Villette cover

Villette

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)

Original en 192551 words First published 1853 United Kingdom

Lucy Snowe, alone and unexplained, crosses the Channel to teach in the fictional town of Villette, in a girls' school under the gimlet eye of Madame Beck. What follows is Charlotte Bronte's most interior and most strange novel: the long courtship by thunderstorm of the theatrical professor M. Paul Emanuel, the ghostly nun who may or may not exist, and a narrator who systematically hides her own feelings from the reader. Bronte drew on her Brussels years and her hopeless attachment to Constantin Heger; the ending, deliberately ambiguous, let her keep the hope she could not honestly record.

Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (public domain in the United States); the Project Gutenberg trademark and license text have been removed on import. Public-domain status determined by the author's death year + 50 years rule.

Table of Contents

  1. 001 Villette by Charlotte Brontë Contents I. 2514 words
  2. 002 “Say good-morning to the young lady,” dictated Harriet. 2537 words
  3. 003 So saying, she departed. CHAPTER III. THE PLAYMATES. Mr. Home stayed… 2553 words
  4. 004 “What are you thinking about, Polly?” “Nothing particular; only I… 2518 words
  5. 005 I asked what ailed her. “Dedful miz-er-y!” said she, with her piteous… 2554 words
  6. 006 I listened and trembled; Miss Marchmont slept. 2551 words
  7. 007 In going to London, I ran less risk and evinced less enterprise than the reader may think. 2680 words
  8. 008 Towards morning her discourse ran on a new theme: “the Watsons,” a… 2502 words
  9. 009 Just as I finished dressing, a tap came to the door: I said, “Come… 2504 words
  10. 010 A quarter of an hour passed. 2566 words
  11. 011 When attired, Madame Beck appeared a personage of a figure rather… 2523 words
  12. 012 “Dîtes donc,” said Madame sternly, “vous sentez vous réellement trop… 2611 words
  13. 013 The opinion of my Catholic acquaintance concerning my spiritual… 2501 words
  14. 014 “Mais pas du tout!” (she always had recourse to French when about to… 2503 words
  15. 015 What surprised me was, that Dr. 2508 words
  16. 016 But while I pondered, her voice, clear, though somewhat sharp, broke… 2528 words
  17. 017 I did long, achingly, then and for four and twenty hours afterwards… 2682 words
  18. 018 The scene of the “etude du soir” was always the refectory, a much… 2534 words
  19. 019 “How many times have you opened the door for me within this last month?” he asked. 2699 words
  20. 020 “Vous n’êtes donc que des poupées,” I heard him thunder. 2526 words
  21. 021 My impression at first was that I had undertaken what it really was… 2593 words
  22. 022 No sooner was the play over, and _well_ over, than the choleric and arbitrary M. 2505 words
  23. 023 The answer Dr. John would have given did not come; that his heart was… 2682 words
  24. 024 “I hesitate,” said he, “whether at the very beginning, before many… 2647 words
  25. 025 Few worshippers were assembled, and, the _salut_ over, half of them departed. 2592 words
  26. 026 The bonne turned again to survey me, and seeing my eyes wide open… 2559 words
  27. 027 “Is it you, Graham?” said his mother, hiding a glad smile and speaking curtly. 2570 words
  28. 028 “I would bring my work here,” she said, as she took from me the… 2536 words
  29. 029 “Hushaby, mamma! Sleep again. You look the picture of innocence in… 2501 words
  30. 030 “You know them as well as I; and, knowing them, Dr. 2633 words
  31. 031 One day, at a quiet early hour, I found myself nearly alone in a… 2524 words
  32. 032 As we left the gallery, I asked him what he thought of the Cleopatra… 2551 words
  33. 033 And now all was prepared: but one compartment of the hall waited to… 2513 words
  34. 034 “Do I frighten you, Lucy?” he asked. 2525 words
  35. 035 “You are becoming her advocate,” said he. 2524 words
  36. 036 By degrees, a composite feeling of blended strength and pain wound… 2502 words
  37. 037 Yet, to speak the truth, never had I been less dissatisfied with her than I was then. 2538 words
  38. 038 “Will it be long—will it be short?” thought I, passing my hand across… 2534 words
  39. 039 “Cultivate happiness!” I said briefly to the doctor: “do _you_ cultivate happiness? 2605 words
  40. 040 She rose at nine that December night: above the horizon I saw her come. 2555 words
  41. 041 The chamber was a room shadowy with pale-blue hangings, vaporous with… 2500 words
  42. 042 “You violate the truth in saying so; and as the whole of my patience… 2510 words
  43. 043 “You must have forgotten some things?” “Very little, I imagine.” “You… 2507 words
  44. 044 Indeed, egress seemed next to impossible; the drift darkened the… 2604 words
  45. 045 Paulina Mary cast once or twice towards me a quiet but penetrating… 2606 words
  46. 046 At seven o’clock the moon rose. 2642 words
  47. 047 I said, “Monsieur exaggerated. 2598 words
  48. 048 There are people whom a lowered position degrades morally, to whom… 2551 words
  49. 049 “We each have an observant faculty. 2510 words
  50. 050 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE WATCHGUARD. M. Paul Emanuel owned an acute… 2636 words
  51. 051 “Vous ne voulez pas de moi pour voisin,” he growled: “vous vous… 2816 words
  52. 052 Breakfast being over and mass attended, the school-bell rang and the… 2630 words
  53. 053 But now at last I had him: there he was—the very brownie himself; and… 2522 words
  54. 054 “Prove yourself true ere I cherish you,” was his ordinance; and how… 2769 words
  55. 055 Upon this argument M. Paul and I did battle more than once—strong… 2557 words
  56. 056 “Discoveries made by stealth seem to me dishonourable discoveries.” “Puritaine! 2504 words
  57. 057 “No—not much.” “You want to invite her to spend another evening?”… 2697 words
  58. 058 CHAPTER XXXIII. M. PAUL KEEPS HIS PROMISE. On the first of May, we… 2618 words
  59. 059 That tarnish was renewed the same evening. 2514 words
  60. 060 The good father sat down, as if to keep me company; but instead of… 2514 words
  61. 061 Forget him? Ah! they took a sage plan to make me forget him—the… 2503 words
  62. 062 “You know, Monsieur, I only see you in classe—stern, dogmatic, hasty, imperious. 2515 words
  63. 063 But the day came when, as usual, he was to give me a lesson. 2520 words
  64. 064 I replied that I had read it. 2541 words
  65. 065 “God guide us all! God bless you, Lucy!” CHAPTER XXXVII. SUNSHINE. It… 2503 words
  66. 066 “Sir, she demeaned herself with distinction; and I heard the French… 2573 words
  67. 067 “Now,” said she, “there is an amulet made, which has virtue to keep… 2549 words
  68. 068 I had seen them unanimous in demand for the merest trifle—a treat, a… 2549 words
  69. 069 But what bodily illness was ever like this pain? 2515 words
  70. 070 In this outer rank I took my place. 2554 words
  71. 071 Père Silas took an interest in this prospective improvement for the… 2555 words
  72. 072 In my infatuation, I said, “Truth, you are a good mistress to your faithful servants! 2596 words
  73. 073 “But for the nun’s black gown and white veil, he would have been… 2512 words
  74. 074 “Sortez d’ici!” “I will send for Père Silas: on the spot I will send… 2515 words
  75. 075 This balcony was in the rear of the house, the gardens of the… 2517 words
  76. 076 And now the three years are past: M. 446 words