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Villette

by Charlotte Brontë, Helen Benedict (Goodreads Author) (Afterword)

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 · rating details · 21,649 ratings · 1,403 reviews

Brontë's romantic heroine Lucy Snowe, a penniless governess attempting to begin life anew in France, is an exceptional example of a great writer transforming her life into art.

Mass Market Paperback, 489 pages

Published February 3rd 2004 by Signet Classics (first published 1853)

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Sep 19, 2012 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars--a cage, so peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star.”

When I was growing up in Kansas, my father farmed and worked long hours, and my mother worked the night shift at the hospital as a nurse's aide. Since my mother slept during the day, I had to be very quiet. I found that by be...more

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Sep 21, 2010 Tatiana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2010, 1001, nostalgia

Still 5 stars...

I loved this novel. Obsessive reader as I am, I feel simply obligated to consume all kinds of reviews and discussions after finishing a book that left me in awe and baffled. This time I even ventured into the territory of critical analyses and interpretations. Many things came up during my quest to find out what people think of the heroine of Villette and the book as a whole - that this is a novel about a woman who fights to attain her independence, that Lucy Snowe is a liar, tha...more Still 5 stars...

I loved this novel. Obsessive reader as I am, I feel simply obligated to consume all kinds of reviews and discussions after finishing a book that left me in awe and baffled. This time I even ventured into the territory of critical analyses and interpretations. Many things came up during my quest to find out what people think of the heroine of Villette and the book as a whole - that this is a novel about a woman who fights to attain her independence, that Lucy Snowe is a liar, that almost all characters in the book - M. Paul, Pauline, Ginevre, Dr John - are representations of different sides of Lucy's (possibly schizophrenic) personality, that Villette is just a more depressing rehash of Jane Eyre, some other stuff that I don't even have a mental capacity to fully understand and reproduce here.

But I am a simple person, for me Villette is a story of a woman who was severely traumatized by deaths of her family at a young age and who, being introverted by nature, under the pressure of her misfortunes closes herself to the outside world completely. Lucy's whole life purpose is to guard herself from possible heartbreaks, to create a facade of serenity and unfeeling. But the strength of her passionate nature, her vivid internal life are such that suppressing them is impossible. The entire book is Lucy's never ending struggle to keep up her walls, not to let anyone in, not to feel, not to hope, not to love, not to get attached, not to reveal her true self in its clever, opinionated, passionate, desiring, jealous, petty glory. Does the heroine attain her freedom in the end? Does she escape a prison of her self-imposed loneliness? Yes, she does, but not for long. The person who sees and loves Lucy the way she is, who helps her not only financially, but psychologically, is given and taken away. And once again, Lucy is guarded and telling us her story, never allowing herself and us to see the true extent of her despair, unhappiness, and loneliness. But even what is hinted at is heartbreaking.

I loved this novel, loved it in spite of the numerous contrived coincidences, untranslated French dialog and sparse plot. Villette is a study of a woman's complex inner world and as such it is remarkable.

However there is another (sort of voyeuristic) reason why the book affected me so much. It is claimed to be heavily autobiographical and I find myself intrigued by Charlotte Brontë. I want to know this woman. How much of the book was real? Did the extent of Charlotte's loneliness and desire to be loved matched Lucy's? Was M. Heger, her real life professor, just like M. Paul? Did he awaken her soul, played with her and then discarded her when the affair interfered with his married life? Was M. Heger's wife as manipulative as Madame Beck? Did Charlotte ever regret refusing several marriage proposals to instead pine over men utterly unattainable? Did she blame herself for her inability to be happy? Why didn't she allow Lucy her happy ending? Did she think financial security was the maximum a woman like her could ever hope for and love was impossible?

I am off to try to find at least some answers to these questions...(less)

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Jan 22, 2008 Virginia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: you-should-read-this

Lucy Snowe hates you. She's writing her story for you, you're experiencing the most intimate contact there can be between two people, and she hates you. It makes for a hard read.

