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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Girl, go to therapy. Your taste in men suckssss
Too much of this book is written in untranslated French, which makes it very inaccessible and confusing. This book is written well, and I enjoyed some aspects of the drama, but I'm afraid it felt too long and less exciting than Charlotte's other works especially compared to Jane Eyre.
Shirley is my last book to read by the bronze sisters after this one but I need a break.
Shirley is my last book to read by the bronze sisters after this one but I need a break.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
3.5/5
girlie can def write like she's got some baller quotes but...
Lemme start off with the loser of the millennia - Dr. John. I realize it was a different time but like nahhh. Why do you as a 27 year old keep falling in love with 17 year old girls. Multiple 17yr old girls! and you mention that you like the childlike and innocent qualities about them??? bruh. Also you were practically a babysitter for one of them when she was 6. *ladies and gentlemen we got him FBI breaking down the door video meme* Am I supposed to be rooting for this? cuz im not.
why is it that in this and Jane eyre the main girlies end up with cranky old men? is this really the best we can do?
girlie can def write like she's got some baller quotes but...
Lemme start off with the loser of the millennia - Dr. John. I realize it was a different time but like nahhh. Why do you as a 27 year old keep falling in love with 17 year old girls. Multiple 17yr old girls! and you mention that you like the childlike and innocent qualities about them??? bruh. Also you were practically a babysitter for one of them when she was 6. *ladies and gentlemen we got him FBI breaking down the door video meme* Am I supposed to be rooting for this? cuz im not.
why is it that in this and Jane eyre the main girlies end up with cranky old men? is this really the best we can do?
Charlotte Bronte. Char-lotte Bron-te. How do you do this? How? Jane Eyre is my most favorite book of all time. But Villette. Oh Villette. How do I even begin? Well, I'll begin by quoting George Eliot: "A still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre."
(Could I have two all-time favorite books?)
Villette follows the life of its heroine, Lucy Snowe. Left destitute, Lucy leaves England and finds herself working at a French boarding school in Villette. Lucy, like her literary sister Jane Eyre, must rely on herself and endure. But, unlike Jane Eyre who edures hopefully, Lucy Snowe endures despairingly. Seemingly cold and never letting her guard down, you learn very little of what Lucy thinks or feels until midway through the book. Hiding behind her plain features and undesireablility, she is often referred to as being as inoffensive as a shadow (p.358). She hides her intelligence and ambitions behind this facade and keeps them unknown to those around her and to the reader.
Villette is a psychoanalytical book. It's hugely Gothic in its tone and story. It's romantic. It's confusing. It's surprising. It's heart-wrenching. Quite simply, it's genius. I can't even begin to summarize or praise it without giving away things that are better off being discovered by the reader. So I'll say to you: Read Villette. Make sure you read an edition with notes on the French translation (though lots of it will still be untranslated). Be patient.
For the time being, I'll have two all-time favorite books, but I wouldn't be surprised if Villette surpassed Jane Eyre. Soon.
(Could I have two all-time favorite books?)
Villette follows the life of its heroine, Lucy Snowe. Left destitute, Lucy leaves England and finds herself working at a French boarding school in Villette. Lucy, like her literary sister Jane Eyre, must rely on herself and endure. But, unlike Jane Eyre who edures hopefully, Lucy Snowe endures despairingly. Seemingly cold and never letting her guard down, you learn very little of what Lucy thinks or feels until midway through the book. Hiding behind her plain features and undesireablility, she is often referred to as being as inoffensive as a shadow (p.358). She hides her intelligence and ambitions behind this facade and keeps them unknown to those around her and to the reader.
Villette is a psychoanalytical book. It's hugely Gothic in its tone and story. It's romantic. It's confusing. It's surprising. It's heart-wrenching. Quite simply, it's genius. I can't even begin to summarize or praise it without giving away things that are better off being discovered by the reader. So I'll say to you: Read Villette. Make sure you read an edition with notes on the French translation (though lots of it will still be untranslated). Be patient.
