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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Man oh man, is 95% of this book depressing as all get-out. Don't read a book about an antisocial lonely gal if you're feeling antisocial or lonely. However, it is marvelously well written & has some unexpected turns, so I can't disregard it out of sheer grumpiness.
Charlotte Bronte's prose is beautiful as always but this book just didnt do it for me. There was such an emphasis on protestantism v. Catholicism that may have been relevant when this was published but doesnt make sense now. Also i know many books in this era had random french dialog in it (though i dont know why) but this book has so much of it, full conversations that at points it was hard to follow.
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was willing the heroine and her antagonist M.Paul to get together all the way through this book...the ambiguous ending had me spitting feathers...was it happy ever after ..or was it not..only the author knew..!
I’ll probably be thinking about this book for the rest of my life. Lucy Snowe is such an amazing victorian protagonist. I am so sad
Villette is a journey that anyone who loves Brontë should take. At 500+ pages, it certainly brings the reader into the story slowly. It is worth every minute, though. Eloquently written, told with grace and care, this book is one of the best inward struggle books I've read. Definitely diving in a second time.
53rd book of 2023.
A difficult one to rate for many reasons. Villette is often called Charlotte's masterpiece, though of course, Jane Eyre is read far more. I prefer the latter I think, as far as enjoyment goes (though it's been some years since I read it), but I respect Villette more in a strange way. Lucy Snowe is an unreliable narrator (plot twists in the book, created solely by Lucy's reluctance to share things with the reader right away!), she is visited by nightmarish visions of nuns at night, she is lonely, perhaps even depressed. There were some passages that wonderfully captured loneliness. Strangely, the beginning of the book is probably the strongest. There is almost no plot, we live in her head. I thought I'd enjoy it more; I am a big fan of plotless, internal, slow-burning novels, but I did find chunks of this book boring. That's not so surprising at 657 pages, though. I thoroughly enjoyed the last page and the openness of the novel, especially when so many 19th century novels tied things up so completely. Glad I read it, Charlotte is my favourite Bronte, I think, though it's rather unfair to compare her as she wrote so much more than her sisters. An intelligent, slow novel.
A difficult one to rate for many reasons. Villette is often called Charlotte's masterpiece, though of course, Jane Eyre is read far more. I prefer the latter I think, as far as enjoyment goes (though it's been some years since I read it), but I respect Villette more in a strange way. Lucy Snowe is an unreliable narrator (plot twists in the book, created solely by Lucy's reluctance to share things with the reader right away!), she is visited by nightmarish visions of nuns at night, she is lonely, perhaps even depressed. There were some passages that wonderfully captured loneliness. Strangely, the beginning of the book is probably the strongest. There is almost no plot, we live in her head. I thought I'd enjoy it more; I am a big fan of plotless, internal, slow-burning novels, but I did find chunks of this book boring. That's not so surprising at 657 pages, though. I thoroughly enjoyed the last page and the openness of the novel, especially when so many 19th century novels tied things up so completely. Glad I read it, Charlotte is my favourite Bronte, I think, though it's rather unfair to compare her as she wrote so much more than her sisters. An intelligent, slow novel.
Is there, indeed, such happiness on earth? I asked, as I watched the father, the daughter, the future husband, now united—all blessed and blessing.
Yes; it is so. Without any colouring of romance, or any exaggeration of fancy, it is so. Some real lives do—for some certain days or years—actually anticipate the happiness of Heaven; and, I believe, if such perfect happiness is once felt by good people (to the wicked it never comes), its sweet effect is never wholly lost. Whatever trials follow, whatever pains of sickness or shades of death, the glory precedent still shines through, cheering the keen anguish, and tinging the deep cloud.
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
There are so many things to like about Charlotte Bronte's "Villette" and yet I can't say I truly loved this book. It's particularly interesting since the book in so many ways parallels Bronte's own life while she was living in Belgium. This is probably interested me the most, having read a biography about Bronte earlier this year.
The heroine of "Villette" is Lucy Snowe, a somewhat cold, but determined woman who is left to find her own fortune in the world and travels to Villette to (eventually) become an English teacher. As a narrator, she rarely tells what she knows -- or the entirety of her thoughts-- so it's up to the reader to tease them out from what she does say. There are various instances of unrequited love woven throughout the book.
Of course, comparisons to Bronte's more famous "Jane Eyre" are inevitable. Lucy Snowe is a much more realistic character-- much more well-rounded and without that inherent goodness that causes Jane to grate a bit. However, "Villette" seems to drag on more... little happens and Lucy Snowe is generally so reserved that it is hard to connect with any of the characters, including the narrator herself.
While I liked "Villette" overall, it definitely doesn't displace "Jane Eyre" as my favorite Charlotte Bronte book.
The heroine of "Villette" is Lucy Snowe, a somewhat cold, but determined woman who is left to find her own fortune in the world and travels to Villette to (eventually) become an English teacher. As a narrator, she rarely tells what she knows -- or the entirety of her thoughts-- so it's up to the reader to tease them out from what she does say. There are various instances of unrequited love woven throughout the book.
Of course, comparisons to Bronte's more famous "Jane Eyre" are inevitable. Lucy Snowe is a much more realistic character-- much more well-rounded and without that inherent goodness that causes Jane to grate a bit. However, "Villette" seems to drag on more... little happens and Lucy Snowe is generally so reserved that it is hard to connect with any of the characters, including the narrator herself.
While I liked "Villette" overall, it definitely doesn't displace "Jane Eyre" as my favorite Charlotte Bronte book.