Book review: Villette by Charlotte Brontë

I’ve had this book for a couple of years now. It’s been sitting on the shelf, patiently waiting to be read. Like many readers, I tend to buy books en masse, then keep them for a long time until it’s just the right moment to read them.





That right moment might depend on my mood, my level of maturity or other events happening in my life. It's not uncommon for me to begin a book and find it hard going, but then go back to it a few months (or even years) later and devour it practically in one sitting. I believe that every book has its time and place.

And these past few months were apparently the right time to read Villette. It’s written by Charlotte Brontë - who’s most famous for her novel Jane Eyre, and for being the sister of Emily Brontë who wrote Wuthering Heights (you know - that book that Bella in Twilight is obsessed with).

My preferences for the Brontë sisters might be slightly controversial: I hated Wuthering Heights (bleak and depressing!) and my favourite is not Jane Eyre, but rather The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by the lesser-known Anne Brontë. My preferences haven’t changed upon reading Villette but I agree with many who say that it might be Charlotte’s best work.

I’m a fast reader and can get through a modern novel in less than a day. But the reading of a classic like this is an entirely different kettle of fish. It’s partly that the language is old-fashioned and considerably denser than what we’re used to as modern readers. Then there’s the fact that there’s less action and more description and reflection. In the days when novels like this were written, people had plenty of time to sit around reading and reflecting, and they didn’t mind waiting 100 pages or so to get to the action.

However, when it come to this novel, you’d be hard put to find any action at all. As I wrote in my Goodreads review:

Here is a prime example of a brilliant classic where the adventure is almost entirely internal. The most significant event in the book - the journey to Belgium - is over with within the first few chapters. From then on, it's all about how the main character meets, interacts with and feels about the other characters. She is almost always a silent observer while the people around her enact their affairs and intrigues.

The story follows the fortunes of Lucy Snowe, who is in her early twenties and therefore considered “old” in the sense of being past her youthful bloom and. Just like Jane Eyre, she’s almost entirely alone in the world and is forced to rely on her own skills and courage to make a living. In a bold stroke, she takes a ferry to Belgium and tries to make a life for herself in the town of Villette. As the freedoms and occupations open to women at the time were severely limited, she ends up becoming an English teacher in a girls’ school.

From then on, practically the whole book is limited to her interactions with the few people she’s acquainted with in Villette. It might sound boring, but in fact, it’s my opinion that Charlotte Brontë's greatest strength lies in bringing her readers into deep sympathy with her characters. Lucy leads a bleak life, but we’re drawn into her world so effectively, that our joy and excitement when the good things finally start to happen is tenfold. The book offers an amazing insight into the feelings of a withdrawn and quiet person, and this was long before the term “introvert” was even invented.

Another significant factor for me was the language. It’s been a while since I’ve read an older book and I’d forgotten what a delight it is to read something written by a true master of prose and description. The dialogue is so clever, so elegant and finely wrought that it’s like appreciating a work of art just reading a scene depicting an argument between two of the characters. I remember having the same feeling when I read Pride and Prejudice - the sheer grace of Elizabeth’s rebuffal of Darcy’s first proposal. Wonderful! People don’t speak that way any longer.

Villette is definitely a less exciting and more difficult novel than Jane Eyre. I can understand why it isn’t the world’s favourite of Charlotte’s novels. Still I’m very glad to have read it and it will occupy a cherished spot on my bookshelf.

As a final word, it’s funny to consider how much the literature market has changed. Nowadays such a slow novel wouldn’t have a hope of being published. It was hard work to read and took a long time to get into, even for a practised reader like me. But as I think you can tell, it was well worth the effort in the end. I could almost feel my brain expanding with each page I mastered.

And speaking of effort, just think - she must have written the entire manuscript with only a pen and paper! Inconceivable to imagine these days.

Anyone read any difficult or long classics recently? How long did it take you to get into them and was it worth the perseverence in the end?

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