For the time being, I'll have two all-time favorite books, but I wouldn't be surprised if Villette surpassed Jane Eyre. Soon.
By every vessel he wrote; he wrote as he gave and as he loved, in full-handed, full-hearted plentitude. He wrote because he liked to write; he did not abridge, because he cared not to abridge. He sat down, he took pen and paper, because he loved Lucy and had much to say to her; because he was faithful and thoughtful, because he was tender and true. There was no sham and no cheat and no hollow unreal in him. Apology never dropped her slippery oil on his lips - never proffered, by his pen, her coward feints and paltry nullities: he would give neither a stone, nor an excuse - neither a scorpion, nor a disappointment; his letters were real food that nourished, living water that refreshed. p. 557
Having read Jane Eyre, I was really looking forward to this book. It really kind of bowled me over in several ways, both bad and good:
- the prose. My goodness, it was so wordy that sometimes it felt like I was reading a passage in my head and then translating it to think about what she actually said. This got exhausting after a while and is probably the biggest reason it took me more than a year to finish.
- the emotion. This book was extremely painful to read, because Bronte very successfully conveyed her protagonist's pain of loneliness and depression and even the pain of hope - how painful it can be to hold on to hope for something good if it's not forthcoming.
- Madame Beck and Pere Silas. Ohhh, I wanted to throttle that woman - jump right in the book and punch her in the face. Pere Silas, I'm sure, thought he was doing right according to his creed, but he is a strong representation of Bronte's dislike of Catholicism. I did find it interesting how she chose to put M. Paul Emanuel in the middle of that - raised as a staunch Catholic but able to accept Lucy for herself and see that Protestantism was the best path for her.
- M. Paul himself. Man, he was really awful to Lucy. For most of the book I failed to feel the romance here but by the end he began to redeem himself with his actions. The whole scene in the art gallery, where he is not allowing Lucy to look at any paintings other than those of domestic scenes, cracked me up even though he was being a jerk through it.
I can't say that I loved this book because it was so emotionally painful (including the end I know she meant for it despite her allowance for the reader to imagine their own ending) and I will continue to live in my own little happy-land regarding the fates of Lucy and M. Paul. I can, however, greatly respect the emotional depth Bronte conveyed and be horrified to think how closely those aspects probably mirrored her own experiences.
- the prose. My goodness, it was so wordy that sometimes it felt like I was reading a passage in my head and then translating it to think about what she actually said. This got exhausting after a while and is probably the biggest reason it took me more than a year to finish.
- the emotion. This book was extremely painful to read, because Bronte very successfully conveyed her protagonist's pain of loneliness and depression and even the pain of hope - how painful it can be to hold on to hope for something good if it's not forthcoming.
- Madame Beck and Pere Silas. Ohhh, I wanted to throttle that woman - jump right in the book and punch her in the face. Pere Silas, I'm sure, thought he was doing right according to his creed, but he is a strong representation of Bronte's dislike of Catholicism. I did find it interesting how she chose to put M. Paul Emanuel in the middle of that - raised as a staunch Catholic but able to accept Lucy for herself and see that Protestantism was the best path for her.
- M. Paul himself. Man, he was really awful to Lucy. For most of the book I failed to feel the romance here but by the end he began to redeem himself with his actions. The whole scene in the art gallery, where he is not allowing Lucy to look at any paintings other than those of domestic scenes, cracked me up even though he was being a jerk through it.
I can't say that I loved this book because it was so emotionally painful (including the end I know she meant for it despite her allowance for the reader to imagine their own ending) and I will continue to live in my own little happy-land regarding the fates of Lucy and M. Paul. I can, however, greatly respect the emotional depth Bronte conveyed and be horrified to think how closely those aspects probably mirrored her own experiences.
I read it years ago and I still remember the aching intensity of it. It's brilliant.
lighthearted
reflective
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:
Complicated