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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Oh man. It took me a few months to read through this, which is unusual for me. The reason was that it just struck too close to home and I had to have a long, big break from it if I wanted to remain non-depressed.
Jane Eyre is one of my favorite old-timey books, and my favorite from all the Brontës. In my mind's comparison between the two, Jane Eyre remains being my fave, even if Villette has all the things that make me love Jane Eyre so much and MORE. The main reason I love Jane Eyre so much is that I admire Jane's capacity for picking oneself up, her restraint, her fortitude, her ability to eschew all frippery and drama. Villette is THE fortitude-and-restraint-in-a-woman festival, but it was just too much of a good thing, and it tipped the boat over.
Reading about these kind of women is rare, which is why I love Jane Eyre so much. But reading too much about it made me go to the other side, and really examining and questioning things I didn't want examined and questioned. I don't think I've ever read a woman like Lucy Snowe before-- not even Jane Eyre. And it was highly masochist of Charlotte Brontë to write about her, I imagine. Acknowledging the feelings and thoughts that come with being a woman like Lucy Snowe (and in a lower degree, like Jane Eyre) is painful. Rare, beautiful, illuminating-- but painful.
When I finally finished it I was already expecting the blow, thankfully, which made it a very different experience than if I had finished this months ago, when I started it.
Jane Eyre is one of my favorite old-timey books, and my favorite from all the Brontës. In my mind's comparison between the two, Jane Eyre remains being my fave, even if Villette has all the things that make me love Jane Eyre so much and MORE. The main reason I love Jane Eyre so much is that I admire Jane's capacity for picking oneself up, her restraint, her fortitude, her ability to eschew all frippery and drama. Villette is THE fortitude-and-restraint-in-a-woman festival, but it was just too much of a good thing, and it tipped the boat over.
Reading about these kind of women is rare, which is why I love Jane Eyre so much. But reading too much about it made me go to the other side, and really examining and questioning things I didn't want examined and questioned. I don't think I've ever read a woman like Lucy Snowe before-- not even Jane Eyre. And it was highly masochist of Charlotte Brontë to write about her, I imagine. Acknowledging the feelings and thoughts that come with being a woman like Lucy Snowe (and in a lower degree, like Jane Eyre) is painful. Rare, beautiful, illuminating-- but painful.
When I finally finished it I was already expecting the blow, thankfully, which made it a very different experience than if I had finished this months ago, when I started it.
I liked the story and the main character, but her love interest is so problematic--way older than her, has communication issues, and goes on rants about how awful it is for women to be educated. And the ending was not very satisfying.
I should have just read Jane Eyre again. Pretty dull, until the end.
I really annoyed the first half of the book. I liked reading about Lucy’s life, her teaching and about her relationship with Dr. John. Then Polly came back into their lives and I died of boredom. Those last 200-250 pages were a nuisance.
Mediocre at best. When I say Lucy Snowe was an unreliable narrator that I didn't enjoy... that says a lot because I usually like the twists and turns of an unreliable nature (see "Never Let Me Go", or "Wuthering Heights" by Charlotte's SISTER!!). Nothing about this novel really had me hooked. The reason why I rate it 3 stars is because I got through it, and quite enjoyed some depictions of the natural world. But the fact that this nature was my highlight in terms of what I took from it should say it all really..
I continue my quest to read every Brontë novel. I think this will only show me that "Jane Eyre" was Charlotte's best work. I know it's not fair to judge a 200-year-old-novel with our modern sensibilities, but like "The Professor," this story involves a young Brit going to Europe to teach and find purpose, detailing IN DEPTH the author's prejudices. Continental Catholics, according to our narrator, are lazy, deceptive, solely interested in attending mass and concocting elaborate schemes, marrying for money, sunbathing, napping, and man oh man is she fixated on "Romanist" women having large busts.
But Lucy Snow, our herione, is absolutely to be trusted because a phrenologist is summoned to evaluate her when she starts her job working at a Belgian school. She has the very best bumps on her head, it is verified. Pseudo-science and racism have entered the chat!
I can't help it, though, I love all the Brontë foibles and I keep coming back for more. Everyone's emotions are so pent up but then during bad storms they are overtaken by *paroxysms*. Protagonists are so dour, strait-laced, and shabbily dressed, but ALSO have the most emotionally vivid lives, especially when it comes to falling in love. They all want to toil in thankless jobs and somehow end up passionately in love! It's because they have the very best phrenology going on I guess. My alt title is "Correct Head Lumps and Tiny Titties: The Lucy Snow Story."
But Lucy Snow, our herione, is absolutely to be trusted because a phrenologist is summoned to evaluate her when she starts her job working at a Belgian school. She has the very best bumps on her head, it is verified. Pseudo-science and racism have entered the chat!
