Customer Reviews

Villette (Penguin Classics)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One of the advantages of having the Kindle is that you can have access to all this amazing classical literature that you'd never buy. Villette by Charlotte Bronte is one of those. There are two Kindle free books of Villette, both are identical, so it doesn't matter which one you download.

The book's plot is quite interesting: You follow Lucy Snowe though her teens into her early 20s. She's not a typical heroine: she's a plain looking, average woman - sort of the anti-Austen stereotype. Lucy doesn't even have self esteem, but manages to flee England and moves to the European mainland.

Being my first Bronte novel, it's wildly delicious. The characters are flawed, there's tragedy and particularly wonderful moments. It does make you wonder how much of the book is autobiographical, and you feel a sense of loss because the Brontes were taken from us too soon before they could complete more works. You're sucked into the isolation of Lucy and in a way, that's more interesting than the plot.

Other and more talented reviewers can give you a better review of Villette (Signet Classics) than I can. But this book is a worthy download, and will bring you into a unique literary world and make you adore the creativity of the Brontes.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates raw human emotion with exceptional imagery to guide the reader through the thoughtful text. After reading Jane Eyre, I felt compelled to explore other Bronte works and found this to be the true masterpiece. Although at times not as accessible as Eyre, Villette is more sincere. There are no gothic mysteries to cloud the writing, instead just a very real account of what seems to be an autobiography of Bronte's life.

The first time I read this it seemed a bit difficult to get through, but I guarantee you will not be disappointed. It is very brooding, with nothing to hide the main character's insecurity that very much parallels that of Charlotte Bronte. There is a magic in this book that is not describable, and ranks at the top of my list of favorites!

After reading Jane Eyre I searched for another of Charlotte Bronte's novels. Villette is just as much worth reading as Eyre.
The story follows a woman, Lucy Snowe, from England to France, where she becomes a teacher at a French school for girls. Strange circumstances bring back old friends from the past, and new friends show her that she is, in fact, worthy of love.
Although the prose is beautiful, this novel is full of a sort of dark and ominous feeling that is so affecting that it is almost impossible to take your eyes off the page.
This book is really worth reading.

Another semi-autobiographical tale from Charlotte Bronte, based upon her time spent teaching in Belgium. This is not a novel of page turning excitement, but a lovely tale of one woman's battle to maintain her independence.

It's very interesting how the author brings characters in and out of her tale, and ties them all together in the end. Along with that, Bronte's gorgeous prose and all those large words that make you want to go running for the dictionary.

A lovely tale, one to savour like a fine red wine or chocolate, and an old classic worth rediscovering (or to discover for the first time). If you enjoyed Jane Eyre this is worth checking out.

Be careful which edition you buy of this work. It is lovely, don't get me wrong, and it's funny -- Charlotte Bronte's characters have a lot of spunk -- but there are some long love passages in French you do not want to miss, and most copies of classics do not have translations! Get the Oxford World's Classics edition if you can; the last Penguin I looked at did not have footnotes or translations.

Since buying the kindle, I have been reading the classics. After all, they are often free and give insight into the lives of those of another era. The first thing to notice is often the language, the length and complexity of the sentences, even in dialogue. I like the mastery of the language that many of these classic authors display, and it makes me wonder if any authors write this way now. Certainly complex sentences are not equal to great writing; I have read authors who seem to simply be showing off their intelligence and talking down to the reader. Bronte's writing seems natural and real while being intelligent as well, and that is what I like about it.
The plot is often dark and sad, almost tragic. I agree with one reviewer who called Lucy Snowe the "anti-Austen" character. Most of the time I felt sorry for Lucy, even outraged for her. The book's untidy ending just continues the exasparation of those readers who are pulling for Lucy's happiness.
In the end the life of Lucy is not unlike real life for some: a mixture of hope and despair, happiness and sadness, blessing and cursing.
It's worth reading, but beware. It is certainly not a modern american story.

I suppose I should begin with the briefest of disclaimers: I wrote my Master's thesis on this novel, so I'm a bit partial to it. That said, I find Villette to be the finest example of Victorian literature that I have yet encountered. In many ways, the novel is considered to be the companion piece to Bronte's first novel, Jane Eyre, since it grapples with many of the same themes and social issues (women on the brink of poverty, the bleak prospects of governesses, etc). Yet, this likeness is superficial, and those seeking to discover a sequel to Jane Eyre may find themselves disappointed by the (anti)narrative of Villette.

Jane Eyre's bildungsroman narrative- the heroine's meteoric rise from orphan amongst the ashes to a happily married gentlewoman authoress- is at every turn frustrated in Villette. Lucy Snowe is by no means the arbiter of her own destiny like her literary predecessor Jane Eyre; she is weak, maladjusted, and misanthropic. I imagine that Lucy's account would more closely resemble that of Mr. Rochester's incarcerated wife, Bertha Mason, than that of beloved Jane's... And this is Villette's principal virtue.

