Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
This story was reminiscent of Agnes Grey,
I saw similarities between Rosalie Murray and Ginevra Fanshawe, vain, flirtatious and at times malicious.
As well as Agnes and Lucy, both long suffering, patient and kind.
When I read Agnes Grey I could not help comparing it to Jane Eyre, and it fell short. Now reading Villette I compared it to Agnes Grey and it soared.
Vilette quickly became my favorite Brontë book.
Beautifully written in classic Brontë style, strong willed Lucy Snowe tells her story of life, love and loss.
It is difficult to review this book without giving anything away and every piece of this story is important to read in the order Charlotte Brontë wanted it to be read.
I saw similarities between Rosalie Murray and Ginevra Fanshawe, vain, flirtatious and at times malicious.
As well as Agnes and Lucy, both long suffering, patient and kind.
When I read Agnes Grey I could not help comparing it to Jane Eyre, and it fell short. Now reading Villette I compared it to Agnes Grey and it soared.
Vilette quickly became my favorite Brontë book.
Beautifully written in classic Brontë style, strong willed Lucy Snowe tells her story of life, love and loss.
It is difficult to review this book without giving anything away and every piece of this story is important to read in the order Charlotte Brontë wanted it to be read.
adventurous
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pacing could have been improved. I also felt the main character rather gullible (possibly an issue with the generation in which it was written.)
Charlotte Bronte is an excellent author, or may I say poet. What I mean is, she feels picturesquely and in the splendid ordeals of melancholy of which she communicates, her mortal visions are nothing less than heavenly. This is my first book I have read by Charlotte Bronte, and surely it will not be my last. I am just too extremely fascinated to dive in deeper about Charlotte's abstract character to not try out one of her books (I've already bought Shirley.) Unlike her sister Emily, whom I have read her only novel Wuthering Heights previously, Charlotte is obviously a better storyteller; her pen creates a display of art that is just enough, but not too much.
Villette is a tale of romance, mystery, suspense, and could be considered a coming-of-age story. Simply put, Villette is a jack-of-all-trades. This is a substantial proof that Charlotte is educated and very intelligent, and all readers will find an interest in Villette. Villette is about Lucy Snowe, a young orphan, whose parents tragically died in a shipwreck, and abides with her godmother. As she gets older and wants a name for herself, Lucy travels to the fictional town of Villette where she is urged by a stranger to become a English teacher for the native pupils. Throughout her visit she is haunted by nuns, disappointing friendships, and criticism which is beautifully displayed by the author. However, at the end Charlotte, unlike her gruesome sister Emily, delivers a happy tale that requires a fulfilling closure with an interpretation that is open to the reader. Lucy finds her love, and her name. In conclusion, when once a pupil Ginevra Fanshawe asked, "Who are you truly, Lucy?" Lucy at the end can now figuratively reply "A teacher."
I loved this book, and will treasure it dearly in my mind for hopefully many stretches of time. I could be biased because I love classics, but I truly believe this is one of the good ones. Hopefully, if you're reading this to get on opinion as whether to read or not, perhaps before buying or lending, I beg you not to be shied away from the tempting 3 volumes or the 600+ pages. Dear reader, it isn't the length of the book, but its impact. If you do decide to embark on the journey, I highly recommend the Penguin Clothbound Classic version that I purchased. The notes are extremely helpful and the introduction by Helen M. Cooper makes an excellent beginning explaining Bronte's numerous influences and the historical impact of the time. In closing, I urge you to take my advice, and please enjoy Villette!
Villette is a tale of romance, mystery, suspense, and could be considered a coming-of-age story. Simply put, Villette is a jack-of-all-trades. This is a substantial proof that Charlotte is educated and very intelligent, and all readers will find an interest in Villette. Villette is about Lucy Snowe, a young orphan, whose parents tragically died in a shipwreck, and abides with her godmother. As she gets older and wants a name for herself, Lucy travels to the fictional town of Villette where she is urged by a stranger to become a English teacher for the native pupils. Throughout her visit she is haunted by nuns, disappointing friendships, and criticism which is beautifully displayed by the author. However, at the end Charlotte, unlike her gruesome sister Emily, delivers a happy tale that requires a fulfilling closure with an interpretation that is open to the reader. Lucy finds her love, and her name. In conclusion, when once a pupil Ginevra Fanshawe asked, "Who are you truly, Lucy?" Lucy at the end can now figuratively reply "A teacher."
I loved this book, and will treasure it dearly in my mind for hopefully many stretches of time. I could be biased because I love classics, but I truly believe this is one of the good ones. Hopefully, if you're reading this to get on opinion as whether to read or not, perhaps before buying or lending, I beg you not to be shied away from the tempting 3 volumes or the 600+ pages. Dear reader, it isn't the length of the book, but its impact. If you do decide to embark on the journey, I highly recommend the Penguin Clothbound Classic version that I purchased. The notes are extremely helpful and the introduction by Helen M. Cooper makes an excellent beginning explaining Bronte's numerous influences and the historical impact of the time. In closing, I urge you to take my advice, and please enjoy Villette!
