Refusing both his aristocratic uncles and the drudgery of his mill-owning brother’s counting house, William Crimsworth goes to Brussels to teach English at a boys’ school and then a girls’ pensionnat run by the shrewd Mademoiselle Reuter. There he is drawn to Frances Henri, a poor Anglo-Swiss pupil who earns her living mending lace, and must steer between flirtation, rivalry and pride.
Brontë’s first novel, written before Jane Eyre and published after her death, an early sketch for Villette. Download the free EPUB.