Villette is the final triumph of her genius over the elements that warred in her.

* Villette Villette is Brussels, and the experiences of the heroine, Lucy Snowe, in travelling thither and teaching there are based on the journeys and the life of Charlotte Brontë when she was a teacher in the Pensionnat Héger.

"Villette is one blaze, one broad illumination; the whole world seems abroad; moonlight and heaven are banished: the town by her own flambeaux, beholds her own splendourgay dresses, grand equipage, fine horses and gallant riders, throng the bright streets.

And yet it is true that Villette is a novel of experience, owing its conspicuous qualities very much to observation.