Darlings, Let Me Tell You, When You Read "Villette," You Live "Villette!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                         Here is something to ponder, girls--if you think "Jane Eyre" is  the be all and end all of Charlotte Bronte, then you have not read "Villette."  Sure, "Jane Eyre" is the  better known, the more "entertaining, and fun to read," and, let's face it, not so difficult,  book,  but "Villette" is "Jane Eyre," taken to a mature, advanced level.

                                        To be sure, it has all those Charlotte Bronte elements--a penniless woman of fortitude (Lucy Snowe) who ventures out into the world, not so much seeking her fortune, as eking out a living, a girls' school, a gaggle of girl students, vindictive bitches, mysterious men, the ghost of a nun--even a mysteriously deformed child called "the Cretin," who appears all too briefly (I wish Charlotte had done more with her!!!!) but is far more sympathetic and forgivable than Bertha Rochester, from "Jane Eyre."

                                         Paulina Mary, as a child, borders on being as annoying as Adele in "Jane Eyre," but, fortunately, she matures.  Unlike Ginevra Fanshawe, the novel's narcissistic bitch, and this book's counterpart to Rosamond Vincy, of George Eliot's "Middlemarch."  Even Lucy here reminds me of Dorothea Brooke from that other, even more brilliant, novel (which you have GOT to read, girls!!!!!!!!!)

                                           Interestingly, the great Virginia Woolf sounded off on both novels.  She said "Villette" is "Bronte's finest novel," and I have to agree.  Its sense of characterization and language reveal a heightened sense of development as a writer, especially if you read it after "Jane Eyre."

                                             Virginia also said, of "Middlemarch," that it was "the first Victorian novel written for grown up people."  She has a point, though I, personally, must give that designation to Charlotte's sister, Emily's, masterpiece, "Wuthering Heights."

                                               By the time "Villette" was written and published, all the Bronte siblings had died.  That left Control Queen Charlotte in charge, which saddened her, in an emotional sense, but must have pleased her, from a publication one.

                                                I mean, just think if Emily (who was the most BRILLIANT of the Brontes, despite what bullshit Charlotte told to Elizabeth Gaskell!!!!!!!!!) might have remarked, upon reading "Villette"--

                  "That bitch! (referring to her sister!) She wrote a book almost as good as mine!!!!!!!!!!!"