentary on the life of single women in Victorian England heard.
    • 2/5
      After a copy appeared on my shelves (I'm sure without specific intent on my part), I decided to read Villette as part of the '1001 Project'. Mostly I don't regret the often seemingly interminable effort, but it was rarely enjoyable.Charlotte Bronte and her sisters were masters of melodrama. Villette is a clear example. Haworth in Yorkshire (where the Brontes spent many of their formative years) is a bleak and uninspiring place, so it's no surprise that the girls turned out to be sociopathic and self-absorbed. This is apparent in the pages of Villette, which is reportedly thinly-veiled autobiography.The narrator is sullen, passive, taciturn and uninteresting. The only thing more unlikely than Lucy Snowe falling for the pompous and emotionally unstable M. Paul Emanuel is that he should fall for her. In fact, none of the characters we encounter are in any way endearing. Perhaps Dr John has noble qualities, but his obsession with the flaky and manipulative Ginevra Fanshawe (surely one of the most blatantly contrived names in English literature) is reprehensible and unforgiveable.However, the novel is rescued from total derision by the rich and sparkling language: "On summer mornings I used to rise early, to enjoy them alone; on summer evenings, to linger solitary, to keep tryst with the rising moon, or taste one kiss of the evening breeze, or fancy rather than feel the freshness of dew descending", or "I held in my hand a morsel of real solid joy : not a dream, not an image of the brain, not one of those shadowy chances imagination pictures, and on which humanity starves but cannot live". It is rare delights such as these that make the book worth persevering with. Almost.
    • 2/5
      This is the second CB book I've read (the first was Jane Eyre several years ago) and I'm sorry to say that I still have not discovered why the Bronte sisters are so popular. The protagonist of VILLETTE, Lucy Snowe, lacked personality, an almost pathetic observer, not participant, of her world. I realize that this is probably what CB was going for, but I've never understood why protagonists/narrators have to sound like they have nothing that redeems them in the eyes of readers. The plot moves at a snail-like pace and gets a bit predictable and/or sensational at times. I think CB fans will probably like this one, as it does contain her usual odd-but-fascinating characters, in-depth character analyses, and splashes of the supernatural/gothic, but I'm sad to say that this wasn't for me.
    • 5/5
      You feel you are actually in this school. And all that repressed feeling...... An all-time favourite.
    • 3/5
      Similar in some ways to [Jane Eyre:], a young girl finds herself alone in the world and in need of an occupation. She takes all she has and travels to France and there finds work in a school. She is the narrator and the only one who can interpret the actions and feelings of the other characters in the book. She is perhaps a bit too introspective for my taste. There are two men who feature in her life, an old friend and son of her godmother, and the professor associated with the school where she teaches. After many ups and downs and long searching for love, or even a place to call home, she finally finds happiness (maybe, because it is left a little to the imagination) with the professor. I had a hard time really getting into this story. I liked [Jane Eyre:] much better.
    • 5/5
      A surprising novel, since it starts out frustratingly slow. But it soon develops into a fine psychological novel with gothic themes thrown in for extra measure. The novel's heroine, Lucy Snowe, is an orphan sent to the care of her kindly godmother, but soon must make it out into the world on her own. With marriage not an option for someone of her class and background, she resigns herself to a life of dutiful work as a teacher, and sets off abroad for the fictional place of Labassecoeur to secure work. There, she is an outsider; far from home, speaking English where the townspeople all speak French, and given a position teaching spoiled rich girls, a rigid Protestant among Catholics. One of the instructors in charge at the school, Monsieur Paul, takes an interest in Lucy, and the two embark on a rocky friendship that blossoms in a hesitant romantic interest.A curious recurrance in the novel are the many coincidences that happen, often involving characters from the past. These people are initially concealed by the author under a different name until she chooses to reveal all to us. This can either be tolerated by the reader, or it will exasperate.But an interesting effect of the somewhat-reliable narrator is that the motif compliments the novel's interesting psychological evaluation of Lucy. We see her cling to her ideals of Protestantism and Englishness, while succumbing on a few occaisions to an intense emotional breakdown from her isolation, and even has a few ghost sightings! We see her lie to herself about her unrequited schoolgirl crush on a doctor, and struggle with her beliefs that love and marriage is not meant for women like her. Taken into her mind, we can sympathize with Lucy and also perceive things that she herself does not realize. We see her jealousy, her passion, her anguish in isolation and how it eventually leads to her breakdown.While without the thundering romance of "Jane Eyre," this novel retains the fierceness of love that slowly builds up to the end's climax. There is sweetness in the reservations between Lucy and Paul, even their jealousies become endearing. I reread this book several times, and still enjoy reading their scenes together. Sadly, "Villette" falls in the shadow if its more famous kin, "Jane Eyre," but should be read by any Bronte fan, who will recognize parts similar to Anne's "Agnes Grey" and Charlotte's "The Professor."
