Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Title: Villette


Author: Charlotte Bronte (English, 1816-1855)
Originally published: 1853
Page count: 462


Dates read: 9/09/2020-9/29/2020
2020 book goal progress: 25 out of 20

Month category: September - Fall (School / Teachers) 

Back to the Classics category: 

Classic with a Place in the Title

Read my other Bronte Sister book reviews.
Read my other book reviews for my 2020 goal HERE.

Description on back of book:

Based on Charlotte Bronte's personal experience as a teacher in Brussels, Villette, is a moving tale of repressed feelings and subjection to cruel circumstances 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.

First sentence:
"My Godmother lived in a handsome house in the clean and ancient town of Bretton."

Favorite quotes:
[Conversation between an older lady and a female teenager.]

" 'I told you I liked him a little. Where is the use of caring for him so very much? He is full of faults. All boys are.'

'More than girls?'

'Very likely. Wise people say it is folly to think anybody perfect; and as to likes and dislikes, we should be friendly to all, and worship none.' "

"No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in mold, and tilled with manure. Happiness is a glory shining far down upon us out of Heaven. She is a divine dew which the soul, on certain of its summer mornings, feels dropping upon it from the bloom and golden fruitage of Paradise."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 4.6/10 - ⭐⭐⭐/5
Characters      - 5
Atmosphere   - 5
Writing Style - 5
Plot                - 4
Intrigue          - 4
Logic             - 4
Enjoyment     - 5
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:

I didn't enjoy this book. It was slow, boring, and quite depressing. There were some very unlikely coincidences and characters with double names - which annoyed, rather than charmed, me. I had to keep flipping to the back of the book to read translations from French, which just made it a stop-and-go read. I didn't particularly like any of the characters - actually, most of them I actively did NOT like.

One character, in particular, had a short temper and was abusive psychologically and emotionally. As we learn more about him, we find out that in specific scenarios he can be very loving and self-sacrificing. Now, don't get me wrong, it's great to have characters change and develop, but being self-sacrificial in a certain way because of a past event doesn't absolve or excuse someone from being currently abusive and manipulative. He never should have become the hero he seems to be in the end.

The book seemed set up as an early feminist novel, which maybe it was in its own time, but it didn't go far enough for me. In the end, it was the men who saved the day and provided for the women. The story also focused too much on romance, though, 'almost' or 'passing' romance is probably more accurate. To be fair, there were times when feminism was represented (as in the below quote from Lucy), but, for the most part, the book just rubbed me the wrong way. 

"Whatever my powers - feminine or the contrary - God had given them, and I felt resolute to be ashamed of no faculty of His bestowal."

The ending was unsatisfactorily ambiguous, which irritated me. Without giving too much away - the romantic in me wanted the happy ending, but the feminist in me wanted the sad ending. There even is a ghost substory in the novel, similar to the one in Jane Eyre (which is one of my favorite books). Unfortunately, the ghost story just took too long to come about and I didn't have much investment in it by the time the mystery was resolved. 

Overall, I didn't like this novel, but the intro of the book talked about two different readings: reading it for the first time, focusing on the surprising plot twists, and reading it for the second time, focusing on character development with prior knowledge of the plot twists. Maybe one day I'll read it again, but it won't be for a while.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Charlotte Bronte have the last words:

"Peril, loneliness, and an uncertain future are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty tends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star."