Brontë, Charlotte | The author's third novel, the last published in her lifetime

Property from an Important American Collection

Brontë, Charlotte

Villette. By Currer Bell, Author of "Jane Eyre," "Shirley," Etc. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1853

3 volumes, 8vo. 12 page publisher's advertisements to the end of volume I dated January 1853. Publisher's brown cloth, spines gilt; inner joint of volume I cracked, head and foot of spines very slightly bumped. Collector's cloth slipcase, folding chemise.

The first edition of Brontë's third novel — the Bradley Martin copy.

Villette marked a return to Brontë's female autobiographical mode of narration, as employed in Jane Eyre. The tone of the novel is somber as themes of self-suppression and unfulfilled amorous desire are explored by the protagonist, Lucy Snowe. The novel is set in Villette, Brussels, where Snowe is working as an English teacher. The work is autobiographical in many ways, namely the parallels between the pre-eminent love interests, John Graham Bretton and Monsieur Paul Emanuel, and Brontë's real-life publisher, George Smith, and her Belgian teacher, Constantin Heger, as well as her and Emily Brontë's experience at boarding school in Brussels in 1842. 

The novel was published in January 1853, and was the final work to be published while she was alive. She died on 31 March 1855.

A fine copy.

REFERENCES:

Parrish 95; Sadleir 349; Metzdorf 384

PROVENANCE:

W.H. Wardle of Cotgrave (bookplate to pastedown) — H. Bradley Martin (bookplate to chemise)