Villette is an 1853 novel by Charlotte Bront . After an unspecified family disaster, the protagonist Lucy Snowe travels from England to the fictional French-speaking city of Villette to teach at a girls' school, where she is drawn into adventure and romance. Villette was Charlotte Bront 's fourth novel. It was preceded by the posthumously published The Professor, her first, and then by Jane Eyre and Shirley.