Jane Eyre was always going to be more famous, its narrative fitted better with the growth of secularism and humanism in the 19th-20th century, even if this would have in no way been Brontë's intention, but this novel is unbelievably rich and I think has the claim to be an even more interesting, even more technically skilled novel. The trajectory of the novel and the romance is artfully unpredictable (according with the first line of the final chapter "Man cannot prophesy"), even including the revelation of a more predictable mystery at the beginning of book II as a red-herring to make the subsequent journey of the novel more surprising. I personally find this a lot more satisfying and realistic a narrative development than Emma, which is normally praised for the revelation of its romantic mystery and its twice-readability (although of course Austen appears to have done it first and should still be praised as the innovator).
This novel was never going to be as popular as any of Austen's novels or Jane Eyre because the most of us do not like our realist novels too realistic, and we gravitate more towards the success stories, we prefer our protagonists to be beautiful because we imagine ourselves to be among the handsome and lucky and successful in the future, even if this is not quite accordant with reality. (Which is sort of why Austen's achievement is still so awesome and strange, that someone who never married should be so dedicated to popular stories in quite a selfless way -- with the exception of Mansfield Park.) Brontë's character is deep-feeling, introspective, intelligent, and not especially attractive, and this is even more deeply felt, despite how often it is stressed that Jane is "plain", in this novel with its contrast not only between Lucy and Ginevra but also the perceptive differences marked between the once-born (to bring in the Jamesian term unnecessarily) couple Dr John and Paulina and the inevitably twice-born Lucy and M. Paul. There is one rule for the beautiful and the blessed in this life, and there is another rule for the rest of us, of course -- Brontë, like Blake, is astutely, tantalisingly aware of the part that Christianity appears to play in this great drama of clods and pebbles (or, as the current parlance goes, proto-femcels, short kings, Stacies and Chads), but more theologically astute than to resent this difficult aspect of the divine mystery of creation.
Villette should absolutely be read as a companion and comparison to Jane Eyre, I think it has the advantage of subtly deepening and revising our perception of the first novel in this second. The parallel tripartite structure, with the structure drawing comparison (but more important differences) between Dr John and Mr Rochester, M. Paul and St. John Rivers. The shift in intellectual preoccupations to the Protestant/Catholic divide as opposed to Christianity/colonialism is intriguing, as the change in the prevailing Gothic image from the Madwoman in the Attic to the Nun in the Grenier, is psychologically interesting. I know for a fact that nuns seem to haunt and preoccupy the imaginations of literary girls at universities, so, without wishing to dictate beyond my limits as a male reader, it may be deeply resonant and accurate as a female Bildungsroman to this day. Of course there is a certain mystery about the female imagination that I must admit I do not (perhaps will never) entirely understand, for example the memorable transformation of M. Paul into a "king" at the end, and how Lucy believes "to offer homage was both a joy and a duty" at the end, although I know to be an accurate expression of faithful female love, partially eludes me in its depth of faith and selflessness.
This novel was never going to be as popular as any of Austen's novels or Jane Eyre because the most of us do not like our realist novels too realistic, and we gravitate more towards the success stories, we prefer our protagonists to be beautiful because we imagine ourselves to be among the handsome and lucky and successful in the future, even if this is not quite accordant with reality. (Which is sort of why Austen's achievement is still so awesome and strange, that someone who never married should be so dedicated to popular stories in quite a selfless way -- with the exception of Mansfield Park.) Brontë's character is deep-feeling, introspective, intelligent, and not especially attractive, and this is even more deeply felt, despite how often it is stressed that Jane is "plain", in this novel with its contrast not only between Lucy and Ginevra but also the perceptive differences marked between the once-born (to bring in the Jamesian term unnecessarily) couple Dr John and Paulina and the inevitably twice-born Lucy and M. Paul. There is one rule for the beautiful and the blessed in this life, and there is another rule for the rest of us, of course -- Brontë, like Blake, is astutely, tantalisingly aware of the part that Christianity appears to play in this great drama of clods and pebbles (or, as the current parlance goes, proto-femcels, short kings, Stacies and Chads), but more theologically astute than to resent this difficult aspect of the divine mystery of creation.
Villette should absolutely be read as a companion and comparison to Jane Eyre, I think it has the advantage of subtly deepening and revising our perception of the first novel in this second. The parallel tripartite structure, with the structure drawing comparison (but more important differences) between Dr John and Mr Rochester, M. Paul and St. John Rivers. The shift in intellectual preoccupations to the Protestant/Catholic divide as opposed to Christianity/colonialism is intriguing, as the change in the prevailing Gothic image from the Madwoman in the Attic to the Nun in the Grenier, is psychologically interesting. I know for a fact that nuns seem to haunt and preoccupy the imaginations of literary girls at universities, so, without wishing to dictate beyond my limits as a male reader, it may be deeply resonant and accurate as a female Bildungsroman to this day. Of course there is a certain mystery about the female imagination that I must admit I do not (perhaps will never) entirely understand, for example the memorable transformation of M. Paul into a "king" at the end, and how Lucy believes "to offer homage was both a joy and a duty" at the end, although I know to be an accurate expression of faithful female love, partially eludes me in its depth of faith and selflessness.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
This book is kind of like Catcher in the Rye. I was so irritated by Lucy Snowe at first, but came to realize that she is really devastatingly relatable in a way that Jane Eyre is not, as many before me have pointed out.
The passages describing feelings of isolation and how all your self doubt and negative emotions escalate at night when trying to sleep were very relatable for 19th century Gothic.