1001 Group Read, Oct. 12: Villette

Here's the tread for October's group read. I'm waiting on my book to arrive from Alibris and I'm looking forward to your thoughts and commentary.

I do have the book somewhere - but where? Anyone else but me that has books everywhere?

Well, my copy is on my kindle and I'll be joining the group read as soon as I finish one of the other two books I'm reading. Looking forward to it!

Well, now I have downloaded it to my iPad. Long live Gutenberg Project!

Planning to join this group read too... but probably not until the end of the month. I have a couple of (non-renewable) library books that need to be finished first.

#2 MikeMonkey - I'm all too familiar with the "books everywhere" syndrome. I'm slowly gathering the outliers and boxing them and tagging them with the box # so I can find them again. Loving that my recent discovery of LT has given me an easy way to organize the lot.

I've started Villette and am liking it so far.

My copy just arrived from a bookcrosser in the States. I look forward to starting it.

Just wondering - how are we discussing this? I noticed it is written in 3 volumes, so would we discuss volume by volume or just generally on the book? I would prefer to discuss in volumes, that way there is no spoilers and also it makes a 600+ page book a little more manageable. What do you think?

I have just finished the sixth chapter and I still haven't found out who the main character is. Can anyone give me a clue...

Mike, although I am not as far into the book as you are, that raises an interesting question. Does there have to be a main character? Can a novel be written with no main character? Buddenbrooks pehaps.
Can anyone else think of other novels with no main character?

I have actually read Buddenbrooks a couple of months ago. And you are right there, George. The main character really is the whole family. I was thinking about another classic novel, The House of the Seven Gables, which I haven't read. Is not that about the house itself? Or rather the people who live in it through the ages.

I've completed thru the 5th chapter. It seems to me that the main character is Lucy Snowe, the narrator of the story. I thought for a while that it was going to be Polly, but Polly is gone.

Yes, that seems to be the case. But I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of Polly.

I read Villette a couple of years ago. Lucy Snowe is definitely the main character. However, she is a sneeky one, and doesn't tell you much about herself. Have fun figuring her out ;-)

Well, I am about a fourth of the way through the book. I love the story so far, however, the French is killing me. I'm not a pro at it and there is an abundance. I'm using an on-line translater to figure out most of what they are saying. Maybe by the time I finish, I will actually know some French.

I'm trying to figure out who the doctor is enamored with. I think it is either Miss Snowe or Ginevra Fanshawe. I hope not the latter. She is so vain.

George - how important is the French to the story? I listened to Villette on audiobook, and most of the French went over my head and I didn't worry about it. Had a read the book instead, I would have understood more because I can read French better than I can understand it spoken (like many Canadians, I have what we call cereal box French). Anyway, did I miss anything?

I'll admit that I mostly didn't worry about looking up the translation for those passages either... (I don't know French at all.) If it was just a sentence or so, I could usually figure out the the general gist of what they were talking about.

There were a couple of spots (near the end of the book) where there is a page or two of dialog that is mostly in French... I looked up the translations for those passages since they were longer and seemed more crucial to the story.

Nickelini the amount of French in the story does not detract from it at all. You can enjoy the story even if you ignore the French passages. I just like to know what the words mean and try to figure them out. I probably would have been done with this book if I could just get past that quirk I have.

I'm finding the French a little annoying, personally. I don't understand a word of it, and the fact that it keeps popping up makes me feel like I'm missing something. Of course, it's still completely understandable, but I just don't like not being able to understand.

I'm wondering about Polly, also. I thought we had a situation like The Great Gatsby going on where the narrator isn't the main character, but I guess not.

I know enough French to know that I'm not missing much by not understanding all of it. It is definitely annoying me though. It strikes me as a bit pretentious. According to my kindle, I'm about 40% through and I have to admit I'm a bit bored. Lucy just isn't that interesting to me. Things seem like they are starting to get mildly interesting though as she's just reconnected with some people from her past. Maybe at will help move the story along!

Je crois que les Français se trouve dans le livre parce que signifiait cette Bronte être un roman continental. Consider the times. Consider her audience. Consider her reputation as a writer.

