Villette

When Lucy Snowe leaves England to look for a new life on the Continent she has no idea what lies in store for her. This quiet, lonely girl must learn quickly when she finds herself teaching in a foreign school, with no friends or family to rely on. However it's not long until figures from Lucy's past appear and she becomes involved in dilemmas which inspire new and passionate feelings in her.

About the Author

Charlotte Bronte was born in 1816 in Haworth, Yorkshire. Her father, a minister, enforced strict, often cruel discipline. But when Charlotte's mother died in 1821, the Bronte children were left mostly to themselves, and Charlotte became an omnivorous reader. In 1835 she became a teacher and later a private governess. In 1846 she published a joint volume of verse by herself and her sisters Emily and Anne under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, which sold only two copies. Undaunted, Charlotte completed THE PROFESSOR, and a kind note from one publisher encouraged her to finish JANE EYRE, her most famous work (1847). In 1848 tragedy struck - her brother Branwell died in September, Emily in December, and Anne the following May. Though depressed, Charlotte persevered and wrote SHIRLEY (1849) and VILLETTE (1852). Charlotte Bronte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate, in 1854 - a man she had once derided heartily. Lonely, still grief-stricken over the loss of her sisters, and beset by ill health, she died in March 1855.