Villette

While preparing the book display half of a "Blog Display" concerning the writing of the Brontë sisters, I went looking for pictures from the 1970 miniseries adaptation of Villette, staring Judy Parfitt as Lucy Snowe (English audiences may know her best as Mrs Clennam in Little Dorrit, American audiences may know her best for her role as the Queen in Ever After).

I couldn't find any I could really use. Heck, in the end I couldn't find any pictures that were directly connected to the book that were all that useful. In the end, I just went for a generic "French Village" image.

However, I did find this:



Which I found entertaining.

I read Villette at the same time I had been given Lonely Runs Both Ways (by Alison Krauss and Union Station) for Christmas, and I always found the song "If I Didn't Know Any Better" seemed to fit perfectly with the second half of the book. I had this crazy idea of having a completely bluegrass/country soundtrack for the film version of the book.

But, having watched the clip above, I have to admit that Macy Gray's "I Try" is a perfect fit for the first half of the book. So now I'm wondering if I could convince Alison Krauss to do a bluegrass cover of "I Try", or if I should just open up the music genres for my dream sound-track to my hypothetical film adaptation.

Jane Eyre is one of my all-time favourite books, but there's an extent to which I find Villette to be a better novel. The whole "Ghost of a Dead Nun Haunting the Attic" thing never works as well, for pure drama, as the "Madwoman in the Attic" and "Psychic connection via the moon" thing that Jane Eyre has going on, but I love the emotional depth of the novel.

The book is a celebration of second chances. It sets up one love story, stomps on it, then gives us another. In Jane Eyre (and Shirley), the young woman has one great love, and must go through many trials and heartbreaks before winning him in the end. She can never be happy without him - he is the only one for her! (Dramatically bring back of hand to forehead at this point). In Villette, it looks like it's setting up the exact same scenario... but then turns everything on its head.

M. Paul must have been at the school the whole time. He must have been floating around in the background while Lucy was busy swooning over Dr John. We just don't hear about him because she doesn't notice him. Too busy swooning, you see. Then, at some point, he just breaks in - seemingly out of nowhere. Then he does it again, and again, and again.

And then, suddenly, her breath catches in her throat at the thought of talking to him and she just can't fathom why. Suddenly, she's so turned around by this annoying little Frenchman that she can barely spare a thought for her glorious Dr John.

Suddenly, we don't give two hoots if Dr John goes off and marries Polly. We want to know what M. Paul wants to talk to Lucy about. We want to know why his cousin is trying so hard to keep him away. When he grabs Lucy's hand in the garden and draws her close, we pretty much forget about Dr John entirely.

And I love that element to the book - the new paradigm. In the romantic novel that is your life, you might not be Jane trying to overcome the obstacles needed to get to your Rochester. You might be Lucy who is still stuck on Dr John. Your M. Paul might be standing right behind you, waiting for you to turn around.