    • 4/5
      This was an excellent read and it was extremely useful to have the references and background information. I read it alongside the BBC adaptation which was an equally excellent adaptation. Set in 1853 with Lucy Snow as the central character we follow her life and learn of her passion, her love and life. So often the prose propelled me to re-read and savour a section time and again as we gained further insights into the character. I loved the reflective writing as we read of how Lucy muses "I shall share no man's or woman's life in this world, as you understand sharing. I think I have one friend of my own, but am not sure; and till I am sure, I live solitary." "But solitude is sadness." "Yes; it is sadness. Life, however, has worse than that. Deeper than melancholy, lies heartbreak."In many ways I felt she was a lady way ahead of her times - along with the setting in both France and Belgium and the education theme this was always going to be a pleasure for me. I was not disappointed and thoroughly recommend this wonderful work.
    • 3/5
      30. Villette, Charlotte Bronte Villette is a lengthy novel told by the duplicitous first person narrator, Lucy Snowe, about her life as an English governess in the faux Belgian city of Villette.What I Liked: Charlotte Bronte is truly writes beautifully, and the language in this book is delightful for its own sake. I also like the atmosphere created by the tension of the dark, almost gothic elements threatening the light. Even though Lucy Snowe's cagey, enigmatic narrative technique often drove me a little crazy, I did like how there was a lot that went unsaid in this novel. I also liked the proto-feminist statements and stance of the book.What I Didn't Like: This book drove me crazy. One problem is that it was simply too long--many times I found myself screaming inside "just get on with it!" Huge sections of the book were about Lucy Snowe judging other people, or being judged. Then I found myself screaming "stop being so damn judgmental and just get on with your lives!" And, as in Jane Eyre, there is a tremendous amount of surveillance going on--everyone is constantly watching the other and trying to control other's behaviors through surveillance. It's interesting how this combines with Lucy Snowe's layers of concealment (which actually makes me think it's an element of the novel that perhaps I like--at least it would make an interesting essay topic. But, yea!, I don't have to write an essay on Villette.) But I digress . . .And as in Jane Eyre, some of the plot developments were just too convenient (although, unlike Jane Eyre, they weren't as unintentionally comical). Although I get that Lucy Snowe is intentionally concealing facts in order to tell HER story, I think most readers would have liked more information about her past and how she came to be in this situation.Many readers today are annoyed or even offended by Bronte's commentary on Catholicism, and I can see their point. It's not just Catholics who she looks down on though, but anyone non-English. It seems very dated, although I suppose this book could be viewed as cultural commentary on its time and place.If so, then it gives me yet another reason to be happy that I didn't live back then--Lucy Snowe's was a most unpleasant world.Rating: Part of me sees this book as a 4 star read, but another really loud voice says 2. So I guess that makes it 3 stars out of 5.Recommended for: This one is only for the true-blue 19th century fiction fan.
