Villette (1853) was Charlotte Brontë's third novel and the last published during her lifetime. After an unspecified family catastrophe, the main character, Lucy Snowe, travels to Belgium to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette. She falls in love with a man she cannot marry, which triggers a nervous breakdown. Ultimately, a new, strong Lucy emerges who becomes the owner and head of her own school.
Parts of the novel's dialogue is in French. Its main themes include isolation, how to deal with it, and the internal conflict brought about by the social repression of individual desire. Villette saw Brontë's return to writing from a first-person perspective, the technique she had applied so well in Jane Eyre.
(Tags : Villette (Unabridged) Charlotte Brontë Audiobook, Charlotte Brontë Audio CD )