The novel is an unparalleled study in character, providing its readers with access to a fantastically twisted world. Bronte's Lucy Snowe is one of literature's greatest narratological innovations; not only is she unreliable, but she is uncommunicative and at times openly hostile to her audience. This makes for a frustrating read- not due to the difficulty of the novel (compared to Eliot or James, it's not a tough read)- but because it is painful to be perpetually held at bay by the reticence of a narrator whose primary purpose is to relate her life's story to her readers. The reader is made to feel like a child, desperately seeking the love and approval of an emotionally unavailable adult. Perhaps this is the reason many people virulently despise the novel, not because it's predictable (it's not) or contrived, but because its readers are made to feel as if they were despised. They are shunned, rejected, and ultimately denied access to the inner chambers of Lucy Snowe's mind. The account we are given is fabricated, carefully structured, and warped to fit the preconceived notions of a dark and embittered mind. This manipulation provides a poignant commentary on the dangers of "realist" fiction.

I suppose it's often true that you get what you pay for; and when the price is $0, well, all bets are off. Villette is one of my favorite books, so of course, when I saw it listed under the list of free titles available for Kindle, I had to check it out. Not surprisingly, the formatting and navigation in this version are lacking. There's no table of contents, and the chapters are separated only by a few extra line breaks as opposed to actual page breaks (or whatever the e-equivalent would be called). The biggest problem with this edition, however, is the lack of any notes. Normally, this might just mean that readers would be missing out on some interesting background or illuminating clarifications. However, there are large sections of French text in Villette that are not translated unless you have an annotated edition, and missing them would mean losing a significant chunk of the story. Malheureusement, if your French isn't up to snuff, this e-book will really do you no good. Spend a few dollars for a better edition-- it's absolutely worth it for a truly wonderful story.

Villette is a novel that cannot be pigeon-holed, though it falls loosely into the "Gothic novel" genre. It has many elements of the Gothic novel (the ghost in the attic just for a start) but Bronte turns every single convention of her time and her genre on its head, sometimes multiple times, until the form is a totally new one and all Bronte's own.

As incredible as it may sound, this is both a profoundly feminist and a profoundly conservative work. Bronte proudly displays her own British chauvinism, and creates nearly insufferable male characters (Dr. John, M. Paul, and even M. de Bassompierre at times) who dominate all the women around them gleefully. And in a majority of the cases Lucy Snowe supports and allows the dominance, only taking stands on matters of morality or her own independence. As the novel progresses Lucy stands up for herself more and more, but the overall message is still that women are gravely wronged by society. Bronte, however, doesn't see a way out of this problem.

Because of this, a happy "marriage of equals" cannot ever occur in Villette. Though Bronte, in her conservative fashion, does believe in romantic love and the happiness of a conventional marriage, she cannot reconcile it with the independence she believes women deserve. Bronte is a frustrated, defeatist, proto-feminist, who believes nothing can really be done to remedy the situation of oppressed women.

While this is an important theme of the novel, it's by no means all of it. This novel contains supremely funny passages, and the most scathing irony and sarcasm in the Bronte cannon. The cultural and religious criticism of "Labassecour" and Catholicism border, occasionally, on bigotry and Bronte, though clothed in literary glory, is shown to have the feet of clay of an English-nationalist snob.

The unreliability of the narrator, and the sometimes fragmented and hallucinatory tone of the story, make for a fascinating, if sometimes confusing, read. I agree with the poster above that this is an accessible novel, and certainly easier to read than most Henry James novels, for example, but Bronte's story-telling tricks are sometimes so subtle that the reader doesn't know that he or she is being manipulated. Occasionally it will take the reader a while to believe that he or she is being fooled; still longer to figure out why.

This is a poor description of a superlatively good book. This book does not have the breakneck pace of Jane Eyre. It does not have the excitement or minute-to-minute drama of that book, either, and fans of Jane Eyre will not necessarily enjoy Villette. This is a different novel -- I would say a better, more mature, more virtuouso, and more profound book -- but it also less of a dramatic page-turner. There is little that is knowable and understandable about the heroine, Lucy Snowe: and by this, perhaps Bronte is telling us there is little that we know about ourselves.

If you have patience and a love for rich prose, and are willing to give up some dramatic storytelling (although it is in this book, but simply in a different form) in order to get some amazing cultural criticism, and, quite honestly, some character development on a level not often seen in novels of this time period, Villette will be worth it for you. Keep an open mind, and be ready for some surprises. There is nothing conventional about this book, and that is one of its many strengths.

VILLETTE is the type of novel that will either haunt you forever or make you say "meh!" Although, I'm a total JANE EYRE freak, VILLETTE is my favorite out of the two. I don't really have anything else to add that already hasn't been elaborated on by my fellow reviewers.

With that out of the way, this review is directed towards those who are looking for an edition of VILLETTE that contains translations of the French text--yeah, there is A LOT of French in this book! If you don't know French, you're missing out on so much.

The Penguin Classics edition of VILLETTE edited by Mark Lily (introduction by Tony Tanner) actually does have a notes section in the back with English translations of the numerous French conversations. Also, many literary allusions (to the Bible, Greek mythology, etc.) in the novel are explained there as well, which was a big help to me. IBSN: 0140431187

However, a handful of free-standing, random French words are left untranslated in this edition. For example, "brioche" is translated but "ours" (bear) is not.