Villette - Completed

A couple of months back, I commenced on reading this book. (Would anyone care to read it too? Online text here.)

It is a story of loneliness and unrequited love, and how the heroine had to live with them all her life. I find that I can really connect to the emotions portrayed in the book - well, can't we all! Solitude is something that I am no stranger to - in certain times of my life, it so invaded me that I could feel it in all its emptiness, despite being surrounded by people. And what of unrequited love? I had a great depression over one unrequited love, and several other small ones... heheh. But, as I said - who'd never?

So back to the story (should I say, er - spoilers warning?) - the heroine, Lucy Snowe, after a family misfortune of some kind, was left all alone in this world. She bravely took up a position as an English teacher in a French-speaking boarding school (which is why there are so many French sentences in this book!) in the capital city (Villette) of a foreign country (Labassecour - which is imaginary, by the way). Her loneliness was forged largely on her being in a foreign land, not being able to speak their language at first, and having no true friends. After some time, she chanced upon meeting a young doctor, who turned out to be an old acquaintance. She fell in love with him by-and-by, but ... well, you can guess. Someone else loved Lucy - a Professor of Literature (but I really dislike him, because he seemed such a control freak!). After he'd professed his love to her, he had to leave for India for 3 years! And at the time he was sailing home, a terrible storm raged over the sea for 7 days!

So what happened then? Well, I have a pretty clear idea, but you'd better read the book and make your own conclusion. (OK, I know nobody's really interested) :P