The Professor

by Charlotte Brontë

Book Overview

The hero of Charlotte Bronte's first novel escapes a dreary clerkship in industrial Yorkshire by taking a job as a teacher in Belgium. There, however, his entanglement with the sensuous but manipulative Zoraide Reuter, complicates his affections for a penniless girl who is both teacher and pupil in Reuter's school.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140433112
• ISBN13: 9780140433111
• Release Date: June 1989
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Satisfaction with Book Purchase

I was most pleased with the prompt delivery of this wonderful novel by Charlotte Bronte. The condition of the book was perfectly described by the seller as "new." I would recommend "The Professor" to anyone who is a follower of Charlotte Bronte's wonderful books. Have both an English and French dictionary at your side when reading it, but this does not distract from the great story.

I have to give this 5 stars... no one writes books like this anymore!

With all it's flaws, I have to give this book 5 stars. It has no climax and no real ending. What it does have is Charlotte Bronte's view that fits into today's society. Ahead of her time, women should work and be equal to men... is a huge message for 1857. That men should want intelligent wives and not pretty dumb ones shouts from this book. It has very feminist views, ahead of their time. She also is a bit shocking in her school girl/professor fantasies. This must have been a bit erotic for it's time. If you read between the lines, the heroine likes her man to gently scold her like a school girl and she seems to take pleasure in this. He does not understand why, but likes the results of it. Think about the time this was written in and that she allows passionate kissing and women sitting on mens laps. It has character flaws and many flaws, but I give it 5 stars for it's timeless message to women and to men and it's slightly poetic eroticism. Read it carefully and get a book with the French parts interpreted. This was her first book and the professor is an interesting character in and of himself, like many men of intellect are.

The Professor's Lessons in Life

"The Professor", by Charlotte Bronte, was the author's first novel but it was not published until after her death (and perhaps she refashioned it to some degree later in her novel "Villette"). It is the tale of William Crimsworth, a man without parents and forsaken by his brother, who is forced to make his own way in the world. He decides to try his hand at teaching and travels to Brussels to teach English at an all-boys' school. Once at the school in Brussels, he immediately begins a successful, if not profitable, teaching career. Soon enough he finds himself teaching four classes per week at the neighboring school for girls, and also finds himself falling for the headmistress Mlle. Reuter. Inexperienced with women, he is susceptible to and deceived by her whiles and charms until love enters his life in the form of a fellow teacher-pupil Frances Henri. As is to be expected, despite the abuse Crimsworth suffered from his brother, and having nothing of his own, he manages to work his way into wealth and is able to marry the woman he has fallen in love with. At the beginning of "The Professor", Crimsworth confesses that is narrative his not exciting and he holds true to his word, especially since he can be a rather irksome narrator. While not a novel to shake the foundations of literature, "The Professor" offers insights into who Charlotte Bronte would become as a writer. Her characters, a few who are one-dimensional, are mainly well-sketched and drawn out; and despite her claim to the lack of excitement in her narrator's story, his tale unfolds briskly and with few unexpected revelations. Having been a governess herself, (the novel is based on her own experiences), Bronte combines asides about the state of education and the relationship that exists between teacher and pupil. Some of these insights hold true for today as well, making "The Professor" an undated and well-written account of man's struggle for success and happiness. **Two things I disliked about the Wordsworth Classics edition. This version was rampant with typos throughout the entire novel; the same mistakes were repeated numerous times. I was also maddened by the fact that entire conversations in French were not translated, and therefore not understood, especially during the climax of the story.

Another Great Love Story

Though not as well developed as some of the other Bronte stories and perhaps too predictable, The Professor is still a great love story. William Crimsworth must find his own way in the world, first in England and then in Europe. While working in the field of education he finds a love interest but looses to another. He finds another love interest, but looses to circumstance. Finally, however, he overcomes circumstance.

Interesting perspective of victorian men.

Charlotte Bronte is one of the few female authors of the victroian era who chose to appropriate the male voice in a first person narrative. From this perspective, this is a very interesting novel for it presents a women's view of the male psyche, or rather the male pshyche women wish men possessed. William Crimsworth, the novel's hero, is portrayed as young man who is sympathetic toward women and their gender related struggles. However unrealistic this portrayal may be, considering the times, it does suggest that Charlotte was perhaps ahead of counterparts, recognizing the inequality that exited between men and women. Though this is not one of her more popular novels, it should be recognized for its social critique, a critique that is still applicable today