Are you saying that most of Bronte's audience at that time would have understood French? I would understand that, but all I'm saying is that for a modern audience spread over many countries it's a bit different. Where I live, learning Spanish is much more practical than learning French. I've never met a native French speaker, unless you count bilingual people from Canada. I wish my edition translated in the footnotes or something. I think that would be a good compromise.

I agree, George. I think that in many ways Charlotte Bronte led a small and cloistered life and she was probably proud of the time she spent overseas and her education, including French.

My thoughts were similar to japaul22's... so much of the book mirrors Charlotte's own experiences in Belgium (where, if I recall correctly, she studied French & French literature fairly heavily.) I took it as a nod to her experiences and pride in her education.

My copy translates the French in footnotes, luckily for me (unlike my copy of The Magic Mountain which had PAGES of French). Why is it that Latin and French hardly ever get footnotes, but other languages do?

I have just finished the first part, Lucy is a rather frustrating narrator, clearly she knows more than she is letting on. I had a couple of false starts, but I am now really getting into the story.

Soffitta, good observation. Perhaps Lucy is an observer of life?

Finished the book yesterday. I quite enjoyed some of the flowery prose, but overall found the characters rather annoying/frustrating and the story rather dull. 2.5/5

>27 puckers: I'm 70% done according to my kindle and agree about the characters being annoying and the plot dull. I normally like a slow, character-driven book where not much happens, but I'm not really enjoying this as much as I thought I would. It's much different than Jane Eyre, which is one of my favorites.

Well that doesn't sound promising! I keep meaning to start this one but my library holds have been coming in fast and furious so I haven't had a chance. Sounds like that might be a good thing?

For what it's worth, I did enjoy Villette... though not as much as Jane Eyre.

I think it helped having read a biography of Charlotte Bronte earlier this year, since I kept trying to relate everything to Charlotte's own life.

It is very different to Jane Eyre, I suppose the passion is missing, though as amerynth says, it is supposed to be more autobiographical. Some of the negatives I found were more really to do with being a 21st Century reader - like some of the fluffy female characters.

I do think that knowing more biographical info than I do would help the book.

Soffita - I also don't like the fluffy female characters. The thing is that I've read a lot of books from this period or even earlier where the women are more substantive, so I don't think it's just the era.

Although maybe this was just a bad time for me to read this book and I would have liked it better some other time.

It's been a long time since I read Villette but I was wondering what you all would make of it. I liked it but found it frustrating. I couldn't decide how the author wanted me to react to certain characters and events, and the ending completely threw me. Still, it was a memorable read.

#33 I read the last page several times and am still none the wiser. An intriguing conclusion.

Just finished. What is up with that ending?

Spoiler Alert re ending!

She asks to imagine a happy ending but heavily hints that M Paul perishes at sea. Certainly the abrupt ending with "Farewell" adds weight to a unhappy conclusion but she never specifically states that he didn't survive. Anyway the last page held my interest more than the rest of the book.

I finished it several days ago, but just have not had time to comment on it. While I found it loooooong, I none-the-less found it to be delightfull. Did not like the ending because I like happy ones, but I thought her approach to ending the story was unique and well thought out. It reminded me somewhat of the ending to the movie "Shakespeare In Love".

Also I thought the novel could have been shortened if it were not for the repitition of describing the characters. I felt I was introduced to the same caracter many times over especially M. Beck and Mm. Fanshaw. . .both of whom I found obnoxious - just the way the author intended them to be.

Many beautiful and poetic phrases in this book. Although I don't know how long it took her to write the novel, I feel that Charlotte spent a considerable amount of time choosing just the right words and phrases in many instances throughout the story.

While I don't believe I would read this book again (there are just too many others I want to get too), I have given it 5 stars. I think that from a literary perspective and from a really good story point of view, it is right at the top of the listy.

Great comments, George, though I didn't like the book as much as you!

As far as the ending (spoilers coming) . . .

I was surprised by it, but it kind of fit the overly dramatic inner monologue going on in Lucy's head. Also, in her real life, wasn't Charlotte Bronte's M. Paul married? At least, they never ended up together though I remember that he wrote her some letters that she always saved. Maybe the ambiguous ending was reflective of her not understanding what their relationship was or where it was going, if anywhere.

About the ending (spoiler?)

Maybe the anticipation was better than the reality could ever have been. I also felt that M. Paul really put her on edge, could her nerves have survived a relationship?!