Product Description

"Villette! Villette! Have you read it?" exclaimed George Eliot when Charlotte Brontë's final novel appeared in 1853. "It is a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost preternatural in its power."

Arguably Brontë's most refined and deeply felt work, Villette draws on her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three siblings. Lucy Snowe, the narrator of Villette,flees from an unhappy past in England to begin a new file as a teacher at a French boarding school in the great cosmopolitan capital of Villette. Soon Lucy's struggle for independence is overshadowed by both her freindship with a wordly English doctor and her feelings for an autocratic schoolmaster. Brontë's strikingly modern heroine must decide if there is any man in her society with whom she can live and still be free.

"Villette is an amazing book," observed novelist Susan Fromberg Schaeffer. "Written before psychoanalysis came into being, Villette is nevertheless a psychoanalytic work—a psychosexual study of its heroine, Lucy Snowe. Written before the philosophy of existentialism was formulated, the novel's view of the world can only be described as existential. . . . Today it is read and discussed more intensely than Charlotte Brontë's other novels, and many critics now beleive it to be a true master-piece, a work of genius that more than fulfilled the promise of Jane Eyre." Indeed, Virginia Woolf judged Villette to be Brontë's "finest novel."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168520 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-09
• Released on: 2001-10-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 656 pages

Review
"Brontë?s finest novel."
--Virginia Woolf -- Review

Review
"Brontë’s finest novel."
--Virginia Woolf

From the Publisher
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Customer Reviews

Would've Given It a 5-Star Rating If Not for...
its rather hurried and ambigious ending, which leaves the reader having to form his/her own version of the ending ie. whether a happy or sad one. (Read the Signet Classic, the afterword by Jerome Beaty explains that Charlotte Bronte actually wanted a somewhat sad ending to the story, but her father wanted it to be a happy one, so Bronte compromised by leaving the ending 'hanging' so that the readers can decide for themselves how the story ends.)

Apart from the above dissapointment, this is a marvelous classic and beautifully written, a great and indepth analysis of the workings of the human heart and mind. I loved it better than Jane Eyre (except for the ending: Jane Eyre's is more complete and satisfying). You'll love the character of M.Paul - despite his eccentric behaviour, he's really a darling with a heart of gold, which Lucy Snowe soon discovers!

I recommend that you buy the Signet Classic version which has the English translation to the over 400 French phrases found in the book.

Villette, Charlotte Bronte's underrated masterpiece
Having read this book 7 times over the past 15 years, I find that the story and characters just get better and better! As much as I idolize _Jane Eyre,_ this story of the oft depressed and melancholy Lucy Snowe sparks the imagination. Lucy is a Jane Eyre without the chutzpah, and with loads less self-esteem; but shares Jane's strict code of conduct, and forces you to value her. In a way, I believe Lucy finds an even worthier match than Jane did--in M. Paul Emmanuel, passionate professor of literature. In a way, the scenes between him and Lucy excite my imagination all the more, because they're understated, AND because I already know how the story ends. The pain lends the love story incredible passion--the tame, orderly, parallel love story of Graham and Paulina just places that of Paul and Lucy in greater relief. The two greatest actions in the book--a slap and a kiss--are so climactic and satisfying, that when I get to that section of the novel, I won't put it down until the end. I am still reeling! Was it better to have loved and lost? _Villette_ answers that question with a resounding affirmative.

A portrait of the artist as Lucy Snowe
"Villette" is a more complex, mature novel than "Jane Eyre" and, to many readers, a more unsatisfying one. Unlike "Jane Eyre", "Villette" is no Cinderella tale, and there is no Rochester to stir the heroine's -- and the reader's --emotions. In "Villette", Bronte gives us Lucy Snowe, whom she resembled in many ways: plain, prim, no-nonsense, practical to a fault, and suffering the pains of unrequited love. Unlike the happy ending which delighted us in "Jane Eyre", Lucy finds a hope of happiness at last with M. Paul Emanuel, only to have her prospects shipwrecked literally and figuratively at the end of the book. Many readers have a problem with Bronte's liberal use of French throughout the book which disrupts the narrative, and her forays into Gothic romanticism, which seem contrived and artificial. A more serious problem, for this reviewer, is Bronte's insularity and her narrow-minded frame of reference which rejects anything un-English and un-Protestant. Even with these flaws, "Villette" is a deep, thought-provoking portrayal of the pain of lost illusions.