Charlotte Bronte

[ellenkushner]

When I was a child, a kind aunt gave me Charlotte Bronte: Girl with a Pen for my birthday, and I was fascinated. I proceeded to read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights a lot. But I've never read Villette til now (I'm about halfway through, so no spoilers, please!), and in it I've found the following passage, which follows on the narrator's being unjustly reproved by a young doctor:

"I might have cleared myself on the spot, but would not. I did not speak. . . . Suffering him, then, to think what he chose, and accuse me of what he would, I resumed some work I had dropped . . . . There is a perverse mood of the mind which is rather soothed than irritated by misconstruction; and in quarters where we can never be rightly known, we take pleasure, I think, in being consummately ignored."

This perverse sentiment is utterly alien to me, but I have observed it in some of my close acquaintance, and am fascinated to see it here so clearly expresssed.

Comments

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

I'd be very interested to hear what you think of Villette once you're done. I know it's not as popular as Jane Eyre, but I think I actually liked it better in many ways.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Lovely to hear from you again, M.!

[auroramama]

I was friends with someone in college (and since) who liked Villette better than Jane Eyre, and now that I think about it, I think she was capable of understanding that mood. All I can make of it is that someone might get tired of trying in vain to be understood, and cease to make the effort. Don't think I could manage it myself, though.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

While I love Jane Eyre, I do love Villette just a little bit more. And I can understand that perverse sentiment. I fear I may very occasionally indulge in it myself. I have no idea why.

[pameladean]

I adore Villette. It's not as gaudy as Jane Eyre, but when one wants it, nothing else will do. I've never read anything else like it.

P.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Hi, Pamela!

[bookgirlwa.livejournal.com]

Villette is extraordinary. Far and away CB's best novel, eclipsing Jane Eyre IMHO (and I love Jane Eyre). It is such a courageous book in so many ways.