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emma's Reviews > Villette
Villette
by
by
emma's review
bookshelves: classics, non-ya, owned, project-clear-ur-sh-t-2, 4-stars, reviewed, recommend
Feb 21, 2022
bookshelves: classics, non-ya, owned, project-clear-ur-sh-t-2, 4-stars, reviewed, recommend
welcome to...VILLETTEMBER!
that would be a better pun for september but who cares, big news, THIS MONTH HAS TWO PROJECT LONG CLASSIC INSTALLMENTS!
i missed this project so much, and it's been so long, and also i am so behind on my reading challenge and tired of reading tiny books and graphic novels to try to catch up, so here we are. all december long, i'll be reading both this and anna karenina.
my tbr review of this said "how do i become the type of person who can read more than one 600 page classic per year? asking for a friend."
this is how we find out.
CHAPTER 1: BRETTON
this book is 42 chapters long and i'll be reading it for 32 days, so a lot of this will just be by vibe alone, i guess.
and i won't be noting which day i read what chapter because i want you all in a state of mystification and wonder, always.
CHAPTER 2: PAULINA
this little freak...
CHAPTER 3: THE PLAYMATES
this bit of dialogue:
“I told you I liked him a little. Where is the use of caring for him so very much: he is full of faults.�
“Is he?�
“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.�
“Are you a wise person?�
“I mean to try to be so.�
slay alert.
CHAPTER 4: MISS MARCHMONT
i keep trying to hold myself open to the possibility of liking this book more than jane eyre, but i just can't believe it.
i am willing to consider that lucy might be more interesting than perfect lil jane, though.
CHAPTER 5: TURNING A NEW LEAF
lol. are you allowed to just call a chapter that? seems like cheating.
"Whence did I come? Whither should I go? What should I do?" the original lyrics to cotton eyed joe.
CHAPTER 6: LONDON
our protagonist's financial skills are giving me the same vibe as harry and ron's dedication to homework in the later harry potter books. PLEASE DO BETTER YOU'RE STRESSING ME OUT.
sorry for the potter reference. very out of character for me.
CHAPTER 7: VILLETTE
title chapter!!!!!
when most people get drunk, they miss exes or past relationships or whatever. when i get drunk, i get sad that i'm losing my ability to speak french and become obsessed with proving to myself that i still know it. last night i got drunk at dave and buster's with my boyfriend and later read the original little prince out loud to myself.
anyway. this book is perfect for the lingering effects of that quest.
CHAPTER 8: MADAME BECK
a series of slays.
CHAPTER 9: ISIDORE
i haven't needed to translate any of the french yet. ego feeling: enormous.
CHAPTER 10: DR. JOHN
this chapter is roughly half paragraphs on paragraphs of excuses as to why our girl lucy is constantly staring at / gazing at / lovingly pondering the visage of this doctor guy who keeps hanging around.
if this isn't our love interest, i will a) be shocked and b) have a lot of follow up questions.
CHAPTER 11: THE PORTRESS'S CABINET
okay so maybe i was wrong.
CHAPTER 12: THE CASKET
a secret admirer!!! things are heating up...
also i still believe myself to be right. this bozo has to either be the love interest or the fake love interest (who, like, falls in love with lucy but is shallow or something).
CHAPTER 13: A SNEEZE OUT OF SEASON
weird to read charlotte brontë being funny. jane eyre being all somber and gloomy gives her a bad rap.
CHAPTER 14: THE FETE
it's party time.
woof, that's a long chapter. all these old-timey books have such a vendetta against theater kids...just one more reason to love classics.
CHAPTER 15: THE LONG VACATION
look at me, doing two chapters in one day even though the first was the longest yet and the second legitimately has long in its title. the word brave gets thrown around a lot these days...
nothing could be as opposite in vibe as the name of this chapter and its contents.
and thus we end volume 1!
CHAPTER 16: AULD LANG SYNE
thinking about when harry met sally again...
WHAT A TWIST! man oh man this is a good time.
CHAPTER 17: LA TERRASSE
lucy needs to get better ASAP. all this quiet polite godliness is making her seem like jane (derogatory).
CHAPTER 18: WE QUARREL
judging by the title i'm going to file my last complaint under asked + answered.
all right. the quarrel lasted like four and a half sentences but it still counts as the proof of backbone long time fans (read: me) have been asking for.
