realkateschmate 's review for:

Villette by Charlotte Brontë

2.0

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I found Villette a struggle. It is character- rather than plot-driven, but I had difficulty with the ways many of the characters were drawn. Some, even when interesting, were too clearly representative types, such as Purity or Vanity, to have any depth. Others underwent change that was confusing because of how they'd been initially cast; I felt this way about Paul Emmanuel, who could never in my mind cease to be the Napoleonic clown he was convincingly described as in his introduction, and this threw off my reading of the entire second half or so of the novel.

Lucy Snowe was a frustrating narrator, sometimes too much an observer than participant but not in a way that drew me closer to the objects of her focus; sometimes unreliable but not (to me) in an interesting way; and I was shocked to read (after finishing the book) that she is considered to be highly erotic - I'd have said Jane Eyre eclipses her a hundredfold.

I'm glad I read this on my smartphone, because there's French on nearly every page.