Her older sister, Jane-- you remember her?-- she loved you. Most of you probably had to read her story in high school, whereas not one teacher in a thousand would touch Villette. Nor should they. High schoolers have enough rejection to cope with. Most of them were probably bored or annoyed with Jane, but you have to give...more

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Aug 23, 2007 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Bronte fans, Victorian lit fans, feminists

Shelves: fiction, brit-lit, always-on-my-mind, victorian, owned, 19th-century, grande-dames, its-the-quiet-ones

This book is better than Jane Eyre, guys. This is where Charlotte Bronte shows her real brilliance. I hovered between giving this two stars and four for about half the book because I really wasn't sure what was going on beneath the surface. But then I figured out that I was stupid and didn't see half of the things that Charlotte Bronte had done. She's brilliant. Her narrator is completely unreliable. She's a tease. She withholds. She doesn't tell us the lines we wish most to hear. She deals with...more This book is better than Jane Eyre, guys. This is where Charlotte Bronte shows her real brilliance. I hovered between giving this two stars and four for about half the book because I really wasn't sure what was going on beneath the surface. But then I figured out that I was stupid and didn't see half of the things that Charlotte Bronte had done. She's brilliant. Her narrator is completely unreliable. She's a tease. She withholds. She doesn't tell us the lines we wish most to hear. She deals with feelings that should have fulsome paragaphs in oblique, obscuring half sentences. Fulsome paragraphs are written on subjects that one would not think of as half so important to a ladies' novel. The nature of God, the debate between Protestantism and Catholicism, Truth and Lies, the worst faults of humankind. These are all dealt with. She's also able to switch focuses, from far away observation, as if she is telling a fairy tale, to a prose that is close and intimately involved. Existentialist thoughts wind through here, religious rebellion against the existence of God, liberation of women.. a lot of things that a woman in 1853 probably shouldn't have been writing about.

Lucy Snowe, the main character and narrator, has her faults. You will want to wring her neck. Not only for what she teases us with, but what she says. Her always forebearing attitude, her martyrdom. The sense of how impressed with herself she is at times, all her protestations to the contrary. Secretly holding herself rather above the company, to steal a line from another famous female. But let's also remember that Jane Eyre isn't all that likeable for most of the book either. Lucy is as difficult to like.

The end is fascinating. To give away just a little bit of the book, she does not get the ending that one expects from Romantic books. The ending is a question mark. The reader can make of it what they will. She has no illusions, but we can have ours. Her happiness is completely different: solitary, alone, quiet... it provides a fascinating read though a feminist lens. I'd say the end has a bit of a message like 'A Room of One's Own,' but decades earlier, and with an appropriate veil. Interesting to note, the same male enabler is necessary, but it meets with a different end here.
Happiness is not what one thinks it is.

I really do have to warn that this novel is about repression and oppression and it reads like it too. The breaks out of this endless cycle are few and far between. It can be difficult to trudge through, as difficult as it is for Lucy to make it through. I made it by figuring out how Charlotte Bronte was playing with the reader, though. Pay attention to details. She will mention them and perhaps explain them chapters later, but not connect them for us. Victorian conventions are satirized gently and taken to task. I believe Charlotte Bronte is somewhat taking herself to task for believing the ridiculous things that women were encouraged to indulge in.

... and I've just noticed that I wrote this review sounding rather like a silly victorian writer. Oops.(less)

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Apr 29, 2008 Abigail rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Charlotte Brontë Fans / Readers Who Love 19th Century Novels

Shelves: literature-classics

Review Temporarily Removed.

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Mar 13, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Elizabeth by: Andria

Shelves: french-francophone, in-by-of-england, reviewed, victorians-and-wannabes, boston-janeites, jane-austen-made-me-do-it, bronte-bronte-bronte

Jane Eyre is an idiot. She knows nothing. She has no depth. Her inner life is mild, meek, and boring. Anyone think that? We all grew up believing that she was strong. She expressed pain and passion like no character we had ever met before. I believed that. I believed it right up until I finished Villette this evening. Now I think she knew nothing. She didn't tell us anything.

Wait! Wait! How can I be so hard on her? There's no reason to blame poor Jane for having been created before Lucy Snowe. I...more Jane Eyre is an idiot. She knows nothing. She has no depth. Her inner life is mild, meek, and boring. Anyone think that? We all grew up believing that she was strong. She expressed pain and passion like no character we had ever met before. I believed that. I believed it right up until I finished Villette this evening. Now I think she knew nothing. She didn't tell us anything.

Wait! Wait! How can I be so hard on her? There's no reason to blame poor Jane for having been created before Lucy Snowe. I would never have had the sheer joy, the pleasure, the overwhelming feeling of spending time with Lucy if I hadn't first been acquainted with Jane.

I am shaking. I am having trouble typing. This book is unbelievable. I cannot believe that anyone was able to write like this. If I have ever been jealous of an author, I take it back. I didn't mean it. Charlotte Bronte is joyous. If she weren't so fanatically anti-catholic, I'd have almost nothing to complain about here.

