Yep, I screwed up the reading last weekend. I can only assumed I was blinded by rage when I approached the chapter numbers. Dr. John and Paulina did get engaged last time, and I just didn’t read that far. Whatever, you two. The fact that Dr. John pays court to Paulina by talking about how it felt when six-year-old her touched his cheek is yet another more way in which Victorians in general and Charlotte Bronte in particular are just SO FUCKING WEIRD. So M. Paul announces he’s leaving, and Lucy mopes around because he’s been really nice to her lately,…
14 CommentsTag: Villette
We are nearly done with Villette, and I will go ahead and say right now that it’s not Charlotte Bronte’s best work. And I am not just saying that because I’m mad that Lu Paul turned out to be such a dud! It’s also that Villette lacks both the focus and the craziness that make Jane Eyre such a treat. Luckily this was a short reading section, and I didn’t have that much time to get mad at Lucy. “Not that much time,” however, does not equal “no time.” Lucy goes out to do some errands for M. Beck but…
11 CommentsSo this is how the fourth section of the readalong begins: Lucy gets back from vacay and has an extended conversation with Reason. That is not a person. She has an imaginary conversation with her own personified faculty of Reason, who has blue lips and is kind of a dick. “But I have talked to Graham and you did not chide,” I pleaded. “No,” said she, “I needed not. Talk for you is good discipline. You converse imperfectly. While you speak, there can be no oblivion of inferiority—no encouragement to delusion: pain, privation, penury stamp your language.” Hey, Lucy, I’m on your…
21 CommentsA quick note before I start reading: My hope for this section is that Monsieur Paul finds Lucy in the midst of her depression and swooning and nurses her back to health. I recognize that it is much more likely that Dr. John will do this, as he is in fact a medical professional, but I don’t care. LU PAUL FOREVER! Remember last week, when Alice said that Charlotte Bronte was super weird and gave zero fucks about it? I didn’t really see it then, but I am coming around to Alice’s point of view. This is how Lucy Snowe describes waking…
5 CommentsOMG so many chapters in this week’s installment of the Villette Readalong, and it was a busy week, with cleaning and unpacking and houseguests and small road trips. So if you find that I have missed crucial nuance in this section of Villette, please try to forgive me. I spent yesterday gazing sadly at the very small number of dirty dishes in my sink and feeling utterly daunted by them. I started Chapter Six with very warm feelings toward Lucy Snowe, because she had just come to a new city, and she was comforted in the midst of all the…
18 CommentsI had a bumpy start with Villette, insofar as I instantly loathed everybody. I’m not trying to get on Lucy Snowe’s case, but her youth seems to have prepared her exceptionally well for becoming the kind of mean governess who hits you with a ruler for saying you think Richard the Lionheart was bad at governing a nation. She is so judgey right off the top. Here are Lucy Snowe’s assessment of all the characters in the first three chapters, in GIF format. Polly: Polly’s father: Graham: The effect of this is to make me dislike all those characters (well…
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