When a family catastrophe strikes, Lucy Snowe leaves England to teach English in a small Belgian town. Immediately after arriving in Villette, Lucy is drawn into the town’s charm, adventure, and romance. Brontë’s characteristic episodes of social challenges, meticulous creation of intimacy, and realism make ‘Villette’ a wonderfully passionate and psychological novel. Charlotte Brontë’s unromantic view on the world around her, and her outspoken opinions make this novel perfect for fans of Virginia Woolf’s ‘Miss Dalloway’.
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) was the eldest of the Brontë sisters, born to a family of six children. Her childhood was defined by difficulties at school, and she became a governess for her younger sisters at age 14. She was catapulted onto the literary main stage by her signature realistic, pragmatic, and unromantic commentaries on the state of the world around her in her novel Jane Eyre, which has been successfully adapted to film many times. Her other notable works include ‘Shirley’, ‘The Professor’, and ‘Villette’.