CHAPTER 19: THE CLEOPATRA
i really don't feel like working today. reading this book (aka feeling productive while doing something i enjoy) may be my downfall.
at least this wasn't a fun one. also, why do old books insist on having like 19 different names for the same characters? between this and anna karenina i have a mental conspiracy board going.
CHAPTER 20: THE CONCERT
imagine living in a country that had a king and queen. like, your taxes are just going to these random people cosplaying as 19th century citizens. embarrassing. yet another thing to mock the british about.
this was a fun one. karma for yesterday.
CHAPTER 21: REACTION
jane eyre would never fib like lucy snowe just did. and for that we must stan our dear lucy.
i don't know why i'm talking so much sh*t on jane eyre, a book i five starred. but janie herself is kinda boring we can admit.
CHAPTER 22: THE LETTER
it sounds like something exciting happened but it was so immediately dismissed as The Result Of Fright; An Attack Of Nerves or some sh*t like that that i can't even tell what it was.
boo.
CHAPTER 23: VASHTI
i'm ready to make a prediction. and that prediction is this: the little freak is back.
CHAPTER 24: M. DE BASSOMPIERRE
she's a genius, folks. (she being me.)
lucy is getting even more depressing than jane ever was. as if that were possible. get a hobby or something, girlfriend, good lord.
CHAPTER 25: THE LITTLE COUNTESS
i'm just going to say it: i'm not a fan of the turn this has taken. it's like if a babysitter and the babysittee reconnected after 10 years and started hitting on each other. gross city, no thank you, i would like to leave this plotline and return to the one i thought i was in.
CHAPTER 26: A BURIAL
dun dun dun!
this was nowhere close to what i thought we were getting, with a title like THE BURIAL, but it does include lucy being kind of petty again so i'll take it. all this moping over letters was killing me.
CHAPTER 27: THE HÔTEL CRÉCY
this managed somehow to be simultaneously the most Lucy Has A Backbone and Lucy Is So Depressing chapter yet.
onto volume iii!
CHAPTER 28: THE WATCHGUARD
here's the thing: i don't need this book to be a romance. i don't even necessarily WANT it to be a romance. if this were a tale of a woman living her life a-okay, that'd be fine and dandy and even preferred.
but oh my god lucy is not a-okay. not at all. so in that case give me a romance already.
i'm complaining a lot but a) i'm enjoying this, i just like complaining, and b) it's mostly pertaining to the romance i think / fear / predict may be coming. (for the record, i was right about our preliminary love interest, so i have to imagine i'll go 2 for 2 like the genius empath i am.)
CHAPTER 29: MONSIEUR'S FETE
okay i loved this? and i think i'm a perfect brilliant genius.
CHAPTER 30: M. PAUL
i am confronted with a situation that few in human history have experienced, only those who share my daunting intellect: i think i was too correct and now i'm worried and regretful.
CHAPTER 31: THE DRYAD
i accidentally took the whole four-day holiday weekend off from reading entirely and now i fear i find myself with five days left in the year and twelve chapters to go.
"But I learned in time that this benignity, this cordiality, this music, belonged in no shape to me: it was a part of himself; it was the honey of his temper; it was the balm of his mellow mood; he imparted it, as the ripe fruit rewards with sweetness the rifling bee; he diffused it about him, as sweet plants shed their perfume. Does the nectarine love either the bee or bird it feeds? Is the sweetbriar enamoured of the air?"
goddamn.
i was fading on this book but it appears i am back on board.
CHAPTER 32: THE FIRST LETTER
i cannot...bring myself...to get on board for this...
CHAPTER 33: M. PAUL KEEPS HIS PROMISE
look at me, having a three-chapter day like a damn saint.
LUCY!!!! you frustrating little minx...
CHAPTER 34: MALEVOLA
sounds like the name of a villain in a children's cartoon.
the subtitle of this book should be IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL. it's like a 600 page exploration of that six degrees of kevin bacon game but kevin bacon is lucy snowe, who is on a first name basis with 4.5 people on earth and all of them know each other.
heartbreak, part deux AND fright reveal. we're eating good in the house of villette.
CHAPTER 35: FRATERNITY
all previous requests for a second romance to prove me right and help me have a good time have been canceled. these bozos are out here referring to each other as siblings.
CHAPTER 36: THE APPLE OF DISCORD
being brave again...i fell deeply behind on this and my other project, a situation i am resolving by reading 50 pages a day of that and 3 chapters a day of this.
against all my wishes, abilities, and general end of year plans. and more specific desires because this chapter felt very long and was all about catholicism vs protestantism.
