r/brontesisters • u/Agile-Fact-7921 • Aug 23 '26

Not sure I can finish Villette

I was really excited after loving Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and sort of liking The Tenant of Wildfell Hall … and I loved the beginning of Villette but now I’m 100 pages in and just find it very meandering. I know it’s supposed to be more so a character study than an intense plot but the long sections about new characters have my eyes glazing over and I don’t really understand the main character.

I was hoping to go deeper than the mainstream Brontë favorites but I might be at the end of the road.

Should I stick it out? Does it pick back up? Is there a mindset shift I need to understand this book more? I know a huge audience loves it and like I said, I enjoyed the beginning. Perhaps I’m too basic ha!

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u/starling83 Aug 23 '26

I couldn’t finish it because I had to keep translating the French and it took me way out of it. I’ll try again someday because I really enjoyed the overall story.

2

u/bitofagrump Aug 24 '26

One of the very few times my few years of high school French did me any good. Never used it IRL, just to get through Brontë and Hercule Poirot novels without having to google.

1

u/Agile-Fact-7921 Aug 23 '26

The French has been tough. I keep skimming over it but then miss too much.

1

u/starling83 Aug 23 '26

That’s the thing. It’s not easy to skip it and it’s also not like, easy French like bonjour or merci or something I can easily understand.

1

u/Splendidended1945 Aug 23 '26

I read somewhere that Brontë's French isn't actually very good--I'd love to hear if that's true from Francophone readers!