This was the first novel Charlotte Brontë ever submitted to be published – and it was rejected. Jane Eyre was her second attempt and then after her death The Professor was re-assessed and published. Although I did quite enjoy it, I did think that it rather lacked the depth of all the other Brontë novels I’ve read and so can understand why it might have been rejected at first (even though I’m happy that it ultimately saw the light of day).
The story is about a man called William Crimsworth and it’s all told by him in the first person. After growing frustrated with family dramas, he ends up moving to Belgium to become an English teacher – hence the title “The Professor”. After dealing with a couple of workplace dramas, he ends up embarking on a relatively straight-forward romance with one of the other teachers there and that’s that. There aren’t a lot of layers to it, but it’s a decent ride nonetheless.
Back when she was first trying to get published Charlotte Brontë was using a male pen name (Currer Bell) and something that she does especially well in The Professor is write like a man. In fact, if I were given the text with no context and asked what I thought the author’s gender was, I’d have said male. Though this is a positive reflection of her skills, unfortunately the main way that it comes across is in the way that William talks about women – specifically that he is really obsessed with their appearance and always describes them as angels and things like that. It’s pretty creepy when the women he’s talking about are teenage girls in his class too. The way he describes the main love interest, Frances, is also pretty creepy, because he has a very strong focus on how young she is.
Speaking of Frances, I did think that she was one of the better things about the novel. She, perhaps, would have been the clue that the novel was actually written by a woman. At this point in history, male authors often didn’t give their female characters much depth, or made then kind of ridiculous. This is not the case at all for Frances, who is very kind and independent, but not without her weaknesses – largely linked to low self-esteem and overly high levels of modesty. I thought she was quite compelling, and it’s impressive that she came off as such when only ever seen through the lens of William’s point of view.
Another side character who I found to be an absolute delight was Mr Hunsden… except if he were real, he’d be anything but a delight. He’s a loud contrarian who is often very rude, but in the most comical of ways. Generally speaking, he is a supportive figure in William’s life, but he also endlessly berates and criticises him. He seems to generally want to disagree with anything anyone ever says, and while that means he is usually in the wrong, he also makes the occasional good point, even critiquing societal expectations of the time. Any chapter he showed up in was one that I had a good time with.
Ironically, William himself is one of the least likeable people in the book – not just because of his weird and creepy way of talking about women, but also because of a vague sense of English superiority that he seems to carry within himself in Europe. It’s not super overt, especially not enough to stop him taking a romantic interest in non-English women, but it comes up every now and then and adds to my overall sense of not liking him that much. He’s another reason I don’t rate it as highly as other Brontë novels, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an enjoyable book.
I recommend reading it if you enjoy classic novels or the Brontës in particular. Despite it’s flaws, I still enjoyed the journey and thought that it was a good book overall, even if others are better.
Rating: 7.4/10
