In time for the 200th anniversary of her birth a Penguin Hardcover Classics edition of the
book many believe to be Charlotte Brontë's crowning achievement With neither friends nor family
Lucy Snowe sets sail from England to find employment in a girls' boarding school in the small
town of Villette. There she struggles to retain her self-possession in the face of unruly
pupils an initially suspicious headmaster and her own complex feelings first for the
school's English doctor and then for the dictatorial professor Paul Emmanuel. Drawing on her
own deeply unhappy experiences as a governess in Brussels Charlotte Brontë's last and most
autobiographical novel is a powerfully moving study of isolation and the pain of unrequited
love. For more than seventy years Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature
in the English-speaking world. With more than 1 700 titles Penguin Classics represents a
global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines.
Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by
distinguished scholars and contemporary authors as well as up-to-date translations by
award-winning translators.
