BRONTE, CHARLOTTE — Villette

London, Pan Books. 1973, First Thus. (ISBN: 0330237128) Soft cover. Book, First published in 1853, "Villette" is Bronte's most accomplished and deeply felt work.. Her narrrator, 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. Introduction and notes by Gilbert Phelps. 500p. Crisp, unmarked paperback. Fine.