I spent the other day at Starbucks with my laptop.
It’s one of my favorite things to do: get highly caffeinated, then write.
After finishing a first draft of an essay I’m currently writing on Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, I suddenly had the keen urge to read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre again. Not cover-to-cover; just a few passages.
So I went home, cracked it open, and once again…tears began to flow. Jane’s conversations with Helen Burns are so intense, so lovely, so prayer-like. Charlotte was a genius. She truly was. Then it dawned on me: Why haven’t I read her other books?
A quick trip to Barnes and Noble ensued and I’m now on page 75 of Villette. I’m already feeling a sense of satisfaction (maybe not the level of satisfaction I get when reading Jane Eyre…but close).
…I sat at the fireside sewing. The wind was wailing at the windows: it had wailed all day; but, as night deepened, it took a new tone-an accent keen, piercing, almost articulate to the ear; a plaint, piteous and disconsolate to the nerves, trilled in every gust.
“Oh, hush! hush!” I said in my disturbed mind, dropping my work, and making a vain effort to stop my ears against that subtle, searching cry. I had heard that very voice ere this, and compulsory observation had forced on me a theory as to what it boded. Three times in the course of my life, events had taught me that these storage accents in the storm–this restless, hopeless cry–denote a coming state of the atmosphere unpropitious to life. – Villette
Poetry.
Today, the wind is wailing here in New York as well (weakly, but there’s some minor wailing going on), and I am indoors reading Charlotte’s words.
And, it is well with my soul.
Let it rain!
“I, Lucy Snowe, was calm.” Such a great book. I studied it in grad school with Rohan Maitzen several years ago; if you’re interested, you can read the conversations about it that she hosted online at The Valve a few years ago: http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/summer_reading_project_ii_villette/
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Thank you! I will certainly read it. It’s a very curious book. The personality of Lucy (so far) is so quiet and hidden. I’m anxious to see what transpires….
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Also – I’m looking forward to reading that Mansfield Park essay of yours…. But you already know that.
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I’m looking forward to the entire month of May and all the other posts! Fanny reminds me of Jane Eyre. That’s what led me back to the book. 🙂
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It’s nice to see your enthusiasm for Villette, Mary. Charlotte Brontë is one of my favorite all time authors. I’m reading a lot of Brontë at the moment (biographies included) and have Villette on my TBR list.
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Christy, I think we have similar taste in authors 🙂 My husband gave me The Brontës – Wild Genius on the Moors last year. It’s a biography by Juliet Barker. I’m hoping to get to it at some point this year. Do you recommend any other Brontë biographies? Hope you are well!
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I do think we have very similar tastes! I just finished reading The Brontë’s – Wild Genius on the Moors! I’m currently reading Romancing Miss Brontë by Juliet Gael and hope to finish that tonight.
Other books I’ve read:
Becoming Jane Eyre by Shelia Kohler
The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell
There’s others on my TBR list. 🙂
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So many books…so little time!
My TBR list looks a bit like this right now:
Villette
Agnes Grey
Shirley
The Brontë’s – Wild Genius on the Moors
Girl with the Pearl Earring
Plus, I’ve yet to read Middlemarch which has been sitting on a bookshelf for a year or so.
Oy! I’m giving myself a headache. LOL!
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We must be shopping in the same section. LOL! I finished Romancing Miss Brontë. Here’s my reading list:
Villette
Agnes Grey
Shirley
The Tennent of Wildfield Hall
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë
The Brontë Myth
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Oops! I forgot to mention The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as well. I think our minds will be occupied by the same thoughts and characters over these next few months. Ha!
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I’ve loved Jane Eyre for decades (my husband is experiencing the novel for the first time now), but I hadn’t read Villette until last year. I read it while participating in a blog read-along. I really enjoyed it.
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Yes, I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the book and the character, Lucy Snowe. I may revisit Villette at some point. Jane Eyre, however, continues to be my favorite book. Thanks for dropping by! 😉
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