A review by wollstonecrafty
Villette by Charlotte Brontë

5.0

I cannot believe I waited so long to read this, but I'm simultaneously so glad I read it in my mid-20s. The way Bronte writes Lucy as not only caught between internal desires and external expectations but also the humiliating twinges of self awareness that accompany WANTING something so so badly, is like, heart-rending for me. It's more than the discussion of Jane choosing her heart or her morals or Lucy being distrustful and unlikable - it's the ambivalent emotions that accompany any choice and the constant aching self awareness of how the world sees you when you're a weird woman. As soon as Lucy "wants" something she feels immediate discomfort with the desire and then another layer of compounded discomfort because of these initial negative feelings, feelings that she casts as self pity.