Villette

Considered by many to be Charlotte Brontë’s best novel, Villette is largely concerned with the experiences of Lucy Snowe as she attends a girl’s boarding school in a fictionalized Belgium. 

Lucy flees unhappiness in England only to find more woes abroad. Her love for Dr. John unrequited, she slowly realizes that a deeper attachment is growing between her and her irascible domineering mentor and colleague, M. Paul Emanuel. The promise of fulfillment and the realization of love on equal terms hangs in the balance in a story that dwells on powerful emotions without lapsing into sentimentality.