Milton Public Library

The professor

eng

no index present

fiction

The professor

electronic resource

dictionaries

The Clarendon edition of the novels of the Brontës

Orphaned in his boyhood, William Crimsworth was sent to Eton by aristocratic relatives who withdrew their support when he declined to become a clergyman. After a disastrous attempt to join his estranged brother's business, William trades his Yorkshire clerkship for a teaching position at a Belgian boarding school. His loneliness is brightened by a beguiling headmistress, but her sensuous appeal complicates his attraction to a penniless girl who is both a student and teacher. Although published posthumously, The Professor was written before Jane Eyre and Charlotte Brontë's other novels. Readers may recognize the book's autobiographical elements, which - like Villette - center on a love-starved English teacher at a Brussels school. In this case, however, the protagonist is a man, many of whose problems - workplace drudgery, social and romantic isolation - are similar to those of middle-class Victorian women. Brontë's moving portrayal of a social outsider's perspective adds interest to this showcase of her developing style and talent

adult