Villette Read-a-Long: Week Two

In case you've forgotten, I'm participating in the Villette-Read-a-Long hosted by Wallace over at Unputdownables.  This week we read chapters 6-11.  Here's the schedule for the next coming weeks if you want to join us/catch up (which you should!)

READING SCHEDULE:

Week #/ dates :: Chapters to Read
Week One/ February 1st-7th :: ch. 1-5 (i.e. read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5)
Week Two/ February 8th-14th :: ch. 6-11
Week Three/ February 15th-21st :: ch. 12-17
Week Four/ February 22nd-28th :: ch. 18-22
Week Five/ March 1st-March 7th :: ch. 23-27
Week Six/ March 8th-March 14th :: ch. 28-32
Week Seven/ March 15th-March 21st :: ch. 33-37
Week Eight/ March 22-March 28th :: ch. 38-42

Okay, for only six chapters a TON of stuff has happened to our pal Lucy Snowe.


Summary:

So when we left Lucy she was in London, all alone and trying to figure out what to do next.  She decides to head off to Villette in France to find a job as a governess or teacher.  On the voyage over she meets Ginerva Fanshawe, possibly the most annoying girl ever, who tells her about a boarding school and mentions the headmistress, Madame Beck who's in need of a governess for her kids.

In France, Lucy's more alone than ever in a country where she doesn't speak the language.  She finds an inn but there are strange folk about and heads off the next day to Villette.  In Villette, Lucy discovers some idiot didn't bring her trunk, but, again, Elle ne parele pas francais (I hope that means "she doesn't speak French" because that's what the online translator gave me).  A handsome stranger comes to her rescue and, seriously, it's like a scene from my life.  Handsome strangers are always coming up asking, "do you need some assistance?" and I have to beat them off with a stick.  It's a curse.

Anyway, he points her to an inn and she's stalked by two mustachioed men and flees into a nearby house she thinks is the inn.  (Note to Lucy: Good instinct.  Never trust a mustachioed man.) Low and behold she ends up in front of Madame Beck's house and Beck says "you want a job even though I don't speak English and you don't speak French?  SURE!" So Lucy has a place to stay, though Beck is pretty paranoid and spies on everyone and goes through Lucy's clothes and personal things when she's asleep.  Maybe she wouldn't be so paranoid if she didn't just hire random people off the street who show up at her doorstep late and night and don't even have references, but that's just my opinion.

Lucy's settling in and things are going okay.  One day a teacher doesn't show up so Beck asks Lucy to fill in.  She's totally throwing her to the wolves because the girls pretty much start rioting the second Lucy shows her face.  But Lucy is a badass.  She pinpoints the school bully and shoves her in a closet.  Even Beck gives her the thumbs up.  The girls warm up to Lucy.  Even annoying Ginerva who goes to this school.  She and Lucy start hanging out a little bit, even though she finds the girl just as annoying as I do.  Ginerva tells her about some secret boyfriend who she treats like dirt and won't even call him by his real name instead calling him "Isidore."  Lucy pretty much frowns on the entire thing and tells her to break it off.  Obviously, Ginerva heeds this sage advice and lives happily ever after (/sarcasm)


Anyway, Lucy's still helping out with Beck's kids, two of whom seem okay despite having the Snow Queen as their mother, but one is a klepto and kind of a psychopath.  One of them gets sick and Dr. John is called.  Shocker!  Dr. John is the handsome stranger who helped Lucy find an inn (which I have to say, did he really "help" her?  He walked her across the park and then left her instead of walking her to the inn and she almost got attacked by those mustachioed men.  Would it kill you to walk a few more blocks, Dr. J?)  Of course everyone is totally in love with Dr. J.  Even the Snow Queen.  He, on the other hand, is writing love notes and hiding away in rooms with some chick named Rosine, who we know nothing about other than her name and I guess is she's cute and giggles a lot.

My Thoughts:

Where to even begin?  So much happened I feel like I need four posts just to cover it all.  Can I just say first of all that most of the guys in this book are kind of idiots?  You've got the boatman that tries and succeeds in swindling Lucy (she just gives him the money rather than argue with the jerk), the guy who loses her trunk, and Dr. John who's dumb enough not to fall for Lucy the second he meets her and then just kind of half-asses delivering her to the inn.  We better be getting some better male characters.  And soon.

I really think my admiration and love for Lucy grows with each chapter.  She feels real and has such contradictory emotions and actions, but it works.  She's brave, but cautious, hopeful but practical, confident but insecure.  She's more daring than she gives herself credit for.  I mean, moving to a foreign country without a job, a friend, or even the ability to speak the language?  Impressive.  I find myself relating to a lot of her inner monologues.  Even if she's *gasp* a Protestant.  I found the passage where girls weren't allowed to walk alone with her and chat when everyone found that out kind of amusing.

On the other hand, Ginerva?  I want to smack her.  I thought I couldn't like her any less than when we first meet her and she's giving Lucy these long monologues about how dumb she is, but then we see her at school and she's toying with some guy's heart and taking his gifts without a second thought.  If this mystery man turns out to be Dr. J I'm going to be pissed.  I don't know who this Rosine girl is, but John, if you're going after Ginerva as well, you're dead to me.

