Left by harrowing circumstances to fend for herself in the great capital of a foreign country, Lucy Snowe, the narrator and heroine of Villette, achieves by degrees an authentic independence from both outer necessity and inward grief. Charlotte Brontë's last novel, published in 1853, has a dramatic force comparable to that of her other masterpiece, Jane Eyre, as well as strikingly modern psychological insight and a revolutionary understanding of human loneliness. With an introduction by Lucy Hughes-Hallet.
From the Publisher
"Brontë’s finest novel."
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Brontë’s finest novel.
Maggie Berg Queen's University
"This edition of Villette gives readers the understanding necessary to fully enter what Kate Lawson and Lynn Shakinovsky call its 'demanding, sometimes punishing narrative mode.' Their introduction justifies and celebrates the gaps and evasions in the text as the 'heretic narrative' of a protagonist who does not always understand herself. The useful appendicesnotably on women and love, women and work, and anti-Catholicismprovide the historical material to contextualise the story. The edition admirably demonstrates that this paradoxical narrativea domestic novel about work, a love story about repression, and a realist text that embraces the supernaturalrepays and rewards close examination."
Gail Turley Houston University of New Mexico
"Kate Lawson's edition of Villette is expansive and precise, like the novel it contextualizes and introduces so well. Providing a rich analysis of the complex themes of the novel, the introduction at once acknowledges and limns the text's resistance to codification and carefully suggests the beautiful patterns in its seeming inconsistencies. The primary materials provide further context for the novel, particularly in regards to the 'Woman Question.' Arranged to be in dialogue with each other about this pivotal topic, these materials provide the background necessary for understanding the novel's involvement with those discussions."