So, what is so wonderful about Lucy Snowe? She tells us nothing. She's a first person narrator describing events, assessing the people around her (Reader, she compares her boss to a spaniel, and only feels mildly apologetic for it), and giving us her opinion of everyone who is not English and Protestant. What she does not say is how she hurts. She seals up a set of letters and buries them under a tree because she caught someone reading them. Is it because of the feelings for the person who wrote the letters? What about the person who might have read them? And so it goes. Each new piece of information, each mind-numbingly-obvious-coincidence plays out a little more about Lucy. What should it tell us that she controls a scream when confronted by a ghost because it might disturb the household? (Yes, spectral nuns in the attic!) And I am right there with her when she is waiting for the mail. It isn't I love him so much, I hope he writes, it's constrained hopes, unadmitted expectations, in the description of waiting for the mail by listening for footsteps and walking in the garden, trying to think about other things. This is why I love her.

Mon Dieu! Who writes like this? Who manages to create something like this? And who manages to get you to read through six hundred pages of it? It's in untranslated French, sometimes. There's a passage of German poetry. And Lucy Snowe's taste in men is really some of the worst in all of literature. I understand Catherine's attraction to Heathcliffe more than this. Really, Lucy's guy is repulsive. (And apparently based on Ms. Bronte's own interest - ick).

I'm having trouble writing coherently about this one. I'm still overwhelmed.
(less)

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Aug 11, 2010 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brontes, british-literature, favorites, victorian-fiction, authors-ab

I can do no better to begin with than to quote George Eliot, who upon reading Villette called it "a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre".

Villette is darker and more realistic than Jane Eyre, and more autobiographical (and perhaps thus even more powerful). Drawing on Charlotte Brontë's experiences in Brussels, Villette tells the story of Lucy Snowe, who leaves England in flight from a shadowy, unhappy past; she comes to "Villette" (i.e., Brussels) and becomes an English teacher at Madame Be...more

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Mar 30, 2009 Boof rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, british-authors, 1001-books, comfort-reading, my-most-amazing-books, read-in-2009, victorians, uk

Reader, I heart Ms. Bronte! Reading Villette was like reading a huge epic that I was so emmersed in that I walked in Lucy Snowe's shoes, I felt what she felt. How many authors can do that to you?

Lucy Snowe is difficult to get to know at first. In fact, she is difficult to like. This is deliberate; she tells you about other people, what they think, what they feel, but precious little about herself, of whom she appears fiercely private. Only as the story unfolds does she start to let you in - I...more

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Mar 21, 2009 Ayu Palar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, bronte-sisters

Finally, I finished Vilette! I am proud of myself for this because I cannot remember the last time I could finish a classic book as thick as this. If you have read Jane Eyre, you will find things in Vilette that remind you of the previous novel. Lucy Snowe, the heroine, is also a woman dealing with education (Jane is a governess, while Lucy is a school teacher). The story is seen from the first person of view as well. That is why many readers consider Charlotte Bronte’s novels as autobiographica...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2010, literature-british, own

This book alternated between being frustrating and interesting. Charlotte Bronte has written some lovely lyrical passages but something oddly inconsistent happens with the protagonist, Lucy Snowe, and the two men in the book who are supposedly fashioned after love-interests from Charlotte's own life. It's as if Charlotte was hesitant or found it difficult to pin down the characters in her own mind. Perhaps a struggle between reality and fiction? At any rate there are some strange inconsistencies...more This book alternated between being frustrating and interesting. Charlotte Bronte has written some lovely lyrical passages but something oddly inconsistent happens with the protagonist, Lucy Snowe, and the two men in the book who are supposedly fashioned after love-interests from Charlotte's own life. It's as if Charlotte was hesitant or found it difficult to pin down the characters in her own mind. Perhaps a struggle between reality and fiction? At any rate there are some strange inconsistencies in the characters that make it hard for the reader to sympathize or relate. Besides these inconsistencies the reader has to be well-versed in French (or read an edition that translates the many French phrases) and be willing to wade through the long portions where Bronte waxes on and on. Occasionally some of these passages are actually profound but many simply seem long-winded and self-indulgent.

There is an underlying sense of sadness/depression permeating much of the novel. I'm wondering if this is a direct reflection of Bronte's own devastating losses of all of her siblings in the few short years prior to writing the novel?

