Product Description
Volume: 3Publisher: London, T.C. NewbyPublication date: 1848Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
This was truly one of the best books I have ever read. I was enthralled from the first page. What I found most interesting was the story's relevance for today's woman, even though it was written so long ago. Anne Bronte was ahead of her time. Many of the issues we hear about today, like co-dependancy and abusive relationships, are included in this story. I think it is fascinating. This was a story that I was sorry to have end. I wanted every woman that I know to read it! ... Read more

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ReadHowYouWant publishes a wide variety of best selling books in Large and Super Large fonts in partnership with leading publishers. EasyRead books are available in 11pt and 13pt. type. EasyRead Large books are available in 16pt, 16pt Bold, and 18pt Bold type. EasyRead Super Large books are available in 20pt. Bold and 24pt. Bold Type. You choose the format that is right for you.

This is Volume Volume 1 of 2-Volume Set.To purchase the complete set, you will need to order the other volumes separately: to find them, search for the following ISBNs: 9781427048738

"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is a novel about the suffering of one woman living in an unhappy marriage, and Bronte uses that story to display the harassment of women of that time trapped in unequal relationships. The character development is very strong and realistic, and the dialogue of the novel is very powerful.

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Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Volume: 2Publisher: London, T.C. NewbyPublication date: 1848Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
Agnes Grey was published in 1847 and was the first book by Anne Bronte, the youngest of the Bronte sisters. Anne wrote this book while her sisters were working on their books. Emily Bronte is likely the best known for her book Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Bronte for the book The Professor.Agnes Grey centers on a governess who is also a rector's daughter. It follows the challenges in her life as she ends up in charge of taking care of unruly children. Agnes copes wit her challenges through her romantic relationship and appreciate for nature. Bronte spends a great deal of the book making subtle commentary on the attitudes of the upper class. ... Read more

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This large print title is set in Tiresias 16pt font as recommended by the RNIB. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Poetry; Law / International; Poetry / General; Poetry / Anthologies; Poetry / American / General; Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

Product Description
Published in 1853, this is Charlotte Bronte's final novel and is often regarded, emotionally and aesthetically, as her most satisfying. As in "Jane Eyre" the theme is passionate personal integrity - the struggle of an individual to preserve independence of spirit in adverse circumstances. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (61)

A masterpiece of character study
I loved this novel. Obsessive reader as I am, I feel simply obligated to consume all kinds of reviews and discussions after finishing a book that left me in awe and baffled. This time I even ventured into the territory of critical analyses and interpretations. Many things came up during my quest to find out what people think of the heroine of Villetteand the book as a whole - that this is a novel about a woman who fights to attain her independence, that Lucy Snowe is a liar, that almost all characters in the book - M. Paul, Pauline, Ginevre, Dr John - are representations of different sides of Lucy's (possibly schizophrenic) personality, that Villette is just a more depressing rehash of Jane Eyre, some other stuff that I don't even have a mental capacity to fully understand and reproduce here.

But I am a simple person, for me Villette is a story of a woman who was severely traumatized by deaths of her family at a young age and who, being introverted by nature, under the pressure of her misfortunes closes herself to the outside world completely. Lucy's whole life purpose is to guard herself from possible heartbreaks, to create a facade of serenity and unfeeling. But the strength of her passionate nature, her vivid internal life are such that suppressing them is impossible. The entire book is Lucy's never ending struggle to keep up her walls, not to let anyone in, not to feel, not to hope, not to love, not to get attached, not to reveal her true self in its clever, opinionated, passionate, desiring, jealous, petty glory. Does the heroine attain her freedom in the end? Does she escape a prison of her self-imposed loneliness? Yes, she does, but not for long. The person who sees and loves Lucy the way she is, who helps her not only financially, but psychologically, is given and taken away. And once again, Lucy is guarded and telling us her story, never allowing herself and us to see the true extent of her despair, unhappiness, and loneliness. But even what is hinted at is heartbreaking.

I loved this novel, loved it in spite of the numerous contrived coincidences, untranslated French dialog and sparse plot. Villette is a study of a woman's complex inner world and as such it is remarkable.

However there is another (sort of voyeuristic) reason why the book affected me so much. It is claimed to be heavily autobiographical and I find myself intrigued by Charlotte Brontë. I want to know this woman. How much of the book was real? Did the extent of Charlotte's loneliness and desire to be loved matched Lucy's? Was M. Heger, her real life professor, just like M. Paul? Did he awaken her soul, played with her and then discarded her when the affair interfered with his married life? Was M. Heger's wife as manipulative as Madame Beck? Did Charlotte ever regret refusing several marriage proposals to instead pine over men utterly unattainable? Did she blame herself for her inability to be happy? Why didn't she allow Lucy her happy ending? Did she think financial security was the maximum a woman like her could ever hope for and love was impossible?

