Villette III

Lucy is disappointed to find that Dr John is infatuated with the flirtatious Ginevra.. and she has a fondness for herself but she knows that he sees her as an older not very attractive woman. However Lucy's social life improves and she goes about with the Brettons and gets friendly again with Paulina. She learns that M Paul was in love with a girl when he was younger, and she died, and he seems to have no interest in women ever since. She dislikes Madame Beck more and more. The older woman seems hostile to her. Dr John comes to realise that Ginevra is a silly worthless girl and switches his affections towards Paulina, and they fall in love. Lucy continues to spar with M Paul, and in the end, he tells her he loves her and they get engaged. She sets up her own school, and is prepared to wait for 3 years while he goes to a post in South America - she becomes reasonably prosperous and is prepared to be happy for the first time in her life. HOwever, there is a report of a shipwreck and Paul drowns. Charlotte wanted a sad ending because she did not believe that Lucy was destined for happiness but Mr Bronte was upset by the ending and wanted a happier one. So she made the ending vague, but still its implied that Paul dies and leaves Lucy a spinster. Ginevra marries a vain dandy Alfred De Hamal whom she has been flirting with and who used to sneak into the school gardens to see her. John and Paulina marry.

Villette II

Lucy has always been rather sharp tongued and not someone who makes friends easily. She does however become friendly with one of the English girls at the school, Ginevra Fanshawe. She doesn't approve of her though. Ginevra is silly, flirtatious and vain and selfish and Lucy continually shows her disapproval. One of the masters, M Paul Emmanuel, is hostile to the English, yet Lucy finds herself being drawn to him. He is bad tempered, melodramatic, and middle aged, but she finds him more honest and likable than the rest of the Catholics at the school. She and he dispute and quarrel but there is a liking between them. A new English doctor becomes the medical attendant for the school, and when Lucy is taken ill during the summer vacation, she collapses and is taken to his house. She finds that she is in the home of her godmother Mrs Bretton, and that Doctor John is her son, now grown up. While staying there she meets Paulina de Bassompierre again, now a young lady, and her father, who has inherited a foreign title.

Villette

Villette is probably Charlotte Bronte's most serious novel. It is set in a fictional country in Europe, based on Belgium. The heroine is Lucy Snowe, an impoverished girl of good birth, who spends her young days being passed around relatives. Lucy lives for a time with Mrs Bretton, a relative who has a charming, good hearted son, John Graham. Mrs Bretton also takes in a little girl, Paulina De Bassompierre, whose father has to go abroad. The child is very sensitive, and grows fond of Graham. After a time, Lucy moves on and loses touch with the Brettons. She get a job as a companion but her employer dies. She has led a very sheltered life but she decides to go abroad and seek a job at a foreign school. She does not take to foreign life, remaining very much the kind of Briton who thinks themselves superior to foreigners. She is a staunch Protestant. She does not like Madame Beck, who runs the school, believing that she spies of her pupils, and that this is a fault of all Catholics. M/F

The Eustace Diamonds

The Eustace Diamonds is the third novel in the Pallisers series. It is not really about the Pallisers, but it leads into the action of Phineas Redux. Lizzie Eustace is the widow of a baronet, who married Sir Florian Eustace, a dissipated rake, for his money. She has a son by him, and when he dies she inherits his fortune. She becomes well known in London society when she makes a claim to a diamond necklace, stating that Florian gave it to her, while his family claim that it is an heirloom and belongs to the family estate. She is pretty and charming but dishonest and selfish.. She attracts admirers but it seems unlikely that she will find a decent second husband. Then her necklace is stolen. Lizzie is suspected of stealing it for herself. She attracts a lot of notice, and the old Duke of Omnium, now confined to bed and slowly dying, is entertained by the stories about her in the newspaper. Glencora pays her a visit, since she too is inclined to be amused by scandals. Lizzie manages to avoid trouble with the police but the diamonds are gone. She is left alone, and then marries a Mr Emilius, a clergyman who wants her for her money. Lizzie soon realises that he is already married and that he is a scoundrel. This leads up to the plot of Phineas Redux, where Mr Bonteen a Liberal politican, and his wife sympathise briefly with her, and take her into their house. Phineas is at odds with Bonteen so when he is murdered, Finn is the chief suspect. However it is Emilius who has a grudge against Bonteen.

The Duke's Children

Silverbridge has been engaged in a flirtation with Lady Mabel Grex, who is a cousin of Tregear's. She is an earls daughter but does not have much of a dowry. She loves Frank Tregear, but she tries to lure Silverbridge into a proposal, because he is rich and she wants to get married. However while he likes her, he is now in love with Isabel and decides to marry her. Plantagenet gets to know her, and Isabel says that she is in love with Silverbridge, but she does not want to marry him if his father wont accept the marriage. However, Plantagenet's feelings are softening as he gets over his grief, and he finally accepts the 2 love matches that his children want to make and accepts Isabel as his daughter in law. Silverbridge returns to the Liberal party and marries his American bride. Mary marries Tregear. But Plantagenet knows he will never get over Glencora's death.

Palliser novels

When Plantagenet finds out that Glencora had been encouraging Mary's romance he gets angry and keeps his daughter at home and away from her suitor. He feels hurt as it reminds him of how his wife had been in love with another man when they married. He cannot accept that Frank is a decent respectable man, and not a rake like Burgo. He also has quarrels with his 2 sons. Lord Silverbridge, his heir has begun to take an interest in Tory politics, and to consider deserting the Liberal party and becoming a Conservative. Plantagenet is horrified by this, as the Pallisers have been Liberals for generations and he genuinely believes in Liberal ideals, of wanting to help the poorer classes. The 2 boys are young and selfish, enjoying gambling and racing and he worries that they are not taking life seriously, as he always did. He is even more annoyed when Lord Silverbridge meets an American girl who is visiting London and falls in love with her. Isabel Boncassen's father is wealthy but her mother is not a sophistcated woman. Plantagenet feels that she would not fit in as the wife of a future Duke. M/F

Later Palliser novels

The last 2 novels in the Palliser series are the Prime Minister and the Duke's Children. The Prime Minister covers the years when Glencora's children are becoming adults, and Plantagenet becomes Prime minister. He is not really suited to the job, has little ambition and dislikes the socialising and grandeur that goes with it. Glencora enjoys it, she opens up their castle home which is rarely used, holds huge house parties and interferes with politics. The chief character of the novel is Ferdinand Lopez, an ambitious young financier, who wants to get into politics. Glencora, out of boredom, takes a fancy to him and intrigues for him to win an election. This causes a scandal and Plantagenet is angry with his wife but forgives her. Lopez gets into trouble with his investments and kills himself.. and Plantagenet resigns. He and Glencora go abroad, for a long trip and take the children. However soon after they come home, Glencora dies, in her 40s after taking a chill. Plantagenet is distraught as she was almost the only person he could talk to.. He finds that true to her nature she has been plotting on behalf of the children.. doing things he might not approve of. She knows that her only daughter, Mary, is in love with a young man called Frank Tregear, who does not have much money, and she wants to be sure that if Mary's romance with him lasts, she will be able to marry him... Her own early life was blighted by her not being allowed to marry Burgo Fitzgerald.. and she knows that Frank is a decent young man and would make Mary happy. M/F