I disagree with the "experts" that say this is Charlotte's true masterpiece. Yes, there is much to appreciate in it but I'm unable to warm to the main characters as I so easily and whole-heartedly did with Jane Eyre. Not so here. In comparison, Lucy Snowe's heart is a seed-bed of pain, severe judgement, and passion frozen beneath a cold facade of brittle sharp-edged ice--in fact she holds so much back in her narration that she becomes unreliable, making it difficult for the reader to like or trust her. In my opinion too much is held back, too much repressed and denied without apparent cause. This is not a heroine to embrace so much as pity.

Update:

Now that I've had time to mull over the book I can appreciate the characters and the story that Charlotte wanted to tell more than while in the midst of it. Perhaps it's one of those books that you have to already have read and have an understanding of to truly enjoy reading. Not that I'm up for a re-reading anytime soon, but I can see me coming back to it at some point.

Villette tells us much more about Charlotte than she would have ever been comfortable with had she realized how transparent her own emotions were in the telling. (No wonder M. Paul is a wretch one moment and the epitome of kindness the next, as Charlotte must never have been able to truly resolve her own feelings toward Heger whom she used as a model for this character.) I think her choice of the purposely vague ending is particularly enlightening. (view spoiler) I sense her not only wanting to give her readers a glimmer of hope but that she is trying to cling to it herself. Life had certainly stomped on her hard in the previous years and Villette seems almost like a battleground of all those warring emotions, depression, despair, loss, hope, endurance, strength. It's in this that I actually find the most to appreciate.

So even though there were points I strongly disliked the book I'm very glad now that I read it. It certainly is an interesting and fascinating contrast when viewed against Jane Eyre, my favorite book of hers and one of my all-time favorite books period. I LOVE Jane Eyre but I can appreciate Villette, mostly for what it reveals about Charlotte. (less)

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Jun 12, 2010 Christopher H. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, victorian-literature, historical-fiction, favorites, read-in-2010, the-brontes, my-western-canon, favorite-rereads

I cry in anguish, "Oh Villette, Villette, Villette!"

It was a feeling that came upon me as I read this novel; the palpable feeling of—

The cold grey storms of the fall and winter, the relentless building winds, the rain pounding against the window—those dark and dreary days of loneliness—all of the losses have brought you a smothering and almost overwhelming mantle of grief. You see, and write of, the Love around you, but feel the throbbing ache, day after day, night after night, of never receivin...more

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Aug 12, 2008 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I know I should prefer this book to Jane Eyre. But I don't. So sue me. Or I didn't when I read it. Years ago. Many years. Like twenty. Maybe I've matured. Or... you know... not. I do recall that by the end of Villette I was deeply tired of being around Lucy, wanted to push GF into the mud, & longed to see the grotesque M. Paul nibbled to death by fierce French chipmunks. If that means I'm not a serious person, well, so be it.

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May 12, 2012 Sparrow rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sparrow by: Elizabeth, Kelly, Thomas

Shelves: beards-are-mesmerizing, classic-or-cannonical, dangerous-hokum, girls-rule, motherless-daughters, up-hill-both-ways-in-the-snow, reviewed

It is not possible for me to talk about this book without somehow spoiling it. I’ll hide the main spoilers, but there are some pretty awesome twists and turns in this book, so I recommend reading it with eyes that are innocent of review spoilers.

I have had this weird experience lately where books or movies or TV I watch are almost always either uncannily similar to my life – like, exact words I’ve said recently or experiences I’ve had – or totally offensive and appalling to me. I think it is doi...more

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May 14, 2012 Bruce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I erroneously judged this novel to be an early effort by Charlotte Bronte, only to discover that it was published six years after Jane Eyre. It is difficult to summarize the work and to convey my own ambivalence about it.

The first person narrator, Lucy Snowe, is with her godmother in Bretton, England, when a diminutive girl named Polly, a strange and faintly uncongenial child, moping and homesick, seemingly old beyond her years, comes to reside with them, her mother having died and her father be...more

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Nov 19, 2009 Patricia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english-literature

A rather daring novel for its time before women even considered supporting themselves by taking a job, Bronte's Villette explores the mind of Lucy Snowe as she embarks on an adventure well beyond the familiarity of England to teach at a school in Labassecour (modelled on Belgium) on the Continent. Here she enters a world where things are hidden, buried, obscured from view. Even Lucy herself is much like a hidden world, for she consciously conceals the facts of her past, much to the irriation of...more

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Apr 06, 2008 Kressel Housman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Bronte fans, women, lovers of classics

Shelves: classics, fiction, all-time-favorite, victorian

Jane Eyre is one of my lifetime favorites. Every now and then, I take it off my bookshelf just to re-read my favorite scenes. So when I learned that Charlotte Bronte connoisseurs consider Villette her masterpiece, I was actually reluctant to try it. I didn’t want my favorite to get dethroned! But I didn’t deny myself the pleasure, and I was richly rewarded. Jane Eyre and Villette now share the throne quite comfortably.

