APS TOGETHER
Day 16
Villette by Charlotte BrontëChapters XXII–XXIII
November 30, 2022 by Yiyun Li
Poor Dr. John. Really a prototype of a self-help author in today’s chapter.
No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness.
Dr. John looks at the famous actress “not with wonder, nor worship, nor yet dismay, but simply with intense curiosity.” Today’s chapter has always baffled me, and I feel that I have been looking at Lucy with intense curiosity, too.
"A person of seventeen” speaks in the same tone as a six-year-old, and her father treats her no more than a small child. A bit odd, a bit disturbing, but also: fascinating!
