Review: Vilette

Vilette by Charlotte Brontë
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an ambitious read but never, ever unpleasant. Reading Bronte, to me, is like listening to your favorite piece of music or walking through a boundless, beautiful garden. You can, in fact, begin anywhere and feel nourished by the beauty and art in every breath of it. You can take it in gulps or you can sip slowly and casually. In Vilette, there is a story being told, of course, but Bronte is never in a hurry. She causes the reader to slow down and be in the moment with her. I think she knows that her sentence craft and strolling thoughts (regardless of what she is describing or conveying) are so impeccable that haste would border on the felonious.

We are told by history that Vilette is autobiographical. Her life, it appears, was plagued by loneliness, financial strain, and want of opportunity. Yet, her talent and depth of character poured out in her writing. She is an individual who focused on her eulogy virtues far more than her resume virtues, practically a foreign concept these days. She is a person I would have liked to have known.

I waited until I finished the book before reading what others had to say about it. I was so disgruntled by the ending of book, that I only read essays on why she closed her story the way she did. In these essays, I did find satisfaction.

This is not a quick read, a clamorous page-turner, or a gripping adventure story with hairpin twists and turns. It is a deeply personal and interesting story told with elegance and adorned with dazzlingly intelligent revelations on human nature.


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