Villette
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Villette
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Narrated by:
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Davina Porter
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By:
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Charlotte Brontë
About this listen
Hailed as Charlotte Brontë’s “finest novel” by Virginia Woolf, Villette is the timeless semi-autobiographical tale of Lucy Snowe. Left with no family and no money, Lucy goes against her own timid nature and travels to the small city of Villette, France, where she becomes a school teacher in Madame Beck’s school for girls. During her stay, she falls in love—twice—and discovers an independent, inner strength rarely seen in women of her time.
Public Domain (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
Editor reviews
Charlotte Brontë's Villette follows protagonist Lucy Snowe as she bounces from one career to another. First a servant, then a teacher, the hapless Snowe is besotted by family tragedy and doomed romance. Eloquent performer Davina Porter imbues the hard-working Snowe with solemnity tinged by optimism. Indeed, as an unwed, working woman in 19th-century Europe, Snowe must struggle to define herself against the prevailing gender codes of her day. Porter, known for her painstaking attention to historical detail, captures the mannerisms and conventions of Brontë's characters, lending context and veracity to this striking case study of a Victorian woman’s prospects for love, happiness, and independence.
What listeners say about Villette
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jessycamden
- 14-04-25
Charlotte Bronte's greatest novel, superbly read
Villette is surely the greatest of Charlotte Bronte’s novels and Lucy Snowe the most fascinating and uncompromising of her heroines. Lucy rivals David Copperfield as the clear-eyed first-person narrator of her own life; she is so determinedly herself, so staunch in her quiet insistence on the validity of her own (often amusing) perceptions, so intelligently revealing of the narrowness of the life she has to live. She has, of course, most of the prejudices proper to a middle-class young English woman of her time, along with genuine humanity, understanding, and compassion. Her penetrating analysis of the characters of Madame Beck and Monsieur Paul Emmanuel is wonderfully convincing and surely drawn from life. The structure of the novel is brilliantly clever, especially given that Lucy Snowe is the first ever example in English fiction of the ‘unreliable narrator’. In short, this great work repays re-reading and this Audible edition could not be bettered; Davina Porter’s voiced interpretation of each and every character is superb.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Emma Gentry
- 29-11-24
Hard going
After Jane Eyre this was hard going for me. Started well, then I struggled through from middle to end. Although it did improve my French! Slower and less eventful. I hate to say it but too descriptive and truncated
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Green Witch
- 20-03-25
Relaxing comforting listen
A lovely gentle story which draws you in. Twists and turns. A great Brontë read
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michael Falk
- 17-02-25
Masterful novel, beautifully read
This book proves just how brilliant Charlotte Brontë was. The plot is intricate, twisty and eventful. The characters are vivid and complex. The narrator Lucy is a wonderful proxy for the reader, as she slowly realises her situation and develops her independence. It is easy to see why Jane Eyre is more popular–Villette is subtler and more French. But if you are a lover of nineteenth century fiction, you can’t let this one by.
David Porter is a great reader. Her voice is clear and supple. She captures several of the characters extremely well, especially Modeste Beck and Paul Emmanuel.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paula Puddephatt
- 18-02-25
Beautifully written
The characters are fascinating. Lucy and Polly are my favourites. At times, a melodramatic plot, but justified by intense emotions being explored and described. Good narration.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Annie
- 27-05-14
Delivery is all.
If you could sum up Villette in three words, what would they be?
This is a classic and worth reading for that alone. It also gives a social history.
For me it was spoilt by unenthusiastic reading and by not including a translation of some of the most important parts of the text which was, at times, in French. I have heard this done by footnote references and this would only be needed where the French is relevant to the plot etc.
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5 people found this helpful