The 'personal museum': Letters as Relic Collection in Charlotte Brontë's Villette

This paper contributes to the existing scholarship on letters as material culture and relic culture in the nineteenth century and in Charlotte Bront & euml;'s Villette (1853). In the novel, Lucy collects and preserves letters from absent loved ones to maintain a sense of connection to others in a life that she seems destined to live alone. In this article, I argue that her letters serve as relics of her past relationships and dead love as she desperately clings to tangible objects that bind her to other people. While scholars have concentrated on letters in Villette as material symbols of the corporeal body and romantic love, I argue that Lucy's letters form a collection that acts as a substitute for personal relationships. To borrow a term from Deborah Lutz (2017), I assert that Lucy's collection of letters function as a 'personal museum' of relics of dead love, which she carefully collects to preserve past relationships.