Description

Lucy Snowe is seeking some much-needed stability and security when she takes a job as a teacher in the faraway city of Villette. What she does not realize is that she's in for a wild ride of mystery, intrigue, and romance. When Lucy arrives, the girls' boarding school where she has taken a post would seem to be a perfectly proper and safe environment. However, soon after her arrival, Lucy has a frightening run-in with a ghostly presence that haunts the school's attic: the spirit of a nun rumored to have been the victim of a gruesome punishment for breaking her vows. As Lucy attempts to gather her courage in the face of this unsettling development, she must also deal with day-to-day challenges at the school. The hope of love gives her strength as Lucy finds herself falling for one of her fellow teachers, the dashing Paul Emanuel. There are many who would keep Lucy and Paul apart, however, as they soon find. Can Lucy ever find the happiness and security she has sought for so long? Nothing is as simple as it seems or as we might like in this intriguing Gothic tale from the masterful pen of Charlotte Brontë.

About the Author

The eldest and most prolific of the literary Bronte sisters, Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) combined definitive life experience and her strong imaginative powers to create such famous works as Jane Eyre, Villette, and Shirley. At first, Bronte, like her sisters, published her novels under a male pseudonym, her own being "Currer Bell." When her first novel, Jane Eyre, received considerable public attention, many tried to guess the true identity of the author, sure that no man could have so expertly captured Jane's female voice. Despite the adversities of family instability, personal tragedy, and ill-health, Charlotte Bronte is well-established to this day as one of the most brilliant female writers in literature, with her haunting settings, cleverly-woven mysteries, and compelling, multi-faceted characters burning brightly in the minds of generations of readers.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

VILLETTE.
BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË.
CHAPTER I.
BRETTON.
My godmother lived in a handsome house in the clean and ancient town of Bretton. Her husband's family had been residents there for generations, and bore, indeed, the name of their birthplace--Bretton of Bretton: whether by coincidence, or because ...