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Villette (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Charlotte Bronte (Author), Helen Cooper (Introduction) "My godmother lived in a handsome house in the clean and ancient town of Bretton ..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 672 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (24 Jun 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140434798
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140434798
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 42,270 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #8 in  Books > Fiction > The Classics > Bronte, Charlotte
    #94 in  Books > Fiction > Women Writers & Fiction > Women Authors

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Product Description

Product Description

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. Drawing on her own deeply unhappy experiences as a governess in Brussels, Charlotte Brontë'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.


About the Author

Charlotte Brontë (1816-55), along with her sisters Anne and Emily, is among the greatest 19th century English novelists and author of Jane Eyre. Helen M. Cooper is Professor of English at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is also the author of a number of books and articles.
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My godmother lived in a handsome house in the clean and ancient town of Bretton. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars SUPERB - prepare to be enthralled!, 31 Mar 2006
On the back of the book it says this:-
Based on Charlotte bronte's personal experience as a teacher in Brussels, Villette, is a moving tale of repressed feelings and subjection to cruel circumstance and position, borne with heroic fortitude. Rising above the frustrations of confinement within a rigid social order, it is also a story of a woman's right to love and be loved.

I note from some reviews that many people missed the point of this wonderful book. It is a beautifully written, poignant story. It is not supposed to be a fast-paced, modernised tale, but a beautifully written, richly embroidered account of the young life of a woman alone in the world seeking peace and independence. In a society where women did not normally go out alone and where rank and wealth were important, our heroine struggled with life. Charlotte Bronte graphically describes the heroine whose strength of character and kind, long-suffering personality earns rewards in the end. I did not feel the ending was uncertain or lacked meaning, but had I felt unsure of it, I would still define this book as one of the great reads of my life. I found it a privilege to read about characters who lived in an age long forgotten, and brought to life so colourfully, as told from one who lived it.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A far more mature work than Jane Eyre, 15 Oct 2006
By Roman Clodia (London) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Villette has always suffered in comparison with Jane Eyre, and it's certainly a less romantic read - but all the better for that. Where Jane Eyre exists as a female fantasy, Villette gets to grips with the uncomfortable real world, where men don't miraculously fall in love with plain, earnest, clever girls and instead prefer the beautiful and dumb! From the painful depiction of unrequited love, to the ambiguous and open-to-interpretation ending, this is a more mature, assured and challenging novel than any other that Charlotte Bronte wrote.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Heart's ease, 7 May 2007
By Nina (England) - See all my reviews
I'm re-reading this novel and rediscovering all its delights and also its impressive structure. Now that I know the plot, I can appreciate the subtely with which it is woven, introducing hints that go under the radar upon first reading. Much like Alan Hollinghurst's 'Folding Star', this captures the awkwardness of foreign travel, seen through the lens of a protagonist arriving in Brussels (a much less glamorous location in the history of English literature than Paris or Rome). Lucy Snowe must make her way as a school teacher and observes life on the continent with a jaundiced eye. There are some longueurs but even these are interesting (musings on Catholicism, on the psychology of an oppressed mind, on cultural difference).

The main reason I treasure this novel is for the love story at its heart which has one of the most original and vivid male romantic interests I have ever encountered in literature.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Surpasses Jane Eyre
How much more I got from Villette having come back to it many, many years after my first reading. And how shockingly different from other novels it must have seemed to readers of... Read more
Published 1 month ago by booksetc

3.0 out of 5 stars very good..but not brilliant
this book was quite a hard read for me because i kept waiting for some action...which never happened. Read more
Published 15 months ago by mary-jane

5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than Jane Eyre
An exceptional, superb work. One of the less well-known masterpieces of English literaure, it deserves to be far more widely read.
Published 19 months ago by William Podmore

5.0 out of 5 stars Another lovely tale from Bronte
Another semi-autobiographical tale from Charlotte Bronte, based upon her time spent teaching in Belgium. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2007 by Misfit

4.0 out of 5 stars Hardwork but untimatly worth it
This book offers a modern theme before its time. The struggle of a single women against an unfamiliar society with no support reminds me of so much of today's modern women's... Read more
Published on 14 Jul 2004 by PinkBookWorm

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