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A review by libraryofdreaming
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
3.0
I still can't make up my mind as to what I think about Villette. I've been wanting to read more Charlotte Brontë for a long time now, but perhaps this book was not the best place to start. It was impossible for me to keep from comparing it to Jane Eyre, and this book suffered for the comparison. Lucy Snowe is no Jane Eyre and I could not love her and her story as much as I did Jane and even Mr. Rochester. Overall, Villette is much more mournful and introspective. It blended literary styles to a dizzying degree. It honestly felt more like some mystical, philisophical reflection than a novel for the majority of its pages. I'll be honest, Lucy's narration kind of drove me crazy. At times, she is prententious and annoying, at other times, she is incredibly poignant and relatable. Her habit of only relating bits and pieces was rather maddening. Her meekness and snobbishness drove me up the wall. But her romantic misadventures, her wallflower status, loneliness, and struggle really hit me hard. At times I wanted to snarl, "Grow a backbone! Stop complaining about the Catholics!" and at other times I wanted to wrap her into a hug and cry until my heart broke. Even (if I'm being honest) in her prejudice and willfulness, I saw myself. When she described her reaction to a thunderstorm when she felt something in the wildness call to her and desperately wished to rush out into the elements and be free, I felt like Charlotte Brontë had seen right into my soul.
Maybe that was why I found parts of Villette so irritating. Lucy Snowe had an unsettling habit of showing me the worst sides of myself. I would not recommend Villette to the faint of heart. It's long and it's weird. Unlike Jane Eyre, there isn't a magical happy conclusion full of romance. While it is a fairly happy ending, I still feel unsatisfied with the final romance. Yes, it ended realistically, but I do not share Charlotte Brontë and Lucy's attraction to overly aggressive, pushy men. It really came out of left field to me that the romance ended the way it did. I don't feel like the romantic hero was set up to be the romantic hero. In fact, all of Lucy's romantic interests were irritating to me, either for their lack of social graces or just for their stupidity. Since the books spans many years and lots of character analysis, the plot can be rather rambling. While there are some gothic elements (aka a ghost nun), I couldn't help but wish from time a wife would pop out of the attic to make things move a little quicker. I expected a lot more school drama for some reason but instead we got a lot more philisophical windings than I could have imagined.
Overall, some bits of this book were engaging and heartfelt, but others were dry and rambling. I wouldn't say that this was Charlotte Brontë's best work. Maybe I was just missing something though. I think I will go try out Shirley next, perhaps it will be more my style.
Maybe that was why I found parts of Villette so irritating. Lucy Snowe had an unsettling habit of showing me the worst sides of myself. I would not recommend Villette to the faint of heart. It's long and it's weird. Unlike Jane Eyre, there isn't a magical happy conclusion full of romance. While it is a fairly happy ending, I still feel unsatisfied with the final romance. Yes, it ended realistically, but I do not share Charlotte Brontë and Lucy's attraction to overly aggressive, pushy men. It really came out of left field to me that the romance ended the way it did. I don't feel like the romantic hero was set up to be the romantic hero. In fact, all of Lucy's romantic interests were irritating to me, either for their lack of social graces or just for their stupidity. Since the books spans many years and lots of character analysis, the plot can be rather rambling. While there are some gothic elements (aka a ghost nun), I couldn't help but wish from time a wife would pop out of the attic to make things move a little quicker. I expected a lot more school drama for some reason but instead we got a lot more philisophical windings than I could have imagined.
Overall, some bits of this book were engaging and heartfelt, but others were dry and rambling. I wouldn't say that this was Charlotte Brontë's best work. Maybe I was just missing something though. I think I will go try out Shirley next, perhaps it will be more my style.