I figured you probably knew about 7 languages purely based on you knowing Russian 
Got my copy but now can’t stop saying Villette , the best a man can get
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Wait, does it rhyme with Gillette? All this time I’ve been pronouncing it vy-let
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Edit: I assume you’re right as far as French pronunciation goes while rhyming it with the razor is maybe more common British pronunciation. It’s how I was saying it in my head.
Week one guys!
This image is false advertising as I started the book a few days ago and I’m currently on chapter 8
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Just finished the Ali Smith book I was reading this morning, so all set. Excited to get started with this - going to try not to race ahead too much this time.
Got my copy of Villette ready to start this evening 
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General thoughts so far, trying to inspire excitement but also not revealing too much haha so maybe difficult:
The characters are very distinctly drawn, they’re so compelling but also it can lead to funny moments for me, not sure whether that was intentional but it’s certainly enjoyable.
Quote from chapter 1: Relieved of her wrapping, she appeared exceedingly tiny; but was a neat, completely-fashioned little figure, light, slight, and straight. Seated on my godmother’s ample lap, she looked a mere doll: her neck, delicate as wax, her head of silky curls, increased, I thought, the resemblance.
Quote from chapter 3 that says so much about the characters with relatively little: When a street door closed, she dropped on her knees at a chair with a cry- “Papa!”
It was low and long; a sort “Why hast thou forsaken me?” During an ensuing space of some minutes, I perceived she ensured agony. She went through, in that brief interval of her infant life, emotions such as some never feel; it was in her constitution: she would have more of such instants if she lived. Nobody spoke. Mrs. Britton, being a mother, she’s a tear or two. Graham, who was writing, lifted up his eyes and grazed at her. I, Lucy Snowe, was calm.
The writing is BEAUTIFUL imo, helped by a really fascinating narrator, honestly think she’s one of the most interesting women ever written in literature. I find her equal parts emotionally distant and relatable, very clear to me that she’s been through a lot of poverty and upheaval and there’s a lot more going on beneath that detached veneer. she also doesn’t seem to be well-liked by the people around her demonstrated by the scenes with Polly and Graham, that are quite intimate but she’s just there as an observer who is largely ignored and she really never connects with that funny doll child.
Quote from chapter 1: Time always flower smoothly for me at my godmother’s side; not with tumultuous swiftness, but blandly, like the gliding of a full river through a plain.
Quote from chapter 5: All at once my position rose on me like a ghost
Anomalous, desolate, almost blank of hope it stood. What was I doing here alone in great London? What should I do on the morrow? What prospects had I in life? What friends had I on earth? Whence did I come? Whither should I go? What should I do? girl I’ve seriously been there myself.
I think this really is one of my favourites joyous to revisit but I might canter ahead depending on what comes up this month
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Another vote for Davidoff Cool Gutenberg version
The Kindle cheap ones had a lot of “no this is shit actually mates” reviews and I wasn’t going to spend £7 on the genuine Penguin Classics Kindle so here we are.
The only trouble is they don’t appear to have bothered translating the french 
so I’m reverse engineering what I can from Spanish atm because I’m travelling (and there’s only the odd sentence) but when I get home I might have to switch to my physical copy that has translations in the back
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If you highlight foreign text on Kindle it normally has ‘translate’ as an option. Is that not on Kobo too?
Anyway, I figured as much but I’ll see how I go. If I’m really digging it at that point I’ll shell out for the Penguin if translating it myself is too much of a pain.
No probably because my kobo doesn’t connect to the internet and I haven’t bothered sorting it lol
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It’s a pain in the arse that publishers seem to put translations at the end notes rather than as footnotes. The main russian publisher of classics always puts translations at the bottom of the page, think I would have given up on war and peace if I had to keep flipping to another section of the book for all the bloody french. Maybe I should just learn it (never)
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Oh right. You upload the books by cable? Bugger that, mate (I like to keep in sync with my readers because then I can just keep reading on the app on my phone if I go out without the reader but end up waiting somewhere)
Yeah, I’ve never read a single page of a book on my phone. Here’s for DiS/reels/articles/chats and emails when I’m forced
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White text on black, override brightness right down in-app, embrace quick ‘pages’ and it’s fine. Obviously ereader is better but needs must…
How old is Paulina meant to be? About 8? I’m really hoping graham’s flirting is innocent 
I’ve read chapter 1 and a bit of chapter 2 and CB’s prose style is much more my thing. It barely feels datedin the way Wuthering Heights did, I could be reading a Mary Stewart book. Obviously I might have remembered that if I’d read Jane Eyre remotely recently.
Definitely wondering how old Missy is meant to be. Maybe she’s actually a haunted ventriloquist’s doll. Now that would be a twist!
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I think it gets stated in the text but you might not have got to that bit
Answer: 6
I love how bloody odd she is. Quintessential Victorian child
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