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Article: All you need to know about the books you meant to read
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- September 16, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Plot: Charlotte Bronte's semi-autobiographical narrator, Lucy
Snowe, explores both her own psyche, and the possible roles for
women in Victorian society. She stumbles upon worlds of voyeuristic
fantasy and aimless tedium.
Lucy, physically unprepossessing but spiritually aflame, works
at a repressive girl's boarding school in the foreign city of
Villette (Brussels). She is watched by the sinister and kinky
headmistress, Madame Beck.
With little else to think about, Lucy conceives a passion for
her former childhood friend, John Bretton, whose ruinous good looks
fail to conceal a personality that is leaden and conventional. Two
other girls compete for his charms: Ginevra Fanshaw and Pauline ...