The Professor
Ratings18
Average rating3.3
This was really just... okay. This was Charlotte Bronte's first written novel (but last published) and it shows. While it had some glimmers of her descriptive talents shown with aplomb in Jane Eyre, and the vibe of this one had more than a little similarity with Villette, ultimately this didn't reach up to the standards of either. But that's a good thing for Bronte then, since she clearly grew as a writer so much more.
Our titular narrator is a William Crimsworth and we spend a good nearly ten chapters trudging through his life at the abusive hands of his brother and employer. We see how he meets his friend Hunsden. It is only very nearly halfway through the book when Crimsworth finally throws his resignation at his brother and, assisted by Hunsden's recommendation, makes his way to Brussels where he finds employment at a school to be The Professor.
I was a little afraid that this book might turn out to be a 19th century version of Lolita but I was pleased to note that the student mentioned in every blurb of this book is not exactly an underaged flower (and honestly you can't assume with these 19th century novels, it was a wildly different time back then), but actually a fellow teacher who is just sitting in in Crimsworth's classes to improve her English. Granted, however, that the lady in question is still incredibly young at nineteen but I was really expecting much worse.
I also felt a little ostracised that so much dialogue in this book was in French and I don't know the language. I know Jane Eyre had a bit of French in it but it was more obtrusive in this one given that it's set in a French-speaking part of Brussels, Belgium.
There were a lot of passages which I kinda skimmed through because it all felt a bit besides the point. I felt that the ending could've been a lot tighter as well. I was skimming through the whole bit where Frances was arguing with Hunsden, and then right at the end where we had all that information about what happened to the Crimsworths after they got married and set up that school but no clue why this was related to us. Why do we need to know about William shooting the poor dog? That was just upsetting.
Overall, this was fine. Not the most boring classic I've read and it did have a somewhat tight storyline that was easy to follow, but not by far the best of Charlotte Bronte's works.
Disappointing after Jane Eyre, but then again anything would be. This is not romantic, it's more a series of observations from a young, inexperienced professor navigating a new social world. I may re-read it, but it's not something I would heartily recommend.