Villette- Charlotte Bronte

It's been so long since I made time to discuss the books I'm reading! It took me ages to finish Villette, but its such a great novel! Themes are quite similar to those found in Jane Eyre but I found that I was taken by this book so much faster than I was by Jane Eyre. Perhaps its because at that point I was swept away by Bronte's writing style and her elegant choice of words, but I think the overall plot was more appealing as well.

Its nothing too crazy, really. A young woman by the name of Lucy Snowe, after some trials and hardships, leaves her home country, England, for the chance to claim her independence in France. There, she soon finds herself teaching in a little town of Villette and we listen enrapture as she describes some of her relationships and situations she enounters along the way. Although she becomes dangerously ill a couple times because of her emotional suffering, it still amazes me how her character can be so self-controlling and almost stoic when her situation turns for the worst. She is completely at peace with her place in life, as long as it is hers. I don't want to say that she is happy with her circumstances because it took great courage to go to France without the slightest idea of what might happen, where she'll stay.. but she's very slow to desire more.

She says herself that she is "not quite a stoic" emotions do seize her, as they do any other person, however it must only be "one sultry shower, heavy and brief" because "the Hope I am bemoaning myself suffered and made me suffer much".

I think the thing I admire most about her character, is how "levelheaded" she is and how well she can understand where others are coming from and how to act and react. For instance, when she is quite sad that she hasn't heard from the only people she is happy to be with she says:

"Of course I did not blame myself for suffering: I thank God I had a truer sense of justice than to fall into any imbecile extravagances of self-accusation; and as to blaming others for silence, in my reason I well knew them blameless, and in my heart acknowledged them so: but it was a rough and heavy road to travel, and I longed for better days".

I'm definitely not one to keep my emotions as "in check" as Lucy Snowe does time and time again throughout the novel. I believe her emotions get the best of her maybe twice throughout the novel.. once because she was accused of accepting the work of a fellow professor as her own and likewise forced into attempting to prove otherwise. and again because the person she grew closest to was being forced to stay away from her. In every other situation, she "suppressed [her] surprise, and swallowed whatever other feelings began to surge".

What I also enjoy about her character is how witty she is. Her relationship with Ginevra, with Dr. John, with every other character, is quite entertaining. I found that I would read only a chapter or two at a time, striving to delay the encroaching end. However, end it did. And although the end was not as clear as I should have liked, it was perfect. However, I would have liked to learn more about how her relationships developed rather than have a very brief and somewhat confusing summary of the changes that took place after the time the novel is mainly about.