I can't help it, though, I love all the Brontë foibles and I keep coming back for more. Everyone's emotions are so pent up but then during bad storms they are overtaken by *paroxysms*. Protagonists are so dour, strait-laced, and shabbily dressed, but ALSO have the most emotionally vivid lives, especially when it comes to falling in love. They all want to toil in thankless jobs and somehow end up passionately in love! It's because they have the very best phrenology going on I guess. My alt title is "Correct Head Lumps and Tiny Titties: The Lucy Snow Story."
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 doing damage to my nervous system. I have a weak and brooding constitution, anyway, so recovery calls for those new episodes of Arrested Development to come out ASAP. No, jk, I don’t have a weak and brooding constitution, but seriously, I may take to swooning and weeping soon enough if this crazy pendulum doesn’t stop swinging so wildly.
Villette was the uncannily similar variety of story. It is so eerie to read books from almost two hundred years ago and see my own thoughts and experiences. It is both comforting and totally exhausting – comforting because we have always been like this; exhausting because, well, we have always been like this. Bronte’s description of Lucy waiting by the phone for a dude to call, or, in her case, by the door for a letter to arrive, is chilling. Lucy’s conversation with Dr. John, when she points out the hypocrisy of his ability to see shallowness in men but not women, is absolutely hilarious. Lucy’s delicacy about describing her own loneliness is beautiful. Charlotte Bronte writes a really killer antiheroine, and it is always easier to identify with an antiheroine than a heroine, I think, because it is easy to see our own flaws.
While this book easily stands alone as a lovely study on humanity, it also evoked comparisons to [b:Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327867269s/10210.jpg|2977639] and [b:Pride and Prejudice|1885|Pride and Prejudice|Jane Austen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320399351s/1885.jpg|3060926] for me. It was the last book Bronte published before she died. As is so common, Villette, the later book, is a less tight story than [b:Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327867269s/10210.jpg|2977639] – it was more meandering, and where Bronte wants to dwell, she will dwell. In some ways, though, I think Villette is more successful than Jane Eyre in distinguishing antihero from hero because Bronte is kinder to the heroes in Villette and lets me feel a little bitter at them without really despising them here. Dr. John, in contrast to St. John, does not creep me out. Paulina is a traditionally heroic heroine. This works in Villette because it provides a more clear contrast between the traditional hero’s story and Lucy’s antiheroine story. On the other hand, Jane Eyre allows flaws in everyone, whether they are golden or dark, so that has a nice subtlety. At the same time that Jane and Rochester are the more clear antiheroes, St. John is so determined to crush feelings and be unhappy that he is not so much the golden hero as Dr. John. In Villette there is a clear line between hero and antihero; in Jane Eyre the line is more blurred, though the physical descriptions signal a distinction. It might not be useful, though, to compare the two books because they are both wonderful, and I don't know that I prefer the clear distinction or the blurring.
In some ways, I think this story is a Bronte [b:Pride and Prejudice|1885|Pride and Prejudice|Jane Austen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320399351s/1885.jpg|3060926]. All of the couples are parallels:. In many ways that comparison fails because the interaction of the characters in P&P forms a cohesive plot, and Villette is not really about any particular plot, I think, but it was interesting to see similar couples described through more brutal eyes.
Both Charlotte and Emily Bronte, also, always seem more exotic than Austen because the aesthetics of their heroes are described so much more like an emo band. While Austen captures that subtle loneliness of unreliable family, the Brontes go straight for explicit isolation in a cruel world. I doubt I could love either Austen or the Brontes so much without the other. And it was beautiful to read about the couples from Pride and Prejudice with the severity and stifled animal cry of Charlotte Bronte. I see Virginia Woolf’s point that sometimes Bronte’s failures as an editor interfere with the story in a way that you don’t see in Austen, but it is still beautiful.
Probably my favorite thing about this book is Lucy’s shiftiness as a narrator. This girl is going to tell you what she wants you to know and she is going to leave out whatever the fuck she wants. It was totally hilarious that she. That little minx! (As they say.) And then the way she ends the story is just .
I was not in love with any of the heroes of this story, and I kind of liked that, too. It was more like a soul-mate friend, of whom I am completely in awe, telling me about the people she loved, and how she understood them and their faults, than a con game of trying to get me to fall in love myself. It is interesting because usually we are meant to fall in love with the romantic lead (and I’mma be honest, I totally swoon for Rochester), but I do not almost ever swoon for my irl friends’ love stories. In this way, I felt that Lucy was completely her own person, and even though I identified with her in this sometimes-creepy way, she was not a stand-in for me in the love story. I thought, but that was fine because Lucy was smart about all of them. Honestly, I didn’t notice for a long time, and I am usually really good at picking up on romantic leads, so when I re-read I will have to pay better attention to what he does in the early part of the novel.
I really loved this book. As I got to the end, I panicked a little because I remembered that I had always partly been reluctant to read it because I will use up the possibility for a new Bronte story soon, and what a sad, bleak time that will be. I still have a couple left, though, so I will hoard those for later. I wish Bronte would email me new stories from her austere, Protestant heaven.
