Villette (Wordsworth Classics)

This is one of the lesser known, (at least to me), Charlotte Bronte novels. Said to be somewhat autobiographical, set in a fictional town in France. I had to do a paper on a classic author for school, and I wanted to do something different than anyone in the class, so I tried to go obscure. This ended up being a really great story. I loved thinking of Charlotte as the heroine of the story since it's supposed to be about her. I honestly couldn't have picked a better, more interesting novel. If you love Bronte, or beautiful writing, you should check this out.

I really enjoyed reading Villette! Lucy Snowe is a complex character, as we follow her journey of trying to make a living. The novel is long and can be a bit slow to read, but the characters are fascinating that it makes you want to keep reading! Bronte does an amazing job of developing the psychology of each character. I love the theme of surveillance in the novel as well. As readers, we see romance and insight of Lucy's personal experience of trying to gain success, despite having no social clout. Highly recommend!

Villette is a great read, the intrigue is not as strong here but Charlotte is a classic so you will enjoy it.

I have not yet read Jane Eyre, so it was interesting to read this one first. I thought it was oddly still relevant to today, but was a bit on the long side and could have wrapped up sooner for me. I enjoyed it overall, and liked that Lucy Snow was a strong female protagonist. Overall I enjoyed this one and am looking forward to reading Jane Eyre very soon.

Since I'm not a writer, I could never do this book justice here in words. I found it an excellent book, very unusual. I have to say its in my top ten!

Necessary

(Minor spoiler alert ) I find it very interesting that some of the readers think Villette is better than Jane Eyre when the character Lucy Snow is identical to Jane Eyre. The are both without a mother, father and siblings. They both are described as not beautiful and plain in appearance. They both ran away to a new life leaving behind a dark past to end up teaching. Monsieur Paul is to Lucy Snow what Rochester is to Jane Eyre. The stories are too similar to call one better than the other in my opinion. Actually I found it quite irritating as I read the book. I found the plot all over the place with no real structure. I thought the story was thought up as it was written, too many unexplained turn of events. One being, when she first arrived in Villette she was helped by a stranger who introduced her to the teaching position, only to find out later on that he was in fact her godmother's son, one whom she lived with! And so on.

I was at first confused then depressed ,and even dissapointed at the ending. I inferred the worst since it was left untold not to ' trouble any happy hearts'. But it seemed the way it should be ,unlike ' Jane Eyre '( it was a great book ,but the happy ending I thought was a little exaggerated ).Charlotte Bronte was a brilliant , creative writer, and her extremes are what I admire her most for. Then the painfully realistic ending in this tragedy shows her maturity as an author. Depressing or not , ' Villette' is a remarkable novel that I wish not to be changed.

By the time I had forced myself through the first volume of Villette I was seriously concerned I would not be able to finish it, which bothers me as I hate it when I feel defeated by a book. I persisted, however, and am so glad I did because Volume 2 was a massive improvement and Volume 3 utterly captured my heart. I finished the book last week and cannot stop thinking about it, so much has it grabbed hold of my imagination. I wont summarise the plot as others have done so, but instead will give my thoughts on the what I disliked and what I loved about Villette.Firstly, the dislikes. It is a shame that Volume 1 is a let down, because asides from this then Villette would probably be more highly thought of than Jane Eyre. I found Volume 1 simply too relentlessly depressing for even my serious literary tastes. At this stage of the book Lucy Snowe, well and truly lives up to her name - she is a cold, unsympathetic character reluctant to give away her feelings and thoughts which is never appealing in a narrator. The first few chapters regarding Lucy's time in Bretton feel very disjointed from the rest of the volume, and it is only once you get into Volume 2 that their presence in the novel make any sense. I can see that Bronte was trying to create an element of suspense and suprise here (which I won't give away here), but to me those chapters could still have been better integrated into the rest of the volume.Now the likes. Bronte's prose is a delight to read, and sits well even to the modern reader. Sometimes the direct appeal to the "reader" can be a bit jarring but on the whole her style is very appealing. The best thing about Villette, though, is the characters. The plot is pretty thin, as is often the way with literature of this period, but that matters not a jot as the characters are more than enough to hold the interest. As I have already said, I found Lucy a hard to like character in the first volume but after that I really grew to love her. Bronte peels away layers of Lucy's psychology like peeling away layers of an onion, gradually revealing more and more about her to the reader until you really come to feel like you know and understand her. She is also quite an unusual character for this period - a woman who takes control of her own life and earns an independent living, unreliant on anyone else for anything - and this makes her very appealing. There are a number of other characters who make fascinating reading. For me I thought M. Paul was easily able to stand up to Mr Darcy and Mr Rochester in the annals of romantic yet moody leading men. Dr John and Mme Beck are also full of character and come to life on the page.I think I liked the ending, despite it's ambiguity, although I am still debating this with myself internally even now. Whilst Bronte has left the ending up to the reader's imagination, to me it is quite clear what her intention for the ending was and she was put off from it by the publisher who felt it would be too sad. I really wish she had had the courage of her convictions and written it the way she wanted. Whilst I don't mind an ambiguous ending normally, here I felt here that the reader deserved and needed a more definate ending given that by this point the reader has invested so much in Lucy's fate.All in all though, Villette is a splendid read which, if you can persist past the first volume, will very likely capture a place in your heart and for this is is well worth a read.

another classic read

I got this for my mum and she seems to love it. Not read it myself but perfect for anyone that loves all the classic novels.

I ploughed through this book without much joy but I did manage all three volumes.

good story