Revisiting The Professor

It has taken me an unusually long time to make my way through Charlotte Bronte's The Professor (1857) and almost gave up at several points through the tale. But I have been determined to undertake the #BigBronteReadalong2023 and after my disappointment with Shirley (1849), I hoped that I would be able to find the magic of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847) to make my reading worthwhile. 

The Professor is narrated by William Crimsworth, as he tries to establish a career path. Not wanting to join the clergy, as preferred by some in his family, William wishes to work in trade. His elder brother Edward has become highly successful in this field and offers William a position as a clerk in his business. The brothers do not get along, and Edward treats William poorly. William leaves the Yorkshire mill and travels to Brussels to take up a position teaching at a boy's boarding school. After establishing his reputation as a teacher, he is recruited by Mademoiselle Reuter who runs the adjoining girls' school. William falls for Reuter, but soon learns he is in a love triangle. He then turns his romantic attentions to Frances, a teacher that he tutors. 

Charlotte Bronte studied and taught in Brussels in 1842, and used this experience as a foundation for her novel. She later revives these ideas for her novel Villette (1853).

The Professor was Charlotte Bronte's first novel, but she was unable to secure publication until after her death and the success of her other books. Dry and dull, The Professor is lacking the passion, intrigue, and self-exploration of Jane Eyre. It also lacks the compelling characters of Shirley - as challenged as I was with that novel, at least there were characters one could root for. This is a mundane tale, narrated by a boring man, and without any characters to care for, I disengaged. It feels very much like an early draft which would have best been left in a drawer.