    • 3/5
      Interesting to read the author's semi-autobiographical novel. The main character, Lucy Snowe, was such a contrast with Jane Eyre, her more famous literary "sister"; the latter was more straightforward and open. Lucy was closed-in, emotionally stunted, and self-critical, introverted. In the days where women were appendages of their fathers and husbands, Lucy made her own way herself and a life for herself as a schoolteacher in the town of Villette [i.e., Brussels]. The story follows her life at Mme. Beck's school, where she teaches English, and follows her relationships with others and several romances. The novel tries to be a gothic, with the appearance of a spectral nun, who had connection with Mme. Beck's. The book is uneven; some parts drag and others fly by.
    • 5/5
      "A sorrowful indifference to existence often pressed on me.",, 21 July 2015This review is from: Villette (Penguin English Library) (Paperback)Other reviews have delineated the storyline; I'm just going to say that I was within five pages of the end (on tenterhooks as to whether our narrator, Lucy Snowe, ends up with a happy or unutterably wretched life) when I had to stop and go to work. I was yearning to come home and find out all the time I was there - must be the proof of a compelling work.Charlotte Bronte's descriptions of utter loneliness and inner, but hidden, torment make for a moving and unforgettable read. While her friends remark on "steady little Lucy...so quietly pleased, so little moved yet so content", she observes "little knew they the rack of pain which had driven Lucy almost into fever, and brought her out, guideless and reckless, urged and drugged to the brink of frenzy".Superb read.
    • 5/5
      Look, Virginia Woolf called it Bronte's "finest novel," and George Eliot wrote, "Villette! Villette! Have you read it? It is a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost preternatural in its power." I couldn't agree more. I was fortunate enough to read this is the first English course to get me hooked on 19th century British lit. We read it over the course of three weeks, so it was the perfect way to digest the magic of Villette. A love story that is far more rewarding than that of Jane Eyre (which I also love), Villette is a treasure.

    • 4/5
      Very passionate and convincing, this work is rather powerful and sad. I could relate very well to the heroine.
    • 4/5
      Lucy Snowe, adrift in her life in England, travels abroad to French-speaking Villette, and becomes a teacher.On wiki it says that in Villette (apparently modelled on Brussels), Lucy is "drawn into adventure and romance." This is an exaggeration. For pretty much all of its 650 pages, basically nothing happens in this book. Lucy has some fairly minor ups and downs in her life, and is associated with people who are in much the same boat. It is a report on a mundane life among mundane lives. And yet it's excellent. It's incredibly well observed psychologically, and really creeps up on you. In a largely eventless, plotless book, with an entirely passive narrator, the little ups and downs become as all consuming for the reader as they do for the character. I'm not quite sure how Bronte pulls it off, but it's very good indeed. Loved the ending, too.One note - some of the dialogue is in French, so if (like me), you don't speak it, get an edition (unlike me) that translates it.
    • 3/5
      While I enjoyed this book, it was a slow read. Unless you are fluent in French, I would recommend getting a version with translations in the footnotes. I read the first 150 pages without any and almost quit reading because I felt like I missed too much. Once I found a copy with translations, the book got vastly better.
    • 5/5
      Wow. Just - wow. Jane will always be my favorite, but this really was amazing. I'll have to take some time to digest before I write more.
    • 3/5
      I wasn't sure about this - there didn't seem to be much of a story although it was an abridged audio. The relationship between Lucy Snowe and the other professor seemed to come from nowhere and like other readers the end seemed odd. I love Jane Eyre but this was disappointing.
    • 4/5
      I'm a big fan of Jane Eyre, so this had been on my to-read list for a while. I'm glad I finally picked it up! I liked that the novel dwells so much on friendships; ultimately the romantic elements feel a bit like an afterthought or obligation, which is fairly unique for a novel from this time period.
    • 5/5
      Why on God's green earth does everyone read Jane Eyre, but not this amazing book?
    • 5/5
      In the introduction to the second volume of Absolute Sandman, Alisa Kwitney defined literature as fiction that creates "a taste for itself" rather than simply satisfying pre-existing tastes.