There was a passing reference to a "Charlotte" in one chapter (I've taken out my post it and forgotten the page).  I think it referred to her being "on the brink of romance" and I'm curious if this is a moment of self-reflection for Bronte.  Maybe I'm being too literal, but it made me think twice.  So many of Lucy's moments of isolation and loneliness you can tell are real emotions of Bronte's, having just lost her sisters.  It makes Lucy's plight and aloneness in the world all the more profound and unsettling.

Madame Beck is also an interesting character that I'm interested to see more of.  She seems to regard a lack of passion and emotion as positive qualities in herself and in Lucy, but Dr. John has got her practically giggling like a schoolgirl (well, as much as someone like her can).  Though, seriously, Madame B, let's maybe take a second look at our hiring/firing practices.  Going through the pockets of your newly hired employee AFTER you let them sleep in a room with your kids, might not end well one of these days.

There's so much other stuff to talk about, but I feel like I've rambled enough and only want to know one more thing:  When does crazy Polly show up in Villette? 

Oh, that, and I really need to pick up an edition that has translations for all the French because at first I was just thinking it was okay since I would just feel as lost as Lucy but now she's proficient and I'm still too lazy to open a French-English dictionary.

Villette Read-a-Long: Week One

I'm participating in the Villette Read-a-Long hosted by Wallace at Unputdownables.  We're reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte over the next 8 weeks.  Join us! (or don't ...whatever, I'm not your Mom...though would it kill you to clean up your room once in a while?)

Chapters: 1-5

Summary (via Wallace because I am lazy and today has been a crazy day and I just finished reading chapter five on the train this morning):

We meet Lucy Snowe as she is staying at her Mrs. Bretton, her godmother’s, house. While she is there, a child named Polly (short for Paulina) comes to stay after her mother dies. Polly is terribly homesick for her father and is only remedied from it by meeting Mrs. Bretton’s teenage son, John Graham Bretton (hereafter known as Graham). She becomes his pet, and, at six, she dotes on him and flourished under his big brotherly-like attentions completely. Once Polly’s father is settled with his relations outside of England he sends for his young daughter to join him. A few weeks later, Lucy travels back home, finds a place to live, and a job with a Miss Marchmont. After the death of her benevolent though sad mistress, Lucy must set out to look for a new place to live and another form of income. We leave Lucy, at the end of chatper 5,  alone and forlorn after she has just arrived in London after hearing of families who are looking for governesses.

My thoughts:
So from the other Villette posts I've read I've already deduced that I do not have the emotional maturity to take classics too seriously because my initial thoughts when Lucy's talking about Polly?  "Dude, does this kid have Benjamin Button disease?  'Cause she's like a thirty year old in a six year old's body." 

Seriously.  I know this is the 19th century and all, but, man, Polly is a weird kid.  Her devotion to her dad and then to Graham kind of freaked me out.  She was more like a wife to her father than a child, hanging all over him and gazing into his eyes and whatnot.  FREAKY.

I'm hoping she comes back into the story later because Lucy spends a lot of time delving into Polly's background and state of mind and her weird passive-aggressive relationship with Graham (Dear Polly, I know your six or whatever, but you really need to read He's Just Not That Into You before you hit puberty.  Just sayin').  I have a morbid curiosity to see what kind of nutjob she becomes as an adult.  The whole Marchmont thing was kind of surprising and quick.  It was literally, "hey, I have a job! Oh...now my boss is dead..." 

Lucy's still kind of undefined in my mind other than being a lot like Jane Eyre in that horrible shit keeps happening to her and she just trucks along because, what are you going to do, you know?  She seems like a tough cookie though (man, I sound like my grandmother) with a good head on her shoulders, talking about "Common Sense" as if it were a dear friend taking care of her instead of an aspect of her personality.  Plus, she totally sees through Graham and tells Polly that boys kind of suck and you should get used to it now.  This girl totally needs a BFF stat.  She's all alone in the world and I just wanted to give her a big hug when she was trying to figure out what the heck she was going to do next after Marchmont kicked it.

Anyway, I'm a bit hyper today if that's not completely apparent, but if you're reading Villette, I'm interested to see what you guys think.  And if you want a much more mature look at the first five chapters, check out Unputdownables where others are posting their thoughts.

Villette Read-a-Long

I have been remiss in announcing I'm participating in a read-a-long hosted by Wallace over at Unputdownables.  We're reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte.  I adored Jane Eyre and don't read nearly enough classics so I was excited by the prospect of a little more Bronte in my life.  To give you a quick background, here's a synopsis:

Arguably Brontë's most refined and deeply felt work, Villette draws on her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three siblings. Lucy Snowe, the narrator of Villette, flees from an unhappy past in England to begin a new life as a teacher at a French boarding school in the great cosmopolitan capital of Villette. Soon Lucy's struggle for independence is overshadowed by both her friendship with a worldly English doctor and her feelings for an autocratic schoolmaster. Brontë's strikingly modern heroine must decide if there is any man in her society with whom she can live and still be free.

