“Villette” by Charlotte Brontë – Book Review
“Villette” is the latest novel by Charlotte, the author of “Jane Eyre”, and one of the famous, magnificent Brontë sisters, who brought a new breath to English literature.
Published in 1853, this novel is, according to Mina Urgan in “History of English Literature”;
“Much more valuable than Shirley; even more valuable than Jane Eyre, which is considered the masterpiece of Charlotte Brontë, according to many critics and, by the way, to George Eliot, the most famous female novelist of the Victorian Age and Virginia Woolf, the most famous female novelist of our age.”
Since my literary knowledge is not comparable to George Eliot or Virginia Woolf, I do not know if this novel is more valuable than Jane Eyre or not. However, I must say that Jane Eyre is more valuable to me — at least. Perhaps this is because we are acquainted with the the story since our childhood, perhaps because of we are charmed by the mysterious and adventurous events in Jane Eyre. All I can say is that Jane Eyre was a more exciting reading for me than Villette. I guess this is an indication of the fact that it took me four months to finish the book.
“The Professor”, “Villette” and Charlotte Brontë
About four years ago I read Charlotte Brontë’s novel “The Professor”. For someone who reads Villette, it is impossible not to notice that the book has very similar elements to The Professor. As a matter of fact, as I found out later, The Professor, the author’s first novel, was accepted as the draft of Villette and for this reason, this work was not attributed to great importance in literary circles. Indeed, although the two novels are quite similar in terms of the subjects they deal with and the elements they contain, there is no doubt that Villette is much more superior to The Professor in a literary sense. In fact, it can be said that it is superior to Jane Eyre, and maybe that’s why Jane Eyre gave me more pleasure. There are such analyzes and inferences in Villette that people inevitably respect the author’s ability to observe and express.
The protagonist of Villette is Lucy Snowe, a young girl who was left alone at a young age and had to earn a living herself, just like in Jane Eyre and in the Professor. Lucy throws herself from her island to Continental Europe out of necessity to earn money, and coincidences take her to the imaginary city of Villette. Villette is a French-speaking city in Europe. Although it does not exist and was created by the author, it is easy to understand that Villette is actually Brussels. I think we understand that because of Brontë’s life story, as well as her great ability to depict. She vividly describes the streets, gloom of the city, and the grand square.
As we know, Charlotte Brontë worked as a teacher a school in Brussels in her youth, as a Puritan English she had difficulty while living in Belgium, and did not get along well with the principal of the school. It is possible for us to ee the traces of all these experiences of the author and more both in the Professor and Villette.
Plot of the Novel
If I must talk about the novel without spoilers; our young woman Lucy, who can not speak a word of French, arrives by ship one evening at Villette, and with the help of young girl she met on the ship (and of coincidencess) she was accepted as a nanny to the girls’ school run by Madame Beck. Over time, Lucy is promoted to be an English teacher. Life at school is not bad for Lucy, despite the over-controlling Madame Beck and her grumpy cousin Paul Emmanuel. Of course, being a Puritan “infidel” in a Catholic country cannot be said to be a virtue of her. Still, Lucy is on the Villette. Definitely, this life is not ordinary, this young girl has adventures that fill 560 pages. If I talk about those adventures, I will be revealing the incidents of the book, so I will refer to just this much.
Finally, one thing I should mention is that the element of coincidence is widely used in the novel. It was stated in a commentary on the book that “there are so many Dickensian coincidences”, which I agree with. Coincidences are constantly taking our hero somewhere, to someone. We also occasionally bump into some gothic elements. This is not surprising, of course, considering the literary perspective of that period.
From the Book…
“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 mould, 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 amaranth bloom and golden fruitage of Paradise.”
