villette | Christine Lucas

First Line Fridays, a weekly feature hosted by Wandering Words, on judging a book by its opening lines rather than its cover or author.

This week’s First Line Fridays comes from Currer Bell.

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

Jane Eyre

A rather understated start to the wild, gothic novel we have all come to know, written by the famed Charlotte Brontë.

Have you read Jane Eyre? What did you think? Do you prefer any of the other novels by Charlotte or that of her younger sisters, Emily and Anne?

I personally prefer Charlotte’s novel Villette, full of dark foreboding and passionate love, with an ending that is left unfulfilled.

What books are you reading at the moment?

Thanks for stopping by and stay safe! Christine x

I’d like to think that I am quite romantic. Indeed more romantic than David.

I think the culmination of reading Charlotte Bronte’s Villette and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea while listening to Gustav Mahler and Sergi Rachmaninov symphonies when younger has effected my sensibilities.

This years Valentine’s Day was spent in our new home. It was supposed to be David who was to cook (to make me feel special) but it ended up being me cooking.

With little time to plan I opted to make a three course meal.

1) Carrot and Cumin soup

2) Honey and mustard trout for main

3) Chocolate strawberries for desert

I started preparing at 1pm as I had a day off work. I slowly melted the chocolate and then dipped in the strawberries

After 5pm I cooked the vegetables for the soup (which I had peeled and chopped earlier) and the fish. All went well and we were well and truly satisfied.

After the pudding we listened to Classic FM and the concert recorded from the Liverpool Philharmonic, on romantic Spanish music. I loved it! Whether David liked it is another matter.