      I read this definition the same night I finished Vilette, and thought it went a great way to explaining why I love nineteenth-century novels. Written just as the novel was getting into stride, novels like Vilette are bold and striking because their authors knew they were being more ambitious than much of what had come before, and knew better than to play by the rules. The Brontës are of course a special case because they were women literally playing by their own rules, writing fiction under male pseudonyms for a readership which they had little in common with. (Of course at the same time the Brontës are writing gothic novels, but they are no more true gothic novels than Sandman is a true horror comic.)

      So Vilette is long, winding, off-kilter, and occasionally a little sentimental or frustrating, but it's a fantastic novel, because it's so rich and convinced of its own richness. It's a theological inquiry into the meaning of suffering, an off-kilter courtship novel, an orphan story, a psychological study, a gothic novel rich with symbolism, a story about gender roles, a story about nationality and faith, and a postmodern novel with an unreliable narrator who dares to end her tale with a piece of metafiction which led to infuriated letters from Brontë's close friends.

      There is only one Vilette. It's a really good novel. Go read it!

      ETA: Oh, I did mean to put in a little note about how you will spend like a fifth of the novel flipping to the end to read French-to-English translations. I have some basic French reading comprehension but there is an awful lot of it in this one. I suppose it simply was very common to speak French in 1850s England. It's a common assumption of many novels of the period but Vilette is one of the most extreme. I bet it would be really enjoyable for confident bilinguals, though, because she does such an interesting job code-switching.
    • 4/5
      The plot was full of rather unbelievable chance encounters and re-encounters, descriptions were slow to very slow. The character studies, however, were flawless.
    • 4/5
      I had two problems with this book: the untranslated sections of French, to which the remnants of my schoolgirl French were often unequal, and the anti-Catholic propaganda. Other than that, I enjoyed the book.
    • 1/5
      I read where Villette was the ruination of Charlotte Bronte's career, and I can understand why. The story is disjointed and difficult to follow. It may be difficult to follow if one doesn't know a great deal of conversational French, as entire paragraphs are written in French. Just terrible!
    • 4/5
      Although Charlotte Bronte is probably best known for Jane Eyre, many people consider Villette her best novel. There are definitely many similarities between the two. The heroine of Villette, Lucy Snowe is also an orphan who shares many of Jane's best qualities - she's intelligent, fiercely independent, and self-reliant. After having a difficult life in England, Lucy goes to France to teach English at a boarding school. Much of the plot of the novel is similar to Jane Eyre - Lucy works hard against difficult odds, she falls in love with a man, who comes across as rude and difficult initially, and there is even a bit of gothic mystery with possible sightings of the ghost of a murdered nun. But how these two stories differ is in the inner characteristics of the two heroines. Jane is upbeat and confident and never shows a bit of weakness. Whereas Lucy, on the exterior, appears strong and confident, much of the story revolves around Lucy's sadness and depression over her life - being alone and unloved. The writing of the story is excellent and the mood is often dark and somber. Although this may be a better written novel, the mood is often morose and dark.
    • 4/5
      It was slow for a good majority of the book, but I sped through the last few chapters. I encourage those that take this on to consider the times this is written in and how singular Lucy is to be as strong and independent, self aware yet un-self conscious, brave yet not reckless. She is truly a heroine for the ages.
    • 4/5
      "I seemed to hold two lives--the life of thought, and that of
      reality; and, provided the former was nourished with a sufficiency of the strange necromantic joys of fancy, the privileges of the latter might remain limited to daily bread, hourly work, and a roof of shelter."

      Lucy Snowe, the book's heroine, has good common sense, steely nerves, and no protectors. Not for her the life of a hothouse bloom--she must fend for herself from an early age. After the old woman she works for dies, she is left homeless and without friends or family to appeal to. On the spur of the moment, she uses her small store of money to go to France, and thence, to the little town of Villete. There, she lucks into a position at a ladies' school, headed by the strong-minded, light-moraled Madame Beck.

