Quote:
Originally Posted by poppypete
I read JE as a teenage and WH in my twenties. JE was quite good, liked to come back to it sometimes. But WH was a disaster - totally unrealistic narration from an old woman of things she somehow never forgot (in detail) and scenes she never witnessed. It didn't really appeal to me in any way, so definitely JE. Villette was nice, though I can't remember much of it. Need to check out The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
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I have to stick up for WH here! I thought Emily Brontė was scrupulous in regard to Nelly Dean's narration, limiting it to things she saw or was told, however unlikely. Nor was Nelly an old woman; she was a contemporary of Hindley's and thus only a few years Healthcliff's senior. The story might be implausible, but I think both books score pretty high on the implausibility scale.
I think Villette a superior novel to Jane Eyre, but it lacks the compulsive sweep of the latter.