I’ll admit that Villette has some very slow sections. The early scenes of the...more Jane Eyre is one of my lifetime favorites. Every now and then, I take it off my bookshelf just to re-read my favorite scenes. So when I learned that Charlotte Bronte connoisseurs consider Villette her masterpiece, I was actually reluctant to try it. I didn’t want my favorite to get dethroned! But I didn’t deny myself the pleasure, and I was richly rewarded. Jane Eyre and Villette now share the throne quite comfortably.

I’ll admit that Villette has some very slow sections. The early scenes of the protagonist’s adolescence are grabbing, but after that, there are a few chapters that are so dull, I almost gave up on the book. If that’s your reaction when you read it, push on. Things pick up when the protagonist arrives in the town of Villette, and before you know it, you’ll be in the middle of what must be one of the best-written love triangles in all of literature. There’s one love scene that’s as beautiful as any you’d want to read, except that you see it from the point of view of the protagonist, the outsider. Oh, how I cried for poor Lucy Snowe in that scene, yet simultaneously I was rejoicing for the couple. No author has ever made me feel two contradictory emotions so strongly.

In short, I highly recommend Villette, but besides the warning above, I’ve got a few more.

#1 – Some of the dialogue is written in French, so it’s worth getting a copy with translations. But even if you don’t, you’ll still enjoy the book. I don’t understand a word of French and I read it without translations. Perhaps I missed a few subtleties, but I definitely got the essence.

#2 – Part of this book is about the dispute between British Protestantism and French/Belgian Catholicism. There’s a whole chapter devoted to it at the end. As I’m neither Catholic nor Protestant, I just skipped it, and I don’t think I missed out. But I’ve been told that some Catholics might be offended by Bronte’s opinions on the matter.

#3 – Read with a box of tissues nearby!
(less)

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Aug 02, 2007 Wealhtheow rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical

"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...more "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.(less)

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May 28, 2008 La Petite Américaine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics_i_loved, frenchie_stuff

The constant hangover that my summer has been has really left me too stupid to finish this now ... but I'll get to the end because this book friggin rocks.

***UPDATED***: This book is totally not summer reading ... I just finished it last month. Although I prefer the story of Jane Eyre, Vilette is by far a better book as far as style and prose. An absolute must read, one of the best books I've ever read ....

Dammit. When a book is good, I actually don't have anything else to say except read the...more

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Mar 20, 2009 Gary Christensen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I relished the last few pages and was reluctant to let them go, only parting with Lucy reluctantly. Where's the sequel? I want to know how it finishes, but of course, we know how it finishes. Lucy finishes like M. Paul, life cut short, dashed on the breakers. I'd like to register two considerations in writing this review.

First, it's incumbent upon me to consider the author's life in a proper understanding of the work, because it's acknowledged in most criticism that there were many overlaps bet...more I relished the last few pages and was reluctant to let them go, only parting with Lucy reluctantly. Where's the sequel? I want to know how it finishes, but of course, we know how it finishes. Lucy finishes like M. Paul, life cut short, dashed on the breakers. I'd like to register two considerations in writing this review.

First, it's incumbent upon me to consider the author's life in a proper understanding of the work, because it's acknowledged in most criticism that there were many overlaps between Charlotte's and Lucy's life, and that Villette is often regarded as autobiographical.

Lastly, this is not the critical, academic review I would like to write on this work. I have notes on the books that I will address over the years in my fashion. This review is the emotional reaction of an enamored reader.

I have immense respect for the author of Villette. She employed mastery in the development of an intricate, admittedly contrived at times, narrative. The end result of which is a carefully crafted life work that touches on important human themes.

The progression of M. Paul as a character who is disdained by the reader, even abhorred, into someone likable and even admirable, is singular in my reading. Pauline Bosompierre and David Graham both have very human merits and liabilities. Madame Beck's fete, the alter-ego Vishanti and the fire at the theater, the opium induced travels, and finally, my favorite, Lucy discovering her new school and home; are among literature's best handled scenes.

It's a concise, well put record of the buffetings endured by a tragic yet strong female heroine. I have admiration for Lucy Snow. If you identify with Lucy Snow, I would like to marry you.

