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Good evening and welcome to the sleepy bookshalf

where we put down our worries from the day and pick up a good book.

I'm Elizabeth, your host, and it's lovely to have you here with me tonight.

This evening, I'm really excited

to be beginning our new season, Villette, by English author Charlotte Bronte.

We had some great Jane Eyre feedback on the show,

so hopefully you enjoy this one too.

Billet was Bronte's fourth novel,

first published in 1853

when Bronte was in her 30s.

It followed the Professor Jane Eyre and Shirley.

Bronte struggled to find a publisher for her first novel, The Professor, which was published posthumously,

and so used some of the same material as the basis for Villett.

Fellow authors George Elliot and Virginia Wolf both lauded Villett as Bronte's finest work,

saying it far surpassed her more famous novel, Jane Eyre.

...