Villette (Barnes & Noble Classics) - Softcover

Brontė, Charlotte

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1593083165 ISBN 13: 9781593083168

Publisher: Sterling Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RVillette&&L/I&&R, by &&LSTRONG&&RCharlotte Bronte&&L/B&&R&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&R&&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&R

• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences―biographical, historical, and literary―to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LSTRONG&&R&&L/B&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LSTRONG&&RCharlotte Brontė&&L/B&&R’s last and most autobiographical novel, &&LI&&RVillette&&L/I&&R explores the inner life of a lonely young Englishwoman, Lucy Snowe, who leaves an unhappy existence in England to become a teacher in the capital of a fictional European country. Drawn to the school’s headmaster, Lucy must face the pain of unrequited love and the question of her place in society.&&LBR&&R&&LBR&&RFor &&LI&&RVillette&&L/I&&R, Brontė drew upon her own experiences ten years earlier, when she studied in Brussels and developed an unreciprocated passion for her married teacher. The novel also reflects her devastating sense of loss and isolation after the deaths of her beloved brother and sisters, and her confusion and conflicts over the fame she achieved for having written &&LI&&RJane Eyre&&L/I&&R. But despite Brontė’s heartsick inspiration for the novel, and the grief that haunts its heroine, &&LI&&RVillette&&L/I&&R is a story of triumph, in which Lucy Snowe comes to understand and appreciate her own strength and value. &&LBR&&R&&LBR&&RCelebrated by George Eliot and Virginia Woolf for its strikingly modern psychological depth and examination of women’s roles, &&LI&&RVillette&&L/I&&R is now recognized as Charlotte Brontė’s masterpiece, surpassing even &&LI&&RJane Eyre&&L/I&&R.&&LBR&&R&&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LSTRONG&&RLaura Engel&&L/B&&R &&L/B&&Ris Assistant Professor in the English Department at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where she specializes in eighteenth-century British literature and drama.&&L/P&&R&&L/DIV&&R

About this title

From the Publisher

With her final novel, Villette, Charlotte Bronte reached the height of her artistic power. First published in 1853, Villette is Bronte's most accomplished and deeply felt work, eclipsing even Jane Eyre in critical acclaim. Her narrator, the autobiographical Lucy Snowe, flees England and a tragic past to become an instructor in a French boarding school in the town of Villette. There, she unexpectedly confronts her feelings of love and longing as she witnesses the fitful romance between Dr. John, a handsome young Englishman, and Ginerva Fanshawe, a beautiful coquetter. This first pain brings others, and with them comes the heartache Lucy has tried so long to escape. Yet in spite of adversity and disappointment, Lucy Snowe survives to recount the unstinting vision of a turbulent life's journey--a journey that is one of the most insightful fictional studies of a woman's consciousness in English literature.

From the Back Cover

Arguably Bronte's most refined and deeply felt work, Villette draws on her experiences as a student in Brussels as well as her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three siblings. Lucy Snowe, the narrator of Villette, flees from an unhappy past in England to begin a new life as a teacher at a French boarding school in the great cosmopolitan capital of Villette. Soon Lucy's struggle for independence is overshadowed by both her friendship with a worldly English doctor and her feelings for an autocratic schoolmaster. Bronte's strikingly modern heroine must decide if there is any man in her society with whom she can live and still be free.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sterling Publishing
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1593083165
• ISBN 13: 9781593083168
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 608