I have come away having added another book to my list of favorites. I have also come away with renewed insight into "her-story", and the varied unkindnesses endured by the female gender. Mr. Bronte asked for a happy ending in Villette. Charlotte did not (could not) comply. Instead, the young lovers, Lucy and M. Paul, were never reunited. Mr. Bronte outlived his children. This is perhaps not a universal human experience, however, it was the experience of the author. In Finis, the last chapter, the juggernaut of life grinds its supplicants beneath enormous wheels. This is the well-earned, accurate metaphor for the life the sensitive among us. Fortunately, we have such records as Villette commending to our care precious delights, the smell of morning, the importance of tea, the healing power of sleep, and the example of a strong will to endure. I feel that we stand a fair chance of finding happiness whenever the talented among us continue to offer up such works as Villette.(less)

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Jan 15, 2011 Sarah A. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This book was devided into three parts, and I decided to write a review at the end of each "Volume", so here it goes:

"Volume I"

I almost hated Lucy! She's a hateful soul who sees herself better than everyone and yet dares to wish for love and company. She wants people's love and kindness when she offers none. She "bears with them" but never truly care or repect anyone. Then she fancies herself misunderstood and mistreated on those basis. I do believe her smart and observant, but it is not lack of...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Kelly rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-tried-it-but-didn-t-like-it

Update as of 3/9/09: This book cannot hold a candle to Jane Eyre. I have made the final decision to put it down about 1/2 way through and not finish it. The language is too cumbersome, the French is too un-translated, and it is just too bleak and lonely of a story. I have a pile of other books that I can't wait to start reading. Why let Villette stop me?

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I have cracked open my thick, years-old, hard-bound edition of the c...more Update as of 3/9/09: This book cannot hold a candle to Jane Eyre. I have made the final decision to put it down about 1/2 way through and not finish it. The language is too cumbersome, the French is too un-translated, and it is just too bleak and lonely of a story. I have a pile of other books that I can't wait to start reading. Why let Villette stop me?

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I have cracked open my thick, years-old, hard-bound edition of the collected works of the Brontes. I hope I agree that it is even better than Jane Eyre. I'm doubtful because Jane Eyre is one of my favorite stories of all time (and the BBC version starring Timothy Dalton my favorite movie version). But, I'll give it a shot! 20 or 25 pages in, I am amused by the character descriptions. I am already finding myself wondering where the characters I have been introduced to will go with their lives.

"Villette! Villette! Have you read it?" exclaimed George Eliot when Charlotte Brontë's final novel appeared in 1853. "It is a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost preternatural in its power."

Arguably Brontë's most refined and deeply felt work, Villette draws on her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three siblings. Lucy Snowe, the narrator of Villette,flees from an unhappy past in England to begin a new file as a teacher at a French boarding school in the great cosmopolitan capital of Villette. Soon Lucy's struggle for independence is overshadowed by both her freindship with a wordly English doctor and her feelings for an autocratic schoolmaster. Brontë's strikingly modern heroine must decide if there is any man in her society with whom she can live and still be free.

"Villette is an amazing book," observed novelist Susan Fromberg Schaeffer. "Written before psychoanalysis came into being, Villette is nevertheless a psychoanalytic work;a psychosexual study of its heroine, Lucy Snowe. Written before the philosophy of existentialism was formulated, the novel's view of the world can only be described as existential. . . . Today it is read and discussed more intensely than Charlotte Brontë's other novels, and many critics now beleive it to be a true master-piece, a work of genius that more than fulfilled the promise of Jane Eyre." Indeed, Virginia Woolf judged Villette to be Brontë's "finest novel."(less)

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Jun 05, 2008 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 18, 2008 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My knowledge of the Bronte sisters has been limited to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. My daughter took a course in the Bronte sisters in college and has stocked our shelves with many of these. I selected Villette because of the first few lines in the book - where I usually start to decide if I am going to read. I actually have not ever read anything quite so emotionally stirring as this story of unrequited love in a 19th century boarding school in a small village in France. Villette, the main...more

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Aug 16, 2007 Jake rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Charlotte's use of doubling and Gothic undertones to represent the troubled psychology of her protagonist, Lucy Snow, is ground-breaking and fascinating. Lucy is inherently good and virginal - look at her name, Light Snow - and the plot that drags Lucy through her own chaotic mind is incredibly well-devised.

