Villette

First published in 1853, Charlotte Brontë’s final novel, Villette, is considered her finest and most profound work, and critics have said it surpasses even Jane Eyre.

The semi-autobiographical protagonist, Lucy Snow, flees England and her tragic past to become a teacher at a French boarding school in the fictional town of Villette. There she is unexpectedly confronted with her past. The first pain brings others, and with them the broken heart that Lucy has tried so hard to ignore. Yet, despite her hardships and disappointments, Lucy Snow lives on and offers us one of the most insightful artistic explorations of the female mind in English literature.