Scan barcode
A review by thenovelbook
The Professor by Charlotte Brontë
3.0
It's a good thing Charlotte Bronte got to publish Jane Eyre first.
She meant this to be her first novel, but it was rejected by publishers and only printed posthumously. It's a valuable work, as it shows her developing skill, and it certainly has some intriguing storytelling, but it also has noticeable flaws.
In this story, William Crimsworth has to make his way in the world due to a lack of harmony between him and various family members who might otherwise have helped him. He starts out in trade, working for his brother, who makes it very clear that he has no family feeling and no compassion at all. When this situation becomes untenable, Crimsworth ends up in Belgium and finds a position as an English professor at a boys' school.
The school next door is for girls, and eventually Crimsworth is hired to teach some classes for them as well. Not having been around very many females in his life, he is initally a little overcome, but he masters himself and finds pride in being a stern, no-nonsense teacher.
He is initially captivated by the directress of the school, a Mademoiselle Reuters. Later he is drawn to a young, quiet sewing instructor named Frances Henri.
The characters are very interesting and the story well told for the first half (or perhaps more) of the book. I found Charlotte Bronte's storytelling quite compelling; there is a power in it, but it also seems unexpectedly revealing of her personality. Once one has read a few Charlotte Bronte novels (of course, there are only about four in total!) one gets an idea of what she must have been like.
For one thing, I would argue that her main characters never really begin with any immaturity or uncertainty that they must age out of. They are all very self-aware, complacent about their own abilities, fairly proud, and decided in their opinions. Did Charlotte Bronte view herself as having a similar mental or moral superiority to her contemporaries? I suspect she did.
I enjoyed this book right up until the denouement finished, when. After that, the rest of the novel is one really long summing-up. Bronte takes us through the next ten years of his life, doing a lot of telling and not a lot of showing, and the plot is gone. I don't mind a flashing forward in time that takes up a page or two at the end. But I really think that plot should still be happening up until that point.
Also,
All things considered, I'm much more on board with Charlotte Bronte's novels that are told from a female perspective. One wonders what she herself thought of The Professor.
She meant this to be her first novel, but it was rejected by publishers and only printed posthumously. It's a valuable work, as it shows her developing skill, and it certainly has some intriguing storytelling, but it also has noticeable flaws.
In this story, William Crimsworth has to make his way in the world due to a lack of harmony between him and various family members who might otherwise have helped him. He starts out in trade, working for his brother, who makes it very clear that he has no family feeling and no compassion at all. When this situation becomes untenable, Crimsworth ends up in Belgium and finds a position as an English professor at a boys' school.
The school next door is for girls, and eventually Crimsworth is hired to teach some classes for them as well. Not having been around very many females in his life, he is initally a little overcome, but he masters himself and finds pride in being a stern, no-nonsense teacher.
He is initially captivated by the directress of the school, a Mademoiselle Reuters. Later he is drawn to a young, quiet sewing instructor named Frances Henri.
The characters are very interesting and the story well told for the first half (or perhaps more) of the book. I found Charlotte Bronte's storytelling quite compelling; there is a power in it, but it also seems unexpectedly revealing of her personality. Once one has read a few Charlotte Bronte novels (of course, there are only about four in total!) one gets an idea of what she must have been like.
For one thing, I would argue that her main characters never really begin with any immaturity or uncertainty that they must age out of. They are all very self-aware, complacent about their own abilities, fairly proud, and decided in their opinions. Did Charlotte Bronte view herself as having a similar mental or moral superiority to her contemporaries? I suspect she did.
I enjoyed this book right up until the denouement finished, when
Spoiler
Crimsworth gets marriedAlso,
Spoiler
Frances Henri, who becomes Crimsworth's wife, could have been an interesting character--and she was, until they got engaged. She was a bit mysterious, with unplumbed depths of talent and imagination. After the engagement, though, she is described in terms rather too like a doll or a possession for a modern reader to be entirely comfortable with her. Bronte tries to give her still a certain independence, but it doesn't quite work for some reason. Perhaps it's because the story is being told from a man's point of view, and he comes off as rather patronizing. We know Charlotte Bronte can sustain interesting females--after all, Jane Eyre always retains a certain spirit and fight no matter what the state of her relationship with Rochester.All things considered, I'm much more on board with Charlotte Bronte's novels that are told from a female perspective. One wonders what she herself thought of The Professor.