Villette
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4.0 • 20 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Brought to you by Penguin.
This Penguin Classic is performed by Charlotte Ritchie, best known for her roles as Oregon in Channel 4's Fresh Meat, Hannah in the BBC Three comedy Siblings, and as Barbara Gilbert in BBC drama Call the Midwife.
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.
"Listening to Call the Midwife actress Charlotte Richie read Charlotte Brontë's lesser-known novel Villette was a hugely enjoyable experience on my morning commute on trains so packed that I could not stretch out my arms to open a book." - i News
(P) 2019 Penguin Audio
Customer Reviews
Descent book. Great narrator
Main character can be a bit frustrating at times. Overall about a time 3/5. I didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. Won’t reread it but didn’t feel like I wasted my time on it. Great narration.
The bar was in heaven
...and Villette surpassed it. This is a deeply underrated book. If you love Jane Eyre as I do, you will find many similar things to love here—an introspective, sensitive heroine, fierce intelligence, and a slow-burning, heartrending, and at times hilarious relationship with a very eccentric man. You will also find a great deal more humor, as well as a great deal more suffering. A note of caution, though, if you experience depression. While Lucy's reflections are deeply relatable and, in my opinion, a great complement to Jane Eyre's optimism, there is a note of despair in this book that at times shook me up a bit too much. Take her perspective on life with a grain of salt.
Intriguing, but Depressing (& Anti-Catholic)
While Ms Brontë took me through the unexpected twists and turns I looked forward to, all under the shadow of that dark Gothic mystique she’s known for… this book was sad and rankling. Many chapters poured over what was obviously the author’s, not even necessarily the character’s, deep hatred for all things Catholic. She ignorantly attacked the Church in a way I didn’t feel aided the book’s narrative. (As a Catholic, I easily could’ve used basic apologetics to deflect her emotional and ignorant attacks.)
Basically this was Jane Eyre, but with some good old-fashioned Catholic bashing and without a happy ending.