Gretel Ponders her Past; Pepys is Up Betimes; A Brace of Saints; and Chapter 8 of Villette

About this episode

Gretel reflects on her past and discusses themes from Chapter 8 of 'Villette'.

Send us Fan Mail Hullo, hullo, how are you? We are making good progress with Villette. If you haven’t read it before you will find, perhaps, that it creeps up on your soul and tiptoes into your mind: the images in your head of the streets, the Pensionnat, Madame Beck, and Lucy Snowe. Be patient and let the book come to you. One quote from the chapter ‘Villette’ struck a chord with me and I thought I would share it with you here: ‘These feelings, however, were well kep...

People in this episode

Host: Gretel le Maître

Topics covered

• literature
• reflection
• personal history
• Villette
• character analysis

Keywords

• Villette
• Gretel le Maître
• Lucy Snowe
• Madame Beck
• Samuel Pepys

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Villette

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• Belgian Buns, Saint Barnabas, John Clare and Charlotte Brontë’s Villette · June 12, 2026 · 1h 5m
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• Bonus Episode: Living with Grief and Tragedy, a Chat with a Friend · June 8, 2026 · 47 min
• Simply Villette 🕯️ (and a little abbey-loitering) · June 7, 2026 · 43 min
• A Saturday Salad 🥗: Roman Exeter, Lord Brougham, Pepys, Saint Norbert, and (merci Oxford) the Bare Necessities 🐻 · June 6, 2026 · 1h 4m
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