CHAPTER 37: SUNSHINE
based on the usual accuracy of this book's chapter titles, i'm predicting this will be filled with darkness and suffering.
actually i'd title this one DADDY ISSUES.
CHAPTER 38: CLOUD
love that this chapter opens with "i'm still alone and that's god's fault."
CHAPTER 39: OLD AND NEW ACQUAINTANCE
this nun subplot...bizarro. there is so much and so little going on here at the same time. i have no idea what will happen next, but in an extremely low-stakes way.
CHAPTER 40: THE HAPPY PAIR
we are well and truly in the Tying Up Loose Ends section of this very long book. this part is about the bratty student Ginevra Fanshawe, who i have never mentioned here because i find her role in this so confusing and inconsistent, and also because i'm trying to avoid all plot spoilers in this review, for some reason. i guess i've discovered an ability to care late in life.
anyway, here's another example of how all over the place this character is. the summary of the rest of her life begins "Of course, a large share of suffering lies in reserve for her future" and ends "and so she got on—fighting the battle of life by proxy, and, on the whole, suffering as little as any human being I have ever known."
huh?
CHAPTER 41: FAUBOURG CLOTILDE
oh :)
CHAPTER 42: FINIS
and so we conclude! what a ride it's been.
this was just goddamn lovely.
OVERALL
this book is weird and kind of sloppy, at points, and definitely a little self-indulgent (as is jane eyre)...
but i enjoyed it every single day, the writing is so lovely, and the end made me smile. plus lucy's backbone over jane's somber ass any day.
rating: 4
that would be a better pun for september but who cares, big news, THIS MONTH HAS TWO PROJECT LONG CLASSIC INSTALLMENTS!
i missed this project so much, and it's been so long, and also i am so behind on my reading challenge and tired of reading tiny books and graphic novels to try to catch up, so here we are. all december long, i'll be reading both this and anna karenina.
my tbr review of this said "how do i become the type of person who can read more than one 600 page classic per year? asking for a friend."
this is how we find out.
CHAPTER 1: BRETTON
this book is 42 chapters long and i'll be reading it for 32 days, so a lot of this will just be by vibe alone, i guess.
and i won't be noting which day i read what chapter because i want you all in a state of mystification and wonder, always.
CHAPTER 2: PAULINA
this little freak...
CHAPTER 3: THE PLAYMATES
this bit of dialogue:
“I told you I liked him a little. Where is the use of caring for him so very much: he is full of faults.�
“Is he?�
“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.�
“Are you a wise person?�
“I mean to try to be so.�
slay alert.
CHAPTER 4: MISS MARCHMONT
i keep trying to hold myself open to the possibility of liking this book more than jane eyre, but i just can't believe it.
i am willing to consider that lucy might be more interesting than perfect lil jane, though.
CHAPTER 5: TURNING A NEW LEAF
lol. are you allowed to just call a chapter that? seems like cheating.
"Whence did I come? Whither should I go? What should I do?" the original lyrics to cotton eyed joe.
CHAPTER 6: LONDON
our protagonist's financial skills are giving me the same vibe as harry and ron's dedication to homework in the later harry potter books. PLEASE DO BETTER YOU'RE STRESSING ME OUT.
sorry for the potter reference. very out of character for me.
CHAPTER 7: VILLETTE
title chapter!!!!!
when most people get drunk, they miss exes or past relationships or whatever. when i get drunk, i get sad that i'm losing my ability to speak french and become obsessed with proving to myself that i still know it. last night i got drunk at dave and buster's with my boyfriend and later read the original little prince out loud to myself.
anyway. this book is perfect for the lingering effects of that quest.
CHAPTER 8: MADAME BECK
a series of slays.
CHAPTER 9: ISIDORE
i haven't needed to translate any of the french yet. ego feeling: enormous.
CHAPTER 10: DR. JOHN
this chapter is roughly half paragraphs on paragraphs of excuses as to why our girl lucy is constantly staring at / gazing at / lovingly pondering the visage of this doctor guy who keeps hanging around.
if this isn't our love interest, i will a) be shocked and b) have a lot of follow up questions.
CHAPTER 11: THE PORTRESS'S CABINET
okay so maybe i was wrong.
CHAPTER 12: THE CASKET
a secret admirer!!! things are heating up...
also i still believe myself to be right. this bozo has to either be the love interest or the fake love interest (who, like, falls in love with lucy but is shallow or something).
