APS TOGETHER
Day 26
Villette by Charlotte BrontëChapter XXXV
December 10, 2022 by Yiyun Li
Yesterday and today’s chapter asks M. Paul the same question as Miss Fanshawe asks Lucy Snowe a few chapters ago—who are you? A question deeply connected to livelihood. The two characters facing this question both have to strive to make a living…
M. Paul laments that he has to black his own boots. Not to be unsympathetic, but when I was four, I thought I was old enough to be a shoeshiner by the roadside. I grew up believing that was a safe profession to fall back to if nothing else worked out.
The “morbid fancies” of the dead nun walking around: between Lucy Snowe and M. Paul there is bound to be some clearheadedness to recognize that all fancies are man-made fancies.
