Villette (84 page)

—from
Cornhill Magazine (December 1877)

 

In
Villette,
too, and in
Shirley
, there is to be found human life as natural and as real, though in circumstances not so full of interest as those told in
Jane Eyre
. The character of Paul in the former of the two is a wonderful study. [Brontë] must herself have been in love with some Paul when she wrote the book, and have been determined to prove to herself that she was capable of loving one whose exterior circumstances were mean and in every way unprepossessing.

—from his
Autobiography
(1883)

 

1. A contemporary reviewer in the
Spectator
remarked that
Villette,
even more than
Jane Eyre,
reads like a bitter complaint against the destiny of those women who have to work. Do you see this in the book? What is the relationship between women and work in Brontë’s novel?

2. Matthew Arnold asked, “Why is
Villette
disagreeable?” He answers by saying, “Because the writer’s mind contains nothing but hunger, rebellion and rage, and therefore that is all she can, in fact, put into her book.” Is this a fair interpretation? Can you, from a novel such as this, make valid inferences about an author’s character or state of mind?

3. Harriet Martineau says that “the book is almost intolerably painful,” that “an atmosphere of pain hangs about the whole.” What produces this atmosphere of pain? The heroine’s disappointments ? Incidental imagery? Lucy Snowe’s view of life? Something metaphysical?

4. Many men have admired this novel. What is there in it for a man to admire?

 

Barker, Juliet.
The Brontës.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. An extensive and comprehensive study of the Brontë family.

Bentley, Phyllis.
The Brontës and Their World.
New York: Viking Press, 1969. An illustrated biographical portrait of the Brontës.

Brontë, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë.
The Belgian Essays,
edited by Sue Lonoff. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. Essays the sisters wrote while studying at the Pensionnat Héger in Brussels, the model for Madame Beck’s school in
Villette.

Brontë, Charlotte, and Anne Brontë.
Agnes Grey, with a Memoir of Her Sisters by Charlotte Brontë
. New York: Penguin, 1988. Charlotte’s short memoir written to commemorate her sisters’ lives and careers is included in this edition of Anne Brontë’s novel.

Gaskell, Elizabeth.
The Life of Charlotte Brontë.
1857. New York: Penguin, 1975. The first biography of Charlotte Brontë, written by her friend the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell.

Gérin, Winifred.
Charlotte
Brontë: The Evolution of Genius.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967. A compelling and well-researched biography.

Gordon, Lyndall.
Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life
. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995. A lively and readable portrait of Charlotte Brontë and her world.

Shorter, Clement K.
Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle.
1896. West-port, CT: Greenwood Press, 1970. A short biography that includes some interesting letters.

Smith, Margaret, ed.
The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: Volumes I-III.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995-2004. The standard scholarly edition of Brontë’s correspondence; expertly researched, with excellent notes. Anne Thackeray Ritchie’s memoir appears in volume II.

Spark, Muriel, ed.
The Letters of the Brontës
. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954. A selection of Brontë letters.

 

 

 

Alexander, Christine, and Jane Sellars.
The Art of the Brontës
. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. A beautifully illustrated critical study of the Brontës’ art and the influence of visual culture on their writing.

Alexander, Christine, and Margaret Smith.
The Oxford Companion to the Brontës.
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Everything you need to know about the Brontes’ lives and works in an accessible format.

Brownstein, Rachel.
Tragic Muse: Rachel
of the
Comédie-Française.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. Brownstein’s lively study of the French actress Rachel (Elisa Félix), the model for Brontë’s Vashti.

—.
Becoming a Heroine: Reading about Women in Novels
. New York: Viking Press, 1982. Brownstein pays particular attention to
Villette
in these excellent studies.

Eagleton, Terry.
Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës.
London: Macmillan, 1975. An important Marxist analysis of the Brontë’s work in terms of its relationship to material culture.

Glen, Heather.
Charlotte Brontë: The Imagination in History
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. A study of Brontë’s relationship to Victorian literature and society.

Lane, Christopher.
Hatred and Civility: The Antisocial Life in Victorian England.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Explores the antisocial dynamics of Victorian culture; includes a compelling chapter on Charlotte Brontë.

Miller, Lucasta.
The Brontë Myth.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. Part biography, part literary criticism, this wonderful study looks at the ways in which the Brontës have been mythologized both in their day and in contemporary culture.

Peters, Margot. Charlotte
Brontë: Style in the Novel
. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973. An analysis of the form and artistry of Brontë’s narratives.

Shuttleworth, Sally.
Charlotte Brontë and Victorian Psychology.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. A critical study that examines the influence of nineteenth-century psychology in Brontë’s works.