CHAPTER 13: A SNEEZE OUT OF SEASON
weird to read charlotte brontë being funny. jane eyre being all somber and gloomy gives her a bad rap.
CHAPTER 14: THE FETE
it's party time.
woof, that's a long chapter. all these old-timey books have such a vendetta against theater kids...just one more reason to love classics.
CHAPTER 15: THE LONG VACATION
look at me, doing two chapters in one day even though the first was the longest yet and the second legitimately has long in its title. the word brave gets thrown around a lot these days...
nothing could be as opposite in vibe as the name of this chapter and its contents.
and thus we end volume 1!
CHAPTER 16: AULD LANG SYNE
thinking about when harry met sally again...
WHAT A TWIST! man oh man this is a good time.
CHAPTER 17: LA TERRASSE
lucy needs to get better ASAP. all this quiet polite godliness is making her seem like jane (derogatory).
CHAPTER 18: WE QUARREL
judging by the title i'm going to file my last complaint under asked + answered.
all right. the quarrel lasted like four and a half sentences but it still counts as the proof of backbone long time fans (read: me) have been asking for.
CHAPTER 19: THE CLEOPATRA
i really don't feel like working today. reading this book (aka feeling productive while doing something i enjoy) may be my downfall.
at least this wasn't a fun one. also, why do old books insist on having like 19 different names for the same characters? between this and anna karenina i have a mental conspiracy board going.
CHAPTER 20: THE CONCERT
imagine living in a country that had a king and queen. like, your taxes are just going to these random people cosplaying as 19th century citizens. embarrassing. yet another thing to mock the british about.
this was a fun one. karma for yesterday.
CHAPTER 21: REACTION
jane eyre would never fib like lucy snowe just did. and for that we must stan our dear lucy.
i don't know why i'm talking so much sh*t on jane eyre, a book i five starred. but janie herself is kinda boring we can admit.
CHAPTER 22: THE LETTER
it sounds like something exciting happened but it was so immediately dismissed as The Result Of Fright; An Attack Of Nerves or some sh*t like that that i can't even tell what it was.
boo.
CHAPTER 23: VASHTI
i'm ready to make a prediction. and that prediction is this: the little freak is back.
CHAPTER 24: M. DE BASSOMPIERRE
she's a genius, folks. (she being me.)
lucy is getting even more depressing than jane ever was. as if that were possible. get a hobby or something, girlfriend, good lord.
CHAPTER 25: THE LITTLE COUNTESS
i'm just going to say it: i'm not a fan of the turn this has taken. it's like if a babysitter and the babysittee reconnected after 10 years and started hitting on each other. gross city, no thank you, i would like to leave this plotline and return to the one i thought i was in.
CHAPTER 26: A BURIAL
dun dun dun!
this was nowhere close to what i thought we were getting, with a title like THE BURIAL, but it does include lucy being kind of petty again so i'll take it. all this moping over letters was killing me.
CHAPTER 27: THE HÔTEL CRÉCY
this managed somehow to be simultaneously the most Lucy Has A Backbone and Lucy Is So Depressing chapter yet.
onto volume iii!
CHAPTER 28: THE WATCHGUARD
here's the thing: i don't need this book to be a romance. i don't even necessarily WANT it to be a romance. if this were a tale of a woman living her life a-okay, that'd be fine and dandy and even preferred.
but oh my god lucy is not a-okay. not at all. so in that case give me a romance already.
i'm complaining a lot but a) i'm enjoying this, i just like complaining, and b) it's mostly pertaining to the romance i think / fear / predict may be coming. (for the record, i was right about our preliminary love interest, so i have to imagine i'll go 2 for 2 like the genius empath i am.)
CHAPTER 29: MONSIEUR'S FETE
okay i loved this? and i think i'm a perfect brilliant genius.
CHAPTER 30: M. PAUL
i am confronted with a situation that few in human history have experienced, only those who share my daunting intellect: i think i was too correct and now i'm worried and regretful.
CHAPTER 31: THE DRYAD
i accidentally took the whole four-day holiday weekend off from reading entirely and now i fear i find myself with five days left in the year and twelve chapters to go.
"But I learned in time that this benignity, this cordiality, this music, belonged in no shape to me: it was a part of himself; it was the honey of his temper; it was the balm of his mellow mood; he imparted it, as the ripe fruit rewards with sweetness the rifling bee; he diffused it about him, as sweet plants shed their perfume. Does the nectarine love either the bee or bird it feeds? Is the sweetbriar enamoured of the air?"
goddamn.
i was fading on this book but it appears i am back on board.
CHAPTER 32: THE FIRST LETTER
i cannot...bring myself...to get on board for this...
CHAPTER 33: M. PAUL KEEPS HIS PROMISE
look at me, having a three-chapter day like a damn saint.
LUCY!!!! you frustrating little minx...
CHAPTER 34: MALEVOLA
sounds like the name of a villain in a children's cartoon.
the subtitle of this book should be IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL. it's like a 600 page exploration of that six degrees of kevin bacon game but kevin bacon is lucy snowe, who is on a first name basis with 4.5 people on earth and all of them know each other.
heartbreak, part deux AND fright reveal. we're eating good in the house of villette.
CHAPTER 35: FRATERNITY
all previous requests for a second romance to prove me right and help me have a good time have been canceled. these bozos are out here referring to each other as siblings.
CHAPTER 36: THE APPLE OF DISCORD
being brave again...i fell deeply behind on this and my other project, a situation i am resolving by reading 50 pages a day of that and 3 chapters a day of this.
against all my wishes, abilities, and general end of year plans. and more specific desires because this chapter felt very long and was all about catholicism vs protestantism.
CHAPTER 37: SUNSHINE
based on the usual accuracy of this book's chapter titles, i'm predicting this will be filled with darkness and suffering.
actually i'd title this one DADDY ISSUES.
CHAPTER 38: CLOUD
love that this chapter opens with "i'm still alone and that's god's fault."
CHAPTER 39: OLD AND NEW ACQUAINTANCE
this nun subplot...bizarro. there is so much and so little going on here at the same time. i have no idea what will happen next, but in an extremely low-stakes way.
CHAPTER 40: THE HAPPY PAIR
we are well and truly in the Tying Up Loose Ends section of this very long book. this part is about the bratty student Ginevra Fanshawe, who i have never mentioned here because i find her role in this so confusing and inconsistent, and also because i'm trying to avoid all plot spoilers in this review, for some reason. i guess i've discovered an ability to care late in life.
anyway, here's another example of how all over the place this character is. the summary of the rest of her life begins "Of course, a large share of suffering lies in reserve for her future" and ends "and so she got on—fighting the battle of life by proxy, and, on the whole, suffering as little as any human being I have ever known."
huh?
CHAPTER 41: FAUBOURG CLOTILDE
oh :)
CHAPTER 42: FINIS
and so we conclude! what a ride it's been.
this was just goddamn lovely.
OVERALL
this book is weird and kind of sloppy, at points, and definitely a little self-indulgent (as is jane eyre)...
but i enjoyed it every single day, the writing is so lovely, and the end made me smile. plus lucy's backbone over jane's somber ass any day.
rating: 4
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Reading Progress
December 25, 2021
– Shelved
November 29, 2022
–
Started Reading
December 29, 2022
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-19 of 19 (19 new)
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That cover!!! I need it in my life.
Try to make goals, like chapter or pages goal per days it really helps me a lot
Zaineb wrote: "Probably start with something more uplifting. I read this one at school. Its a miserable story that will make the reader feel terrible."
sounds right up my alley
Bethany wrote: "That cover!!! I need it in my life."penguin clothbound forever!!!
hedwidgebook wrote: "Try to make goals, like chapter or pages goal per days it really helps me a lot"ooh good idea! this is how i got through the goldfinch
I just love this and all the comments as well
I know you speak French, but it helps if you have an edition that translates the many instances of casual French in this book lol
I think DeVillette might be a better project name. Kinda sounds like a female devil, which as far as I know has little to do with the plot but shhhh
shouldve said svilletember
Omg yes the fact that she’s literally so poor and keeps getting cheated with money stresses me out
are you not tired of the copious amounts of french yet?
I've been meaning to read this one for ages and I think these updates just might have convinced me to pick it up.
After the next chapter it gets better trust me!
We’ve had similar thoughts on every Brontë sisters book so far, so based on that I predict that you will want to throw Shirley across the room. But maybe I’m wrong we’ll see
Thank you! I'm going to have to read this again ... loved recalling this classic through a pair of fresh eyes :)
this was my favorite book I read for my english degree!! It was so much better than Jane Eyre (in my opinion, obviously)
I read this one at school. Its a miserable story that will make the reader feel terrible.