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 doing damage to my nervous system. I have a weak and brooding constitution, anyway, so recovery calls for those new episodes of Arrested Development to come out ASAP. No, jk, I don’t have a weak and brooding constitution, but seriously, I may take to swooning and weeping soon enough if this crazy pendulum doesn’t stop swinging so wildly.
Villette was the uncannily similar variety of story. It is so eerie to read books from almost two hundred years ago and see my own thoughts and experiences. It is both comforting and totally exhausting – comforting because we have always been like this; exhausting because, well, we have always been like this. Bronte’s description of Lucy waiting by the phone for a dude to call, or, in her case, by the door for a letter to arrive, is chilling. Lucy’s conversation with Dr. John, when she points out the hypocrisy of his ability to see shallowness in men but not women, is absolutely hilarious. Lucy’s delicacy about describing her own loneliness is beautiful. Charlotte Bronte writes a really killer antiheroine, and it is always easier to identify with an antiheroine than a heroine, I think, because it is easy to see our own flaws.
While this book easily stands alone as a lovely study on humanity, it also evoked comparisons to [b:Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327867269s/10210.jpg|2977639] and [b:Pride and Prejudice|1885|Pride and Prejudice|Jane Austen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320399351s/1885.jpg|3060926] for me. It was the last book Bronte published before she died. As is so common, Villette, the later book, is a less tight story than [b:Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327867269s/10210.jpg|2977639] – it was more meandering, and where Bronte wants to dwell, she will dwell. In some ways, though, I think Villette is more successful than Jane Eyre in distinguishing antihero from hero because Bronte is kinder to the heroes in Villette and lets me feel a little bitter at them without really despising them here. Dr. John, in contrast to St. John, does not creep me out. Paulina is a traditionally heroic heroine. This works in Villette because it provides a more clear contrast between the traditional hero’s story and Lucy’s antiheroine story. On the other hand, Jane Eyre allows flaws in everyone, whether they are golden or dark, so that has a nice subtlety. At the same time that Jane and Rochester are the more clear antiheroes, St. John is so determined to crush feelings and be unhappy that he is not so much the golden hero as Dr. John. In Villette there is a clear line between hero and antihero; in Jane Eyre the line is more blurred, though the physical descriptions signal a distinction. It might not be useful, though, to compare the two books because they are both wonderful, and I don't know that I prefer the clear distinction or the blurring.
In some ways, I think this story is a Bronte [b:Pride and Prejudice|1885|Pride and Prejudice|Jane Austen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320399351s/1885.jpg|3060926]. All of the couples are parallels:
Spoiler
Paulina and Dr. John are Jane and Bingley; Lucy and M. Paul are Lizzy and Darcy; and, of course, Ginevra and de Hamal are Lydia and WickhamBoth Charlotte and Emily Bronte, also, always seem more exotic than Austen because the aesthetics of their heroes are described so much more like an emo band. While Austen captures that subtle loneliness of unreliable family, the Brontes go straight for explicit isolation in a cruel world. I doubt I could love either Austen or the Brontes so much without the other. And it was beautiful to read about the couples from Pride and Prejudice with the severity and stifled animal cry of Charlotte Bronte. I see Virginia Woolf’s point that sometimes Bronte’s failures as an editor interfere with the story in a way that you don’t see in Austen, but it is still beautiful.
Probably my favorite thing about this book is Lucy’s shiftiness as a narrator. This girl is going to tell you what she wants you to know and she is going to leave out whatever the fuck she wants. It was totally hilarious that she
Spoiler
didn’t even tell me that she knew the whole time that Dr. John was Graham BrettonSpoiler
heartbreaking – you can’t even handle the cruelty of her life, so she won’t force you to listen to itI was not in love with any of the heroes of this story, and I kind of liked that, too. It was more like a soul-mate friend, of whom I am completely in awe, telling me about the people she loved, and how she understood them and their faults, than a con game of trying to get me to fall in love myself. It is interesting because usually we are meant to fall in love with the romantic lead (and I’mma be honest, I totally swoon for Rochester), but I do not almost ever swoon for my irl friends’ love stories. In this way, I felt that Lucy was completely her own person, and even though I identified with her in this sometimes-creepy way, she was not a stand-in for me in the love story. I thought
Spoiler
both Dr. John and M. Paul were kind of douchebagsSpoiler
M. PaulI really loved this book. As I got to the end, I panicked a little because I remembered that I had always partly been reluctant to read it because I will use up the possibility for a new Bronte story soon, and what a sad, bleak time that will be. I still have a couple left, though, so I will hoard those for later. I wish Bronte would email me new stories from her austere, Protestant heaven.
emotional
relaxing
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
Not my favourite Bronte novel but certainly easier to read that Shirley. It meanders and could potentially be 100 pages shorter! Unlike Jane Eyre I find Lucy's character to be rather one dimensional