Villette
- Published 1853
- Started 21 September 2025
- Status finished (03 March 2026)
- Rating
aka I create my own personal hell by promising a student I'd read something and then I'm very busy
Reading this was a bit of a slog due to the interminable footnotes and The Circumstances, but I am proud of myself for pushing through. I’m quite fond of the first two-thirds of the book; I appreciated Lucy’s character then, and I especially enjoyed the Dr. Bretton affair (many have said that Villette turns into an Austen novel for a spell in the middle and they’re not wrong; no surprise it’s what I enjoyed most). The early portion also largely explored Lucy’s depression in a rather fascinatingly modern sense. However, the book suddenly asked the reader to find M. Paul romantically viable and charming (as well as Lucy’s dogged rationalism), and that’s where my interest totally collapsed. I can forgive the religious affirmations but draw the line at a mediocre male love interest.