Villette was Charlotte Brontë's final novel. I think that's evident in the groundedness of her plot (here groundedness is relative - I mean in comparison to Jane Eyre, not real life) and the dimensionality of her characters. I especially liked Paul Emmanuel - because I didn't like him at first, but I realized how Lucy fell for him by the end. This is not a burning passion from the start, and I appreciate that cool level-headedness from our heroine. 

I liked a lot of things about Lucy; she is probably the most likeable (to my tastes, anyway) Brontë heroine thus far. Sure, she's got a morality stick up her ass, but I like her directness, her lack of sentimentality, and that she makes the most queer-esque comments. (Yes, I am a bisexual Lucy Snowe truther - what else was that description of Madame Beck when she was trying to figure out where Doctor John's interests were?) 

I'm obsessed, too, with how radical the Protestant-Catholic conflict and its resolution were. I was so sure one of them was going to end up converting, so I was thrilled to see them accept each other and still love each other with that religious difference.

Also, while the resolution to the ghost nun plot was funny, I wish it'd been left without explanation.

um so I was going to put 'most normal repressed victorian' as my review. but then the ending happened. and now I feel like I've been punched in the gut lol. 

Yet again Charlotte Bronte delivers a wonderful leading lady surrounded by (and impacted by) horrible people... Horrible people who are supposed to be liked, I assume.... But I just can't. 

It's complicated. Much like in Jane Eyre, I'm quite fond of Lucy. That said, I find almost everyone else unbearable. (There are a couple redeemable characters & several grey characters I find amusing at best, but that's it). 

There's so much French I struggled to read & understand parts and my focus was constantly breaking. I love a good classic but my ADHD had a difficult time with this one. Not only did the French muddle me a bit, I found the pacing was hard to follow at times. Some parts of the book were so slow, others confusing (it took me half the book to figure out a certain character was not two different monsieurs but one and the same, just addressed at times by first name and others by last). Not to mention some scenes made me quite angry... We can expect some of that in certain old books, but I felt Villette had so many more instances that disturbed me and made it hard to continue. (Emotional and verbal abuse was a big one; prejudices a second).  

Lucy is so dry and sassy I found her amusing and fun to read. And yet the toxicity of everyone else in her life stunts what *could* be her story. She is praised for her sense but then makes choices that really don't make sense and instead reflect the impact of unfortunate gaslighting and manipulation from those around her. It's painful to read and depressing to wade through such abuse the whole story without it ever being addressed.

I couldn't finish, so I skimmed the last little bit and did some research on the book instead. Maybe I'll return to it someday to finish the more in depth look but for now I could only stomach a quick read through towards the end.