A review by laurenjpegler
The