However, I deplored the deification of M. Paul Emanuel. His crude, misogynistic temperament was a bit much to take, and while this novel smacked of serious biographical issues of Charlotte, h...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Nancy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, relationships

Villette lacks the fire and passion of Jane Eyre.
Since we already know this is a fictionalized version of Charlotte Bronte's time in Brussels where she had some sort of relationship with the professor she worked for, this may be the reason for the tameness.
There are many similarities in the characters of Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe in that they are orphans, they are loners, they yearn for love and, for much of the book, they love from afar with no hope of reciprocation. Villette is a colder boo...more

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Jan 17, 2009 Becca rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this up at the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore while I was in Paris for several reasons. I wanted to buy something at the store because it's totally awesome (google it), I am a huge huge fan of Charlotte Bronte, and this book is based off her own experience in Belgium, another place I visited in Europe.

I don't care what other people have said about this book but I absolutely without a doubt loved it. I already love and cherish Charlotte Bronte's writing but this took it a notch higher. B...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Leigh (Little Book Star) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 012, u-z, classics, buddy-read

ORIGINAL REVIEW AT: LITTLE BOOK STAR

Every time I read a review about Villette on Goodreads, they would always compare it to Jane Eyre (another of Bronte’s work). Most of them have said that this last work of Bronte is more brilliant than Jane Eyre. That’s what got me to read Villette. Jane Eyre is my favorite classics book and since a lot of reviewers said in their reviews that Villette was better, I told myself I have to check it out. Well turns out it was the other way around. For me, the only...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow! I'm giving Villette 3.5 stars. After reading all the reviews on Goodreads, I shrink to imagine I could write anything comparable. I don't think I'll even attempt it since most of them captured my feelings with much better description and intelligence than I could offer.

I will say that I thought the book was amazing in the fact that Bronte's insights into human emotions and psychology were intensely moving to me. The story was by no means a happy tale but it was something akin to watching a...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Susie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

**Readers beware.....if seeking Jane Eyre or its twin substitute, this is not the same novel. ** Having said that, go ahead and plunge into Villette and wrack your brain around true, visual and beautiful writing that make other authors sound like preschoolers. I had to read sentences over and over again to fully comprehend the complexity. This novel is not so much a well-paced journey to an ending, but a long arduous march of despair, loneliness, poverty and critical thinking. Are you think wond...more **Readers beware.....if seeking Jane Eyre or its twin substitute, this is not the same novel. ** Having said that, go ahead and plunge into Villette and wrack your brain around true, visual and beautiful writing that make other authors sound like preschoolers. I had to read sentences over and over again to fully comprehend the complexity. This novel is not so much a well-paced journey to an ending, but a long arduous march of despair, loneliness, poverty and critical thinking. Are you think wondering why I gave it five stars? Hang in there.

There were times I wanted to give up on Lucy Snow. I really did. (Thank god for audiobooks. I can't tell you how lovely this book is being read to you.) In the first two hundred pages, there is very little celebrate, with the plain, penniless heroine seeking occupation or employment far away in the country of France, with little hope of improvement,....poverty one step away. There are echoes of Jane Eyre everywhere in Lucy Snow. She is the woman of which no one gives much notice, who flounders in other women's beauty, and is the underdog to every situation. Unlike Jane Eyre, which had some glimpses of light and reprieve, I felt like I was making a tedious journey that would have no reward, and I was a little upset about it mid-way through the novel. Suffering through long soliloquies concerning poverty, art, education, religion, I thought, "What is going on here? What in the hell is this?" And then, darn it, Lucy Snow, I realize you've been holding back, playing the reader for a fool, creating a smoke and mirrors game that I was too stupid to see. You are very, very clever, Charlotte Bronte.

Without giving anything away, the last hundred pages are like a gift that has been wrapped again and again, making the reader to remove layers, constantly be surprised at the new turns. Despair, happiness, despair, happiness. It was enough to make me scream. But now that I'm done,.....I want to start it all over again, (truly, not lying), to understand the clues that I fully missed on the first time through. A true classic, in every sense of the word.

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Jan 30, 2011 Dominic rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-literature

I think I have had my fill of Victorian women for a while. They are utterly fascinating and so easy to love as characters, yet they are so limited and constrained by their societies that the shine of their inner brilliance is utterly muted. They either become endearing in their modesty and hesitance, or utterly annoying in their vibrantly prissy acceptance of their role.

Lucy Snowe is of the former--one of the most hesitant of Victorian women. It is typical to see women who don't see their brilli...more I think I have had my fill of Victorian women for a while. They are utterly fascinating and so easy to love as characters, yet they are so limited and constrained by their societies that the shine of their inner brilliance is utterly muted. They either become endearing in their modesty and hesitance, or utterly annoying in their vibrantly prissy acceptance of their role.