I love the modern notion of looking for love while still remaining independent and can't wait to get further in this story.  I'll be blogging about my progress over the next two month and urge you guys to read along with me. (Sorry, I've given you such little notice, but don't worry there's plenty of time to catch up!)


Here's the reading schedule:

Week #/ dates :: Chapters to Read
Week One/ February 1st-7th :: ch. 1-5 (i.e. read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5)
Week Two/ February 8th-14th :: ch. 6-11
Week Three/ February 15th-21st :: ch. 12-17
Week Four/ February 22nd-28th :: ch. 18-22
Week Five/ March 1st-March 7th :: ch. 23-27
Week Six/ March 8th-March 14th :: ch. 28-32
Week Seven/ March 15th-March 21st :: ch. 33-37
Week Eight/ March 22-March 28th :: ch. 38-42

There are lots of other blogs participating so be sure to check out Unputdownables to see everyone else's progress.

Review and Giveaway — Jane by April Lindner

Summary (via Goodreads): Forced to drop out of an esteemed East Coast college after the sudden death of her parents, Jane Moore takes a nanny job at Thornfield Park, the estate of Nico Rathburn, an iconic rock star on the brink of a huge comeback. Practical and independent, Jane reluctantly becomes entranced by her magnetic and brooding employer, and finds herself in the midst of a forbidden romance. But there's a mystery at Thornfield, and Jane's much-envied relationship with Nico is tested by a torturous secret from his past.

Part irresistible romance and part darkly engrossing mystery, this contemporary retelling of the beloved classic Jane Eyre promises to enchant a new generation of readers.

 Review (spoilers if you haven’t read Jane Eyre):  It’s been a while since I read Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, but it’s been one of my favorites of the classics so I was excited and more than a little nervous when I heard there was a modern retelling of the iconic story to be published.  I’ve had this book on my shelf a while and have been reluctant to start it.  I wasn’t sure if it could be adapted well in this modern era.

I have to say, it was done pretty darn well.  Lindner keeps mostly to the original story, but changes it up enough to make it her own and keep you from feeling like you know exactly what’s going to come next (even if you kind of do).   

Jane is a heartbreaking character.  You see snippets in flashbacks and memories of her childhood and how misunderstood she was (and still is).  Her mother, in particular, calls her “a cold fish” at one point and it killed me because not is she a horrible mother, but I felt Jane’s frustration at not being able to fully articulate her passion and emotions. 

Rochester, however, was a character that I reacted to totally differently in this version than I did in the original.  I remember thinking Rodchester was brooding, dark, and compelling.  Maybe it was because I was younger when I read the original or maybe it’s easier to forgive certain male character flaws in Victorian and pre-Victorian era novels like those by the Bronte’s or Austen than it is in a modern setting, but in Lindner’s version I didn’t find him nearly as attractive, and it has nothing to do with the way she wrote him.  I saw his actions in a completely new light.  Instead of finding him brooding I just thought Nico was pretty childish and emotionally manipulative.  I mean, really, you’re going to try to make Jane jealous by teasing her that you’re going to marry some rich photographer?  Um, no thank you.  I’d like not to re-live the games I played when I was in 6^th grade trying to get Matt Baker to notice me.  I remember thinking at one point, “Jane, you should just run now, because you could do so much better than this head case.”

Yet, just when I started to worry that she was going to overlook his immaturity and the fact that he was still kind of in love with this crazy ex, she stood her ground. There’s a passage right before she leaves Thornfield where Jane realizes that her relationship with Nico won’t work.  It was pretty much word for word all the reasons I had been mentally compiling as to why their relationship was toxic (though she’s way more forgiving of his emotional immaturity).  I so admired that she was so completely in love and utterly heartbroken, but she still knows that she can't stay.  She’s strong when she needs to be strong and is rational throughout the entire relationship without losing any kind of romance or sympathy.

In the original I was so caught up with the epic love story, that Jane’s journey didn’t completely sink in.  In this version, it was watching Jane discover her self-worth that really made this a compelling story.  She moved me to tears several times and impressed me with her independence and courage.  By the end, you don’t fault her for going back to Nico because although he hasn’t really changed, she is better equipped to deal with him and put him in his place.

Whether you’ve read the original or not Jane is a great read.  The second I finished I grabbed my copy of Jane Eyre off the shelf to re-read.  I love that Lindner’s version doesn’t try to replace the original, but it’s a fantastic story on its own and makes you slightly nostalgic for Bronte’s version.  Jane just proves that Charlotte Bronte created a fascinating and timeless character.  Luckily, Lindner is more than capable of capturing her spirit.  Though…I still think Jane could do better than Rochester/Rathburn.

Lit Snit Verdict: A-

I was lucky enough to receive two copies of this book from the publisher and want to share one with you!  Enter below for your chance to win the fabulous Jane by April Lindner.  This is a US/Canada giveaway only (sorry!) and will end 9/24.