With her final novel, Villette, Charlotte Brontë reached the height of her artistic power. First published in 1853, Villette is Brontë'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 her feelings of love and longing as she witnesses the fitful romance between Dr. John, a handsome young Englishman, and Gineva Fanshawe, a beautiful coquette. The 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.
0.0(0)
Villette
Author:
Format:
Duration:
- 370 pages
Language:
English
Categories:
- 53 books
Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Bronte was born in 1816 in Haworth, Yorkshire. When she grew up, she became a teacher (later a private governess). In 1846 she pseudonymously published a book by herself and her sisters, Emily and Anne, which sold only two copies. Undaunted, Charlotte completed The Professor, which remained unpublished until after her death. But a kind note from one publisher encouraged her to finish Jane Eyre. In 1848, tragedy struck--her brother and two sisters died. Despite bouts of depression, she managed to write Shirley and Villette. Still, she never overcame her grief over the loss of her sisters and, beset by ill-health, she died in 1855.
Read more