"The Professor" by Charlotte Brontë

Year of Publication:  1857

Length:  223 pages

Genre:  Romance

 William Crimsworth escapes a miserable job working as a clerk in a Yorkshire mill owned by his cruel brother, to work as an English teacher at a girl's school in Brussels.  He soon captures the attentions of the school's headmistress, Mademoiselle Reuter, who determines his burgeoning romance with the penniless Frances, who is both a teacher and student in the school.

This was the first novel written by Charlotte Brontë and despite her many attempts to get it published, it wasn't available until 1857, two years after her death.  The novel was inspired by Brontë's own experiences as both a student and teacher in Brussels. This novel starts strongly, but falls down towards the middle, however it improves immensely towards the end.  While I did not like this as much as other Charlotte Brontë novels, I still believe it to be a very good book.  This is the only Charlotte Brontë novel narrated by a male character, and the main problem that the novel has is the deeply unlikeable lead character.  William Crimsworth is deeply prejudiced snob, who looks down on women, Catholics and pretty much anyone who is not English, although he does become slightly more bearable as the novel goes on and he begins to lose some of his prejudices.  The novel does have some rich supporting characters such as the mysterious Frances and Crimsworth's cynical "frenemy" Hunsden.  The story is engaging, and packed with incident, and Brontë's prose is as vivid and poetic as ever.  Charlotte Brontë's experiences in Brussels also formed the basis for her 1853 novel Villette, which is told from the point of view of a female teacher.