      Bronte made a few choices I didn't like. The book is almost comically prejudiced against "popery" and foreigners in general. The paragraphs upon paragraphs of how beautiful, dainty, feminine, delicate-minded, etc. Polly is seem to last forever. And I'm still not sure why Bronte had a nun haunt the school (I assumed it was to A) remind us of Lucy's repression and B)fufill the need for sensationalism), only to explain away the spectre in a sneering aside.

      My problems aside, I enjoyed this book, mostly because I loved Lucy so much. She has a low opinion of herself but very high standards, is often depressed but refuses to be ruled by her darker moments, is thoughtful and introverted. She is, overall, someone I'd very much like to meet. Although she has a keen eye and recognizes her friends' faults, she never turns her incisive wit against them. After her love becomes disillusioned with his own paramour, the frivolous, selfish Ginevra, he denounces her to Lucy. Lucy points out that as mercenary as Ginevra is (as she warned him at the start), she has many good qualities; Lucy doesn't sound like a goody-two-shoes, but rather a girl defending her friend. Bronte writes friendships very well and very realistically, and these relationships, along with Lucy's engaging personality, are the backbone of the novel.
    • 5/5
      "These struggles with the natural character, the strong native bent of the heart, may seem futile and fruitless, but in the end they do good. They tend, however slightly, to give the actions, the conduct, that turn which Reason approves, and which Feeling, perhaps, too often opposes: they certainly make a difference in the general tenor of a life, and enable it to be better regulated, more equable, quieter on the surface; and it is on the surface only the common gaze will fall. As to what lies below, leave that with God. Man, your equal, weak as you, and not fit to be your judge, may be shut out thence: take it to your Maker--show him the secrets of the spirit He gave--ask him how you are to bear the pains He has appointed--kneel in His presence, and pray with faith for light in darkness, for strength in piteous weakness, for patience in extreme need. Certainly at some hour, though perhaps not your hour, the waiting water will stir; in some shape, though perhaps not the shape you dreamed, which your heart loved, and for which it bled, the healing herald will descend. The cripple and the blind, and the dumb, and the possessed, will be led to bathe. Herald, come quickly! Thousands lie round the pool, weeping and despairing, to see it, through slow years, stagnant. Long are 'times' of Heaven: the orbits of angel messengers seem wide to mortal vision; they may en-ring ages: the cycle of one departure and return may clasp unnumbered generations; and dust, kindling to brief suffering life, and, through pain, passing back to dust, may meanwhile perish out of memory again, and yet again. To how many maimed and mourning millions is the first and sole angel visitant, him easterns call Azrael."Language and philosophy like this is what is to be found in this magnificent novel.I found myself cussing a lot when reading this book. It got more severe as the story snowballed to it's end. Not in a bad way, you know, but it had me hook, line, and sinker, and my feelings were toyed with and yo-yo-ed about. I didn't want this book to end. You should read it, savor it slowly, translate the French as you go, it's worth it.Lucy Snowe is maddening. She is her own worst enemy. If there were ever a case for manifesting one's destiny - well, I mean, was she cursed, or did she curse herself? "the negation of severe suffering was the nearest approach to happiness I expected to know." I think there's an argument for both. It occurred to me that for all her haranguing of Ginevra, really they weren't so different. They both craved attention and security and approbation, but in dissimilar ways. At least Ginevra was open about it, while Lucy was utterly incapable of making her needs known. It reminded me that it takes one to know one. Lucy, at one point (though briefly), begins to think of Ginevra as a heroine, and I think I understand why. She would never have traded places with her but I think she must have secretly admired her gumption. Lucy doesn't hate people. She has an utterly astounding font of patience and keen observation and forbearance for people behaving badly, people behaving thoughtlessly, people's innate self-centeredness, she forgives it all. She's no picnic either. She'd like to be that disinterested, unfeeling, untouchable, cold observer of people. But lordy, she's so far from effecting that and she only half knows it.