Villette
by Charlotte Bronte
★★★★☆
Lucy Snowe is an orphaned girl who finds herself taking a job
as an instructor at a French boarding school in the town of Villette.
Throughout the course of the novel we’re introduced to a wide selection
of characters: the spoiled young Polly, handsome Dr. John, Lucy’s cruel
employer Madame Beck and her nephew the cranky professor M. Paul
Emanuel, the insufferable coquette Ginerva Fanshawe and more.
This novel is famous in literary circles because of the illusive
heroine. Lucy keeps secret from the reader and never lets us completely
into her world. There’s so much we don’t know about her and at times
that can be frustrating, but I do love her acerbic nature. She’s often
short or condescending; she sometimes calls people out on their bad
choices in love or challenges them in other ways. Lucy is beyond
interesting. I also love the fact that her job is important to her and
that throughout the book the pursuit of education is valued.
Lucy’s character reminds me so much of Esther from Bleak House. I’m
sure it has something to do with the fact that I read both books in the
same year, but it’s not just that. Both women are quiet and reserved,
never giving the reader a complete picture of who they are. Both are
instrumental in getting to close friends together, both fall for
someone, but assume they can’t ever be together for one reason or
another. I just kept having flashbacks. I checked the dates and the
books were actually published in the same year, though Dickens’ was
serialized the year before. I doubt either author was aware of the
other’s novel when they were writing their own.
In so many ways I can understand why Villette is considered
Charlotte’s masterpiece. The characters and their relationships are much
more complicated and the tone is much darker. I also think the writing
is exquisite, even better than in her earlier work. Villette really was
way ahead of its time. But I will also say it didn’t impact me in the
same way that Jane Eyre did and I think a big part of that is my own
personality.
Most of the people I know who have loved Villette more than Jane
Eyre identify with Lucy in a very personal way. They are usually
quieter, more introspective and reserved and that’s just not me. I’m a
bit of a chatterbox and I tend to be incredibly social. I do love being
at home alone and curling up with a good book, but I like being out and
about with my friends just as much. So it was harder for me to connect
with Lucy. It’s not that Jane Eyre is Miss Social Butterfly, but she
does stand up for herself and she’s a bit of a rebel. I love her open
dialogue with the reader. I felt like I knew her in a way that I never
did with Lucy.
I missed the humor you find in Jane Eyre. I felt like the chemistry
between Jane and Mr. Rochester was palpable and I never felt that way
with Lucy and either of her love interests. I also couldn’t connect with
the all-encompassing loneliness that plagued Lucy. I think it’s unfair
to judge this book entirely in comparison to Jane Eyre, but I can’t help
myself. I couldn’t seem to stop.
I think Villette really embodied the pain Charlotte was going
through at that time. It was the last novel she completed and at that
point all of her sisters had died. She was alone and heartbroken and
that darkness seeped into her writing.
SPOILERS
The ending totally took me by surprise. I know some
people say it’s ambiguous, but to me it was pretty clear (maybe that
makes me pessimistic). I couldn’t help thinking WTF on that last page.
It’s not that the writing wasn’t beautiful or fitting, but still I felt
like I was punched in the stomach. I wanted Lucy to have a bit of
happiness in the second half of her life and I felt like she was so
close but never quite got it. Her happiest years were those anticipating
the life she was never able to have with M. Paul Emanuel; that broke my
heart.
SPOILERS OVER
BOTTOM LINE: It’s a must for anyone who loves
the Bronte sisters or Victorian classics. It didn’t trump Jane Eyre as
my personal favorite, but it’s a more challenging book in many ways and
one that I know I’ll reread in the future.
“If there are words and wrongs like knives, whose deep-inflicted
lacerations never heal-cutting injuries and insults of serrated and
poison-dripping edge-so, too, there are consolations of tone too fine
for the ear not fondly and for ever to retain their echo; caressing
kindnesses-loved, lingered over through a whole life, recalled with
unfaded tenderness, and answering the call with undimmed shine, out of
that raven cloud foreshadowing Death himself.”
I read this as part of the Victorian Celebration hosted by Allie at A Literary Odyssey.
A few months ago Wallace at Unputdownables hosted a read-along of
Villette. If you read it I’d recommend following her posts on each
section here.
Kristi’s
wonderful review gives a wonderful perspective on Villette being better than Jane Eyre.
