Villette continued.

"So this subject is done with. It is right to look our life-accounts bravely in the face now and then, and settle them honestly. And he is a poor self-swindler who lies to himself while he reckons the items, and sets down under the head happiness that which is misery. Call anguish--anguish, and despair--despair; write both down in strong characters with resolute pen: you will the better pay your debt to Doom. Falsify; insert "privilege" where you should have written "pain"; and see if your mighty creditor will allow the fraud to pass, or accept he coin with which you would cheat him. Offer to the strongest--if the darkest angel of God's host--water, when he has asked blood--will he take it? Not a whole pale sea for one red drop, I settled another account."

This is what I've been reading....

And this is why I'm reading it.

http://thehairpin.com/2011/01/books-that-beat-their-iconic-sister-books-jane-eyre-vs-villette/

I'm on Team Bronte and a good friend sent me this link and I took the bait. It's a big book and I've been working more hours than usual and watching more basketball games so pardon the lack of postings.

Here's a piece from my favorite part so far....

"These struggles with the natural character, the strong native bent of the hear, may seen futile and fruitless, but in the end they do good. They tend, however slightly, to give actions, the conduct, that turn which Reason approves, and which Feeling, perhaps, too often opposes: they certainly make a difference in the general tenor of a life, and enable it to be better regulated, more equable, quieter on the surface; and it is on the surface on the common gaze will fall. As to what lies below, leave that with God. Man, your equal, weak as you, and not fit to be your judge, may be shut out thence: take it to your Maker --show Him the secrets of the spirit He gave -- ask Him how you are to bear the pains He has appointed-- kneel in His presense, and pray with faith for light in darkness, for strength in piteous weakness, patience in extreme need. Certainly, at some hour, though perhaps not your hour, the waiting waters will stir; in some shape, though perhaps not the shape you dreamed, which your heart loved, and for which it bled, the healing herald will descene. The cripple and the blind, and the dumb, and the possessed, will be led to bathe."