Villette (Penguin English Library) [Paperback]

Charlotte Brontë (Author), Mark Lilly (Editor), Tony Tanner (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Penguin English Library | Publication Date: February 28, 1980

Published in 1853, this is Charlotte Bronte's final novel and is often regarded, emotionally and aesthetically, as her most satisfying. As in "Jane Eyre" the theme is passionate personal integrity - the struggle of an individual to preserve independence of spirit in adverse circumstances.

Editorial Reviews

Review

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


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Publisher

With her final novel, Villette, Charlotte Bronte reached the height of her artistic power. First published in 1853, Villette is Bronte's most accomplished and deeply felt work, eclipsing even Jane Eyre in critical acclaim. Her narrator, the autobiographical Lucy Snowe, flees England and a tragic past to become an instructor in a French boarding school in the town of Villette. There, she unexpectedly confronts her feelings of love and longing as she witnesses the fitful romance between Dr. John, a handsome young Englishman, and Ginerva Fanshawe, a beautiful coquetter. This first pain brings others, and with them comes the heartache Lucy has tried so long to escape. Yet in spite of adversity and disappointment, Lucy Snowe survives to recount the unstinting vision of a turbulent life's journey--a journey that is one of the most insightful fictional studies of a woman's consciousness in English literature. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (February 28, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140431187
• ISBN-13: 978-0140431186
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,453,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Would've Given It a 5-Star Rating If Not for..., October 8, 1999

By 

anna-joelle (Malaysia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Villette (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

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.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Villette, Charlotte Bronte's underrated masterpiece, September 20, 2000

By 

Nancy B. LaMotta (Annandale, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Villette (Penguin English Library) (Paperback)

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.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A harrowing account of an heroic soul, December 9, 2001

By 

Daniel Myers (Greenville, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Villette (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) (Hardcover)

What irks me about the other reader reviews is that so many of them seem to cast Lucy Snow's soul in modern terms in the hopes of convincing the readers of the reviews that the book is accessible to them.
I take the opposite tack. It is WE who have something to learn from the Victorians and their masterworks, rather than (if time could be reversed) the other way around. Lucy Snow is a spiritual hero, a concept seemingly lost in our modern age, to judge by most of the reviews anyway. The very name "Lucy" signifies a spiritual light along with a sexual purity signified by "Snow." that all of us in the modern age would do well to ponder and reasses our own souls thereby. I realize, of course, that the term "soul" is dreadfully outdated for many readers. But read and learn that there is such a beautiful thing, not to be psychoanalyzed to dissolution. Read, for example:

"No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in mould, and tilled with manure. Happpiness is a glory shining far down upon us out of Heaven. She is a divive dew which the soul, on certain of its summer mornings, feels dropping upon it from the amaranth blooms and golden fruitage of Paradise."

Through all of Lucy's companionless travails through unrequited and partially requited love, we feel the own deep personal love and light shining from her deep sensitive soul. It reminds me of nothing so much as the poetry of Emily Dickinson...In fact, I would go so far to say that those without an appreciation of great poetry will gain little from reading this poetic novel. - Unrequited love builds character and, paradoxically, allows that love to become spiritual (There really is such a thing!) NOT "sublimated."
So, if you can relate to Emily Dickinson, to Yeats when he tells us that if his lifelong love for Maud Gonne had been requited he might have "thrown poor words away and been content to live." or to Emily Dickinson's "Not one of all the purple host who took the flag to-day can tell the definition so clear, of victory, as he, defeated, dying, on whose forbidden ear the distant strains of triumph break, agonized and clear." then pick up this book and follow Lucy through her travails. If you're looking for an easy reading page turner, forget it.
Lucy Snow is a chacter to be admired and emulated, not looked down upon in presumptuous, self-righteous pity.

"For those that have ears, let them hear."