Lucy Snowe, a young Englishwoman of the educated class, narrates the story of her life—in a particularly partisan and sometimes unreliable manner. She is left destitute after the death of her mysterious family and, after briefly being a nurse-companion, takes herself off on a blind, daring trip to the Continent. She goes to the kingdom of Labassecour (perhaps modeled on Belgium) and, through a series of very fortunate occurrences, manages to land herself a job and a place to live on her first night in the town of Villette. She becomes a nursery governess to the three daughters of the proprietress of a large school for girls. During her time as the bonne d'enfants, she impresses her employer, Madame Beck, with her modesty and excellent English. She is elevated to the position of English teacher, though she has no qualifications for it and has a poor command of the French language spoken in Villette. Lucy, however, comes to excel at teaching and to love it. The read-a-long hosted by Wallace of Unputdownables wrapped up right before I went on vacation. I am glad that I participated as I have wanted to read this book and honestly would have gave up on it if not for the read-a-long. Having a reading plan and the weekly discussions kept me accountable and I am glad I stuck with it. My version did not have the French translated and that was frustrating for me. There were parts that really dragged and then parts that had me glued to the pages. The many "surprises" made the reading a delight. Charlotte was a brilliant writer.Author: Charlotte Bronte
Published: 1853
Pages: 656
Genre: Fiction
Source: Library
Finished: 3-28-11
8 comments:
I'm glad I read it with the read-a-long too. I was so fascinated with it that I read it in a couple of weeks. I'm reading the biography of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell right now and then plan to read the rest of Charlotte's works. The woman is simply irresistible.
I've never read Villete either. Kudos for sticking with it and I will be sure to look for a version with the French translations.
Good for you, an unputdownable now that's an interesting challenge.
I read this a long time ago (high school) and I don't remember whether I liked it or not! Sometimes readalongs are great motivators.
I've been forcing myself to finish this one. I'm one of the few who really am not enjoying myself with this read.
I've had this one on my shelf for a long time, but haven't had the inclination to start it. Readalongs are great for that!
I'm glad you stuck it out and read the book. I have it on my bookshelf, but haven't read it yet. Maybe one day I will get in a classic kind of mood and read it.
Overall, I thought Villette was a good book but I agree that parts of it dragged. Sometimes it too several pages for Lucy to complete one thought! Charlotte Bronte wrote very in-depth about fate, destiny and aspects of Lucy's personality. I think Charlotte would have been great over tea for face-to-face discussions but written out on the page some of her ideas got boring and tedious!
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