Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Villette (Oxford World's Classics) by Charlotte Bronte, Margaret Smith, Herbert Rosengarten, Tim Dolin ISBN: 0-19-283964-0 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: February, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.51 (39 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Impressive, demanding
Comment: Charlotte Bronte's JANE EYRE is one of the most readable of Victorian classics. VILLETTE is something different. It could be a good bet for a reading group -- there's a lot to discuss in it. It's a deliberately slow and un-melodramatic story; the narrator, Lucy Snowe, evidently intentionally does _not_ tell about some of the most dramatic incidents in her life,instead focusing on her emotional privation.
In this book, it seems there are three levels of humanity. There is the majority, focused on material dazzle -- who are made of "vulgar materials." Superior to them are those whose hearts and minds are capable of some development, but who are spiritually limited. Lastly there is an elite, who, perhaps through much suffering and the tutelage of the wise, discover their own inner integrity, and so become free even while being bound to the "prison" of the body. In short -- don't be misled by the Christian terminology; this is a gnostic novel, even if Bronte never heard the term "gnostic."
It has a tough-mindedness that makes many novels seem sentimental. And it really is rather bleak, in seeing this world as unredeemable. For a Victorian fiction with obvious spiritual/religious relevance, what a Christless thing it is.
Rating: 5
Summary: Villette (Bantam Classic)
Comment: If you like Jane Austin, hang on to your hat. Charlotte Bronte's book is similar in that she has about 30 well-described characters for you to memorize in the first 50 pages, presenting a period of time spanning several years, with lots of plot twists and foreshadowing, but this is no lightweight reading. The struggle between selfish desire and true sacrificial lovingkindness is going to tear you to the quick. She survives naivite because she is willing to do what is right regardless of personal suffering. Lucy is a real hero for those of us who want desperately to do what is right above merely "acquiring stuff" or "being accepted". The ending is not satisfying. Lucy knows that deep contentment won't be found in this lifetime, only in Christ's presence when this corrupt and temporary body finally rests, and goodness of heart is rewarded.
In this edition, the introduction is helpful, but wordy. You will have to know French, and lots of it, but there are notes on obscure references.
Rating: 5
Summary: ....
Comment: This is a tale of Lucy Snowe's journey and struggle with loneliness, love unrequited, fate and life. Lucy makes for an interesting narrator for she is moral, thoughtful throughouta and at times morosely funny. During reading I truly began to care about Lucy's struggle--because isn't her struggle ours as well? Many novels try to do the same, but lack in Charlotte Bronte's authenticity of sentiment; so when M. Paul said 'Lucy, take my love. One day share my life. Be my dearest, first on earth.' I shed a tear.
 |
Title: Shirley (Oxford World's Classics) by Charlotte Bronte, Herbert Rosengarten, Margaret Smith ISBN: 0192833782 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
 |
Title: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Oxford World's Classics) by Anne Bronte, Herbert Rosengarten, Smith Margaret ISBN: 0192834622 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
 |
Title: The Professor (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Bronte, Heather Glen ISBN: 0140433112 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1989 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
 |
Title: Agnes Grey (Oxford World's Classics) by Anne Bronte, Hilda Marsden, Robert Inglesfield ISBN: 0192834789 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
 |
Title: The Life of Charlotte Bronte (Penguin Classics) by Elisabeth Jay, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Charlotte Bronte ISBN: 0140434933 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
