Just finished reading Villette

[JiaXiong]

Hi, I've finished reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte and if anyone else has read it, i'd like to know what they think of it.

I liked it alot but I think the way that the characters all kind of coincidentally came together again was pleasant but made it seem somewhat unrefined to a degree.

It shows the strength of female independence (perhaps exaggerated a little as are the rest of the characters) but I particularly liked it because it really portrays all the shades of isolation, lonliness and to an extent unrequited love however, I think Bronte could have shown the pain and desperation of unrequited love far more, i think it just scrapes the surface of the reality of unrequited love.

Please tell me what you thought of it

[laddiebuck]

With respect, I think you misunderstand the novel a bit. Not everyone feels alike; different people respond with different emotions, and to different degrees, to the same circumstances and stimuli. Lucy Snowe is not unfeeling, but she is strong, she has put Reason firmly on her throne. There is a beautiful passage describing this:

"These struggles with the natural character, the strong native bent of
the heart, may seem futile and fruitless, but in the end they do good.
They tend, however slightly, to give the actions, the conduct, that
turn which Reason approves, and which Feeling, perhaps, too often
opposes: they certainly make a difference in the general tenour of a
life, and enable it to be better regulated, more equable, quieter on
the surface; and it is on the surface only the common gaze will fall.
As to what lies below, leave that with God. Man, your equal, weak as
you, and not fit to be your judge, may be shut out thence: take it to
your Maker--show Him the secrets of the spirit He gave--ask Him how
you are to bear the pains He has appointed--kneel in His presence, and
pray with faith for light in darkness, for strength in piteous
weakness, for patience in extreme need."

A passage foreshadowing it:

"Moreover, a vein of reason ever ran through her passion: she was logical even
when fierce. Ere long a growing sense of attachment began to present
the thought of staying with her as companion in quite a new light; in
another week I had agreed to remain."

Etc. The novel performs, in my humble opinion, one of the best analyses of the psyche anywhere performed in literature. It is just that the type it describes was never too common and is even socially discouraged from existing today, so it may feel alien to many.

[sachi]

Villette was received differently by the different sides of me... My romantic side detested the fact that she could not end up with Dr.John, and even helped his romance with Polly without a sign of contempt (it is in my nature to behave that way, if I were in her position). Even when I was able to somewhat accept her unrequited love with the doctor, and was finally feeling the romance with the Monsieur Paul, that was also crushed. I don't like senseless romance like Jane Austen's, but I don't like sad endings.

The side of mine that appreciates depth and art and intellect holds this novel in high regard. When you see the novel as a work carefully devised, you start to see that her fallen romances were necessary.

[kelby_lake]

I think that it deals beautifully with unrequited love. Let's not pile the misery on any more. I really like Villette but it's just as depressing as Hardy, if not more so in some respects.