Villette

By: Charlotte Brontë

Narrated by: Mandy Weston

Long overshadowed by Jane Eyre, Villette is widely admired as one of Charlotte Bronte's finest works. This story of a young teacher at a girl's school in the city of Villette is a particular challenge for the young reader, for it requires maturity of vision, a fine narrative sense - and a command of French! Mandy Weston, a newcomer to Naxos AudioBooks, tells the story magnificently.©2007 Naxos Rights International (P)2007 Naxos Rights International

Good, with reservations.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I liked this book, but I don't think I would have gotten it if offered again.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Villette?

The book itself was great, but the ending left me wanting more resolution.

Which character – as performed by Mandy Weston – was your favorite?

Lucy was the best.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes, maybe a movie would give me a more definate ending.

Great to read a little known classic

Any additional comments?

I never knew that Charlotte Bronte had any other novels than Jane Eyre. They are similar in that the main characters have to go through a lot of self-discovery and finding their independence in order to find love. They are different in that Villette tells more of the story of the supporting characters around Lucy Snow. Be prepared of the sections in French, which there are many.

Beautiful reading of an inspiring story

Villette was a gentle story, more like riding along with a woman as an intimate friend in her journey. To outward appearances, not a whole lot happened but inwardly and amidst minor daily adventures, she is evolving into her own person, and testing her coping with loneliness and disappointments and in the process manifesting her values and formidable strengths in the world. Villette fulfilled the reason why I love this genre so much, the sweetness and excellence of language, the emphasis on properties of the spirit and character. As a heroine, Lucy's heroics were all about facing her demons and rising to the occasion despite difficulties---it was a tale of every day courage. All that said, I may have drifted away or made it through only slowly, if it were not for the stunning, poetic, and perfectly nuanced ready by Mandy Weston. She made all the characters come into bloom with her sensitivity and sense of pitch, intonation, flavor and accents. I loved listening to her brogue as well as the French, even when I did not understand (the latter--the book has footnotes to explain it)---her voice reading is like listening to beautiful music and added so many layers of enjoyment on top of what was already a very sweet book

One of the most beutiful books I have ever read

Yes, it was challenging at first, Lucy Snowe seemed unlikeble, judgemental, arrogant. But oh did that change. Bronte's writing weaves prose and poetry so organically into each other in a perfect, honest, brutal, intimate, heart-breaking insight into the heart and mind of a lonely, isolated, intelligent, orphaned young woman, who is so desperately and so secretly yearning for to be seen, loved and to belong... My heart ached and broke for Lucy, and I joyed with her and grieved with her. And I feel closer than ever before to Charlotte Bronte. I marked many passages for some of the most perfectly eloquent, poetic yet brutally honest and apt depictions of certain universal human experiences.
I will come back to this book, oh Reader, time and time again, whenever I wish to glance at the painful beauty of the human experience.

a brilliant novel brilliantly read

mandy weston really understands what what she is reading. she captures the ironies and nuances. brilliantly performed, in what i think is my favorite Bronte novel, although it seems that i feel that way about the least one i have most recently read.