Lucy Snowe is of the former--one of the most hesitant of Victorian women. It is typical to see women who don't see their brilliance, but Miss Snowe goes to great length to deny her abilities or accept her sagacity. She goes out of her way to deny herself the full embrace of life--but in the stifling female world of the Victorian woman, who can blame her? She is orphaned at thirteen (although she never says exactly what happened to her family), loses her position and financial situation and must stake out a place in the world, one mere soul in the eye of a tumultuous storm. Plus, the women around her are self-involved and seem out for themselves; the men around her, too, are quite unappealing and tightly wound. (Oh, I wish there were more fish in the sea for her!)

Charlotte Brontë's Villette is, indeed, an important glimpse into the mind of the Victorian woman. Lucy Snowe is a feminist icon of that era, but she isn't flashy. (Snowe is also highly autobiographical, and I can't wait to read more about Brontë's life). She lacks "little woman" Jo March's charm and vibrancy; in a way, she is the anti-Jo March. But I still loved her, I still wanted the world for her, I still wanted to tell her that the people around her, those women and men who fill the novel's pages were not worth her time (and there really are few likeable characters outside of Snowe in the novel). What Brontë has done here with Snowe's narration is utterly amazing, but it doesn't mean I looooved to read it. At times it was excruciating to read of Snowe's self-denial. Her choice to stand outside the embrace of Life, and for so long, was often frustrating. I would have much rather read a book about Lucy Snowe in solitude, rather than her observations of these rather unappealing people.

I do recommend Villette, and I think I would like to read the novel again someday, because I do not think there is a better glimpse of the Victorian female mind (and possibly the overall female mind). The first 100 pages are absolutely brilliant, as Lucy leaves home and finds herself amongst the world with only herself to rely on and ends up in France--Villette to be exact. She is a frustrating, endearing, prickly narrator, but the girl has got tons of that muted brilliance. Too bad she lived among such fools.(less)

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About Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë was a British novelist, the eldest out of the three famous Brontë sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. See also Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë.

Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly "Patrick Brunty"), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria Branwell. In April 1820 the fam...more Charlotte Brontë was a British novelist, the eldest out of the three famous Brontë sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. See also Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë.

Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly "Patrick Brunty"), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria Branwell. In April 1820 the family moved a few miles to Haworth, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate. Maria Branwell Brontë died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to the care of her sister Elizabeth Branwell. In August 1824, Charlotte was sent with three of her sisters; Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire (which she would describe as Lowood School in Jane Eyre).

Its poor conditions, Charlotte maintained, permanently affected her health and physical development and hastened the deaths of her two elder sisters, Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who died of tuberculosis in 1825 soon after they were removed from the school.

At home in Haworth Parsonage, Charlotte and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily, and Anne — began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of their imaginary kingdoms. Charlotte and Branwell wrote stories about their country — Angria — and Emily and Anne wrote articles and poems about theirs — Gondal. The sagas were elaborate and convoluted (and still exist in part manuscripts) and provided them with an obsessive interest in childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for their literary vocations in adulthood.

Charlotte continued her education at Roe Head school in Mirfield from 1831 to 1832, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period (1833), she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf under the name of Wellesley. Charlotte returned as a teacher from 1835 to 1838.

In 1839 she took up the first of many positions as governess to various families in Yorkshire, a career she pursued until 1841. In 1842 she and Emily travelled to Brussels to enroll in a pensionnat run by Constantin Heger (1809 – 1896) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Heger (1804 – 1890). In return for board and tuition, Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the pensionnat was cut short when Elizabeth Branwell, their aunt who joined the family after the death of their mother to look after the children, died of internal obstruction in October 1842.

Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the pensionnat. Her second stay at the pensionnat was not a happy one; she became lonely, homesick, and deeply attached to Constantin Heger. She finally returned to Haworth in January 1844 and later used her time at the pensionnat as the inspiration for some of The Professor and Villette.

In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne published a joint collection of poetry under the assumed names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although the book failed to attract interest (only two copies were sold), the sisters decided to continue writing for publication and began work on their first novels.

Charlotte continued to use the name 'Currer Bell' when she published her first two novels. Of this, Brontë later wrote:
"Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because--without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called 'feminine'--we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice"(less)

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Charlotte & Emily Brontë: The Complete Novels, Deluxe Edition (Literary Classics)

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Quotes from Villette

“I believe in some blending of hope and sunshine sweetening the worst lots. I believe that this life is not all; neither the beginning nor the end. I believe while I tremble; I trust while I weep.” — 79 people liked it

“Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.” — 77 people liked it

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