Villette by Charlotte Bronte (Review)

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Bookshop.org | Harper Collins | TG Jones | Waterstones

Blurb

Left by harrowing circumstances to fend for herself in the great capital of a foreign country, Lucy Snowe, the narrator and heroine of Villette, achieves by degrees an authentic independence from both outer necessity and inward grief. Charlotte Brontë’s last novel, published in 1853, has a dramatic force comparable to that of her other masterpiece, Jane Eyre, as well as strikingly modern psychological insight and a revolutionary understanding of human loneliness.

Review

I tried to read Villette a few years ago and gave up just before I got to the half way point. I had clearly forgotten why I had given up and decided to try and finish the book this time. Thankfully I did manage to finish it this time but it seemed a very hard slog. I also really struggled with all the French in the book and found it broke up the dialogue when it kept switching between French and English.

I love Jane Eyre and have read it many times but I just did not gel with Lucy Snowe in this book. She’s writing her story for the reader to read and so many times I was almost screaming at the book to get to the point. I understand that Lucy had a difficult childhood and had to fend for herself as an adolescent but she seemed to make some very random and risky decisions. I still can’t understand how she made the decision to spend most of her money and go to Villette when she had no friends there or even contacts there and didn’t even know the language. I never had a problem liking Jane as a character but I just could not bring myself to like Lucy.

Lucy gets walked all over by the people around her. Even her own godmother drops her when someone more interesting arrives and then remembers her again after weeks and weeks of no contact. She gets put upon by her employer and she just takes it. However, the most frustrating part is that she lets a certain professor treat her like absolute dirt. He criticises her dress when she dares to wear a pink dress, he criticises her lack of intellect, her religion, in fact he pretty much criticises everything and then she spends the last few hundred pages of the novel crying about him when she is told he will be disappearing on a voyage.

Villette is Charlotte Bronte’s last work and I will be honest it surprised me. I really expected a stronger main character with an overall maturity to the storyline but I just found it lacked the finesse that Jane Eyre had and also Jane Eyre was a much stronger character who didn’t take everything lying down. I found this book such a hard slog to read but I am glad I managed to read it. I give this book 3 out of 5 Dragons.

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About the author

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Bronte.

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Friday Poetry: Charlotte Bronte

Hello and Happy Friday!

I hope everyone is well and getting to read lots of good books.

My chosen poem this week is by one of my favourite authors Charlotte Bronte.

Life

Life, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall?
Rapidly, merrily, 
Life's sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily
Enjoy them as they fly!
What though Death at times steps in,
And calls our Best away?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O'er hope, a heavy sway?
Yet Hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair!

Charlotte Bronte

Happy Reading

The Brontësaurus: An A-Z of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë (and Bramwell) by John Sutherland (Review)

The Brontësaurus: An A-Z of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë (and Bramwell) by John Sutherland

About the author

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London and an eminent scholar in the field of Victorian fiction. He has published many books including a literary puzzle book called Who is Dracula’s Father?

Blurb

Did Charlotte Brontë take opium? Did the Reverend Brontë carry a loaded pistol? What, precisely, does ‘wuthering’ mean?

Distinguished literary critic John Sutherland takes an idiosyncratic look at the world of the Brontës, from the bumps on Charlotte’s head to the nefarious origins of Mr Rochester’s fortune, by way of astral telephony, letter-writing dogs, an exploding peat bog, and much, much more.

Also features ‘Jane Eyre abbreviated’ by John Crace, author of the Guardian’s ‘Digested Reads’ column – read Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece in five minutes!

Review

I received this book as a Christmas present off my sister in law last Christmas and since then it has been on one of my many TBR piles around the house. When I was waiting for a student to arrive this week I picked up the book and started reading and to be honest I was hooked.

I loved reading this book as it was a fresh take on the Brontë history and not to be taken completely seriously. Most of it I knew as I have read a lot about the Brontës and have visited the Brontë museum twice in recent years. I did realise a lot of it was Sutherlands’s opinions and some of them to be honest were rather sexist but considering he was thinking in Victorian terms I will forgive him, just this once.

I really liked how the book was laid out and that it was short snippets of information which were easy to digest and engaging. The only issue that drove me slightly insane was the constant see this below or above. I could have easily done without that as I found it broke up the narrative.

Bramwell the somewhat forgotten Brontë is mentioned quite a bit in this book which I found interesting as I did not know that much about him. It also made me feel slightly sorry for the poor man as I think generally too much was asked from him and he could not cope.

Charlotte I believe was not portrayed in a good light and yes I know that she could have destroyed a lot of her sisters’ works etc but none of this is proven. I want to believe that she did all her actions for a good cause and wanted to protect her siblings’ reputations rather than promote her own.

The history of the Brontës always makes me feel rather sad as they had such hard and short lives. However, this book showed me the good elements, like their love of animals and the little things in life. It made me smile and happy to realise that although cut short they tried to live their lives to the best.

All in all I enjoyed this book immensely and could not put it down which is unusual for me as I usually struggle with nonfiction books and tend to steer clear of them. Due to these reasons I have rated the book 5 out of 5 Dragons. If you love all things Brontë I highly recommend it.

To Purchase

Waterstones Hardback

Waterstones Paperback

Lady Book Dragon

Friday Poetry

Happy Friday Everyone!

I hope you all have a good weekend planned.

This weeks poem has been chosen because I am currently reading a book about the Brontë’s and I am thoroughly enjoying it. So I decided to choose a poem by Charlotte Brontë.

Life

Life, believe, is not a dream

So dark as sages say;

Oft a little morning rain

Foretells a pleasant day.

Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,

But these are transient all;

If the shower will make the roses bloom,

O why lament its fall?

Rapidly, merrily,

Life’s sunny hours flit by,

Gratefully, cheerily

Enjoy them as they fly!

What though Death at times steps in,

And calls our Best away?

What though sorrow seems to win,

O’er hope, a heavy sway?

Yet Hope again elastic springs,

Unconquered, though she fell;

Still buoyant are her golden wings,

Still strong to bear us well.

Manfully, fearlessly,

The day of trial bear,

For gloriously, victoriously,

Can courage quell despair!

Charlotte Brontë

Lady Book Dragon.