I am off to try to find at least some answers to these questions...

Ugh - I don't speak French
I don't speak French... and as such I was unable to fully enjoy large portions of this book.It is a long tale of Lucy from childhood visiting with her Godmother through her life as a teacher and her ever proud determination to be dependant on no-one.Her friends weave in and out of her life and Bronte has an almost musical way with weaving the English Language - the problem is that there is so much French, and so many important conversations are had in French that I really felt like I was missing out on huge parts of the book.

If you don't speak French, be sure to search for a version of the book that is fully translated into English.The book, though tediously slow, is well worth the read for fans of the Bronte Sisters.

Charlotte Bronte's last book
For anyone interested in Charlotte Bronte herself, this title is a must.It is the mosst autobiographical of her books and the most emotionally revealing.It depicts her as a woman of strong likes and dislikes with feelings of inadequacy and inferiority.She accepts with equanimity that a man she is very attracted to would choose someone more attractive than herself.The harsh owner of the girls boarding school in Brussels where she teaches is based on the wife of the owner of the school Bronte actually taught at, but a male teacher in the book, with whom the book's protagonist later falls in love is based on Constantin Heger, owner of the boarding school.Toward the end the book becomes over-emotive and at one point the protagonist is under the spell of opium

Soul Searching
"Villette" was Charlotte Bronte's final novel, and while it covers some familiar territory, it doesn't quite live up to the standards of her masterpiece "Jane Eyre", or even the much more cohesive "Shirley".The narrator is yet again a rather plain ordinary woman without many prospects, who must rely upon teaching to make her way in the world, chancing to become a teacher at an established school in France.Yet the narrator, Lucy Snowe, lacks charisma and too often rambles away from the story at hand, making "Villette" a slow-paced read with too little payoff in the end.

The story begins with Lucy Snowe living with her godmother, Mrs. Bretton, her son John Graham, and their young visitor, Paulina Home.Lucy details their lives and the relationship between Graham and Polly, before quickly moving on to her time as a companion to a sickly woman.From there, the narrative jumps to her spontaneous trip overseas and her immediate luck in finding a post within Madame Beck's pensionnat, where she eventually becomes an English teacher.Lucy then spends much of her time chronicling the life of the school and the characters that reside there, especially Madame Beck and M. Paul Emanuel.As the novel progresses, Lucy finds herself reunited with her godmother and John Graham, and even Paulina Home as a young lady, for the novel covers at least ten years within Lucy Snowe's life, before wrapping up in a somewhat ambiguous manner.

The main trouble with "Villette" lies with its narrator: Lucy Snowe is an extremely faint shadow of Jane Eyre, her retiring nature making her seem weak and a pushover, rather than being a pleasant and noble characteristic.She allows others to walk all over her and doesn't speak her mind, and the man she falls in love with is such a study in contradictions that readers may have difficulty liking him and rooting for them to be together in the end.The story is poorly paced, spending a huge amount of time on what seem like tangential stories and details, and skipping other details that might enhance the main character's likability.All in all, "Villette" is a credit to Charlotte Bronte, a profound examination of one woman's conscience and character, flaws and faults included.

Different, but for a reason
I came to "Villette" after having read and fallen in love with "Jane Eyre".When I first began reading "Villete" I knew that I should expect a long exposition leading to a thrilling climax.While the climax did not begin until about page 400, I was not disappointed.Lucy Snowe, while eccentric, speaks to feelings of loneliness that can be extrapolated far beyond this novel.I also found it gratifying that the relationship between Lucy and M. Paul - if rather sudden in its appearance - seemed of a deeper and more genuine sort than that between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester."Villette" is not the sweeping romance with a happy ending like "Jane Eyre".I was somewhat disappointed with the ending until, shortly after completing the book, I was perusing a biography of Charlotte Bronte from my college's library and discovered just how intensely personal the story of "Villette" was.In fact, the biography used excerpts from "Villette" to illuminate the relationship between Charlotte Bronte and M. Heger, a schoolmaster in Brussels.Now I appreciate how insightful "Villette" is for anyone wishing to get to know Charlotte Bronte better.

P.S. Get an edition with notes that translate the French phrases.You'll lose whole chunks of dialogue without the notes unless you can read French. ... Read more