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Villette (1853)

by Charlotte Brontë

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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8,739144936 (3.86)2 / 538
With neither friends nor family, Lucy Snowe sets sail from England to find employment in a girls boarding school in the small town of Villette. There she struggles to retain her self-possession in the face of unruly pupils, an initially suspicious headmaster, and her own complex feelings, first for the school s English doctor and then for the dictatorial professor, Paul Emmanuel. Charlotte Bront s last and most autobiographical novel is a powerfully moving study of isolation and the pain of unrequited love, narrated by a heroine determined to preserve an independent spirit in the face of adverse circumstances.… (more)
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» See also 538 mentions

English (136)  Italian (2)  German (2)  Danish (1)  French (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (144)
Showing 1-5 of 136 (next | show all)
The story delves into Lucy's life from the moment she stays with her Godmother as well as further guests. Later in Lucy's journey, she crosses paths with these guests and while in Vilette starts various relationships, both platonic and love. This is a lengthy and heavy book, exploring love and heartache.


I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. ( )
  Louisesk | Jan 26, 2024 |
I'm gonna have to recalibrate my rating system. This is a five star work!! I forgot how Charlotte Bronte can rip you apart. The storms! ( )
  RachelGMB | Dec 27, 2023 |
The story delves into Lucy's life from the moment she stays with her Godmother as well as further guests. Later in Lucy's journey, she crosses paths with these guests and while in Vilette starts various relationships, both platonic and love. This is a lengthy and heavy book, exploring love and heartache.


I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. ( )
  Louisesk | Nov 25, 2023 |
While this was as well written as one would expect, I found this third Charlotte Bronte novel too slow and have given up on it around 70% of the way through. The main character Lucy Snowe is an English teacher at a girls' school in the fictional city of Villette in the fictional country of Labassecour (which feels rather like Belgium). I enjoyed some of her passive aggressive clashes with Mme Beck, the headmistress, who was probably the most interesting character in the novel, but was rather bored by the romantic manoeuvrings (and it's not that I never like romance as a plot element, it just didn't work for me here). This novel was a reworking of the first novel Charlotte wrote The Professor, but which was published posthumously; the theme and plot is similar, but characters and setting different. ( )
  john257hopper | Nov 24, 2023 |
Jane Austen’s older, darker sister ( )
  farrhon | Oct 8, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 136 (next | show all)

» Add other authors (160 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Brontë, Charlotteprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Agricola, ChristianeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Benedict, HelenAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cass, KarenNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cooper, Helen M.Notessecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Giordani, AndreaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Giusti, GeorgeCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Haapanen-Tallgren, TyyniTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lane, MargaretIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lilly, MarkEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lilly, MarkEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
May, NadiaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Porter, DavinaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pucci, Alfred JohnCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Reddick, PeterIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ritchie, CharlotteNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rosengarten, HerbertEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Smith, MargaretEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Standring, HeatherCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Weston, MandyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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My godmother lived in a handsome house in the clean and ancient town of Bretton.
Quotations
I believe in some blending of hope and sunshine sweetening the worst lots. I believe that this life is not all; neither the beginning nor the end. I believe while I tremble; I trust while I weep.
No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in mould, and tilled with manure.
“Do you like him much?'
"I told you I liked him a little. Where is the use of caring for him so very much: he is full of faults.'
"Is he?'
"All boys are.”
Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation
Besides, I seemed to hold two lives—the life of thought, and that of reality; and, provided the former was nourished with a sufficiency of the strange necromantic joys of fancy, the privileges of the latter might remain limited to daily bread, hourly work, and a roof of shelter.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

With neither friends nor family, Lucy Snowe sets sail from England to find employment in a girls boarding school in the small town of Villette. There she struggles to retain her self-possession in the face of unruly pupils, an initially suspicious headmaster, and her own complex feelings, first for the school s English doctor and then for the dictatorial professor, Paul Emmanuel. Charlotte Bront s last and most autobiographical novel is a powerfully moving study of isolation and the pain of unrequited love, narrated by a heroine determined to preserve an independent spirit in the face of adverse circumstances.

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Book description
Friendless and poor, Lucy Snowe arrives in the great Belgian city of Villette, where the sophisticated, devious Madame Beck offers her a post in her girls' school. Though Lucy gradually wins the respect of the spoiled, unruly pupils and her suspicious fellow-teachers, she is adrift from her own culture and finds her solitude desolating. In a powerfully-evoked crisis during the summer vacation, she encounters friends from her childhood, John Bretton and his kindly mother, but her feeling for the charming Dr John have to be curbed when she discovers that his love is bestowed elsewhere. In exploring this crisis and her emergence from it, Charlotte Bronte produced possibly the first, and certainly one of the most important fictional accounts of a woman's emotional breakdown.
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Average: (3.86)
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Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0140434798, 0141199881

Urban Romantics

An edition of this book was published by Urban Romantics.

» Publisher information page

Recorded Books

An edition of this book was published by Recorded Books.

» Publisher information page

 

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