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This memoir was written in the early 20th century, not too long after Charlotte Bronte’s letters to Monsieur Heger were brought to light.
The author was a pupil at the same school in Brussels, about 20 years after Charlotte lived there, and so she knew Monsieur and Madame Heger personally. This puts the author in the rare position of being able to hold a mirror up to Villette and tell us what parts about the school were true, what parts were true-ish, and what parts were pure imagination.

Overall, it seems that Charlotte mostly nailed the character of Monsieur Heger, in her creation of “Paul Emanuel,� with his irate moods and larger than life classroom presence.

The real-life Madame of the school, however, is presented with a considerably softer touch than Madame Beck gets in Villette.

I was pleased to see the respect that Charlotte was treated with in this book, because the publication of her private letters to Heger could have tarnished her legacy in some minds� and yet her feelings about the man had a lot of complicated background, and also she asked for nothing from him.

Context is everything.