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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Wasn’t as compelled by the plot of this one, but found the prose and narrative style exquisite. So funny how Charlotte Brontë’s characters inhabit the smallest world possible—everybody ends up being connected somehow.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
dark
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Villette by Charlotte Brontë is about Lucy Snowe, an Englishwoman who leaves her quiet life behind and travels to the fictional city of Villette in France, where she becomes a teacher at Madame Beck’s school. Along the way, she reconnects with people from her past and gets caught up in complicated relationships, love, and Madame Beck’s constant interference.
I found Lucy both annoying and surprising — she’s so cold and unemotional that it was hard for me to understand her or predict what she was doing. When she speaks directly to the reader, you think you’re getting close to her, but really, you aren’t. Her choices often felt unthoughtful, and honestly, she scared me when she suddenly left England and got on that boat for France with almost no plan.
The pacing is really slow, and for a long time it felt like things just happened to Lucy rather than her taking action. It wasn’t until near the end (about 20 hours into the audiobook!) that the story picked up and got more interesting. What kept me going were the love complications and wanting to know how it would end. The end was totally unexpected.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
my first classic. absolutely insanely slow read. the mundanity is part of the vibe, but god was it a difficult read because of the foreign language. definitely not for someone expecting an exciting reading experience
***2.75
I'm free.
I went into this thinking that this would be similar to Jane Eyre; an orphaned girl seeks employment as a governess far from where she grew up, falls in love, and a dark twist is revealed, or something. That is not what this book was.
I can now say I am underwhelmed with this book, but I don't want that to take away from the genuinely good writing it had. Charlotte Brontë, as obvious as this may sound, is a GOOD writer. Fork found in kitchen, I know, but so many lines had me like... damn... yeah.
Overall though, I was bored for most of this story. I think it had a promising start, but I found myself not caring. I wanted to tell Lucy to stand up for the majority of the book. There was legitimately an annoying amount of untranslated French that I ended up just skipping half the time. I disliked almost every single character in this story besides Paulina and she was hardly in it. The plot moved at a snails pace and it wasn't engaging enough for me to lock in and focus on what was going on. I would stop paying attention, get confused, but force myself to continue since I didn't want to DNF it.
OH ALSO the end was DUMBBBBBB. Dumb enough that I wanted to rip out the last page and ignore it. That being said, I'm still interested in reading Charlotte's other books but for now... I need a break. So I'm taking a deserved vacation from Classics!! Everyone clap and cheer!!!
I'm free.
I went into this thinking that this would be similar to Jane Eyre; an orphaned girl seeks employment as a governess far from where she grew up, falls in love, and a dark twist is revealed, or something. That is not what this book was.
I can now say I am underwhelmed with this book, but I don't want that to take away from the genuinely good writing it had. Charlotte Brontë, as obvious as this may sound, is a GOOD writer. Fork found in kitchen, I know, but so many lines had me like... damn... yeah.
Overall though, I was bored for most of this story. I think it had a promising start, but I found myself not caring. I wanted to tell Lucy to stand up for the majority of the book. There was legitimately an annoying amount of untranslated French that I ended up just skipping half the time. I disliked almost every single character in this story besides Paulina and she was hardly in it. The plot moved at a snails pace and it wasn't engaging enough for me to lock in and focus on what was going on. I would stop paying attention, get confused, but force myself to continue since I didn't want to DNF it.
OH ALSO the end was DUMBBBBBB. Dumb enough that I wanted to rip out the last page and ignore it. That being said, I'm still interested in reading Charlotte's other books but for now... I need a break. So I'm taking a deserved vacation from Classics!! Everyone clap and cheer!!!