APS TOGETHER
Day 30
Villette by Charlotte BrontëChapters XXXIX–XL
December 14, 2022 by Yiyun Li
What I love about the family junta is that M. Paul doesn’t seem to be an easily manipulatable person, and yet the Père Silas, Mme Beck and Mme Walravens still manage to scheme, more or less successfully. A superior mind begets superior manipulators.
Good old Ginevra! Really a superb touch with the fake nun in bed, followed by that lively letter. She earns her happiness and a memorable position in this novel. A wickedly funny presence, with her invulnerable and indestructible selfishness.
What a gorgeous ending to the chapter!
In some shape, from some quarter or other, she was pretty sure to obtain her will, and so she got on—fighting the battle of life by proxy, and, on the whole, suffering as little as any human being I have ever known.
