Villette Audiobook By Charlotte Brontë cover art

Villette

Penguin Classics

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Villette

By: Charlotte Brontë
Narrated by: Charlotte Ritchie
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Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Charlotte Ritchie, best known for her roles as Oregon in Channel 4's Fresh Meat, Hannah in the BBC Three comedy Siblings, and as Barbara Gilbert in BBC drama Call the Midwife.

With neither friends nor family, Lucy Snowe sets sail from England to find employment in a girls' boarding school in the small town of Villette.

There she struggles to retain her self-possession in the face of unruly pupils, an initially suspicious headmaster and her own complex feelings, first for the school's English doctor and then for the dictatorial professor Paul Emmanuel. Drawing on her own deeply unhappy experiences as a governess in Brussels, Charlotte Brontë's last and most autobiographical novel is a powerfully moving study of isolation and the pain of unrequited love, narrated by a heroine determined to preserve an independent spirit in the face of adverse circumstances.

Public Domain (P)2019 Penguin Audio Classics

Critic reviews

"Listening to Call the Midwife actress Charlotte Richie read Charlotte Brontë's lesser-known novel Villette was a hugely enjoyable experience on my morning commute on trains so packed that I could not stretch out my arms to open a book." (i News)

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Engaging Narrative • Brilliant Writing • Deep Psychological Insight • Beautiful Prose • Captivating Romance
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The narrator is phenomenal. I love her voice and her inflection. She faithfully portrays each character's voice; how she manages to capture so many, varied tones is amazing.

I love this story. I loved it even more as I listened to it. When I read it, the French caused me to struggle with gaps that were held together more easily while listening.

Highly Recommended

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I'm not sure I can even write a review that can justify the beauty of this book. I have not read much by the Bronte sisters, but after this I am hooked for sure! What a gorgeously written, poetic book. Not everything (in fact, hardly anything) is flowery or perfect or good or the way it even should be in the world, but THE WRITING. Gah. My only regret is that I speak no French at all, and several comments or handwritten notes in the book are in French, and the narrator did not translate them. Some I could glean the meaning of through context, but I do feel that I missed out a bit...

This work, and probably all of the work by the Bronte sisters, should be required reading in school. After wetting my pallet with this gorgeously written piece, I look forward to my future homework! 😊

It's beautiful and painful, just read it!

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Language can entertain no better than in this story, even if you can't understand French. A much lighter story than Jane Eyre or her sister's Agnes Grey. Joins Jane Eyre and works of JRRT and JKR on my list of the thrice-read. Once for the language, twice for the characters, thrice for the subtle weave that holds it all together.
I like the situational humor: a madame whose rule is founded on espionage. I like its frequent infusion of literary imagery from ages past. Its verbosity is not inflated prose of the word-processor age. I would that any modern writer wishing to employ first person narrative be required to read this book first.

I feel the richer for having read it thrice

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The sheer love of words propelled me forward. What genius in the flowering of the English language. Enter herein to open your ears and heart. Listen well.

Pure poetry

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pure Felicitousness was my experience listing to this timeless novel. recommendation I am unable to forgo, listen and delight an exhalent work of language and imagination.

pure Felicitousness was my experience listing to t

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I loved this book so much! The narrator does an amazing job of bringing every character to life! I cannot recommend this enough!

Amazing!

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I didn’t think anything could top Jane Eyre, but Villette is just as good. The characters come to life! The reader does a good job with several accents.

Charlotte Brontë is a genius

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This book was boring. Very long tedious prose. 25% in the book and still nothing was happening.
Narration was not the best either. Every character had basically the same voice.

Boring

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I love Charlotte Brontë and her other stories are some of my favorites, but this story could have done with some editing! For myself, I enjoy happy endings and this one did not deliver. I thought the narrator had a nice voice and accent.

Looooonnnngggg

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Perhaps it’s meant to be showing the complexity of the character but I found this character entirely unreal due to the inconsistency in her behavior from chapter to chapter and even sometimes scene to scene. Frustrating. The poor mans Jane Eyre.

Lucy Snow’s inconsistency in consistently annoying

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