Villette - Chapters 3-11

Last week I was busy and never got around to writing a Junto post, so I'm combining the two-weeks' worth of reading here.

So far, I love this book. The characters are absolutely fascinating, the plot is unpredictable, and there's a lot of food for thought.

Despite what I first believed, Paulina and Graham became good friends. After a while, Polly's father sent for her to go to the continent with him, and shortly afterwards Lucy Snowe returned to her own family. Eight years go by - Lucy and the Brettons fall out of contact, a family member dies, and Lucy finds herself left to make her way in the world. After a brief time taking care of a dying elderly lady, Lucy travels to London and decides to go to Europe. She boards a ship and meets a rather superficial young lady named Genevra Fanshaw, who happens to mention that she goes to a boarding school in a town called Villette.

Upon landing in France, Lucy and Genevra part ways and Lucy is undecided about what to do next. She spontaneously decides to go to Villette and see what the town has to offer. After arriving in the town, she was directed to an inn and upon reaching the destination realizes that she made a wrong turn - she had reached the aforementioned boarding school instead. Figuring this was too providential a circumstance to ignore, she calls on the head mistress - Madame Beck - and despite not speaking a word of French, she lands a job.

Madame Beck is a curious character. The personification of stoicism, tact, and reserve, she rarely lets on to what she's really thinking. She's easy to work for - her rules are moderate and never gets angry. But she has her flaws. She is obsessed with the approval of others. If her students dislike a teacher, the teacher's fired; she avoids confrontations by placing others in stressful situations in her stead. Also, her only motivation is self interest. Reason, emotion, coercion are nothing. If, however, you show her that a particular move would considerably benefit herself, you've won her over. Her method of governing her school is disturbingly unconventional but rather amusing - espionage. It sort of reminded me of The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe - she and her spies are everywhere. During Lucy's first night there, Madame Beck snuck into her room, went through her trunks, and duplicated her keys in an attempt to understand her character. This woman both creeps me out and cracks me up.

I found it funny in chapter 8 that Lucy commanded the respect of a classroom of rowdy girls by ripping one girl's English paper in two and locking another delinquent in a book closet. Ha. Just think about the "abuse" lawsuits that probably would have resulted nowadays.

I love how Lucy describes herself as living two lives - that of the outside world, and that of her mind. I never realized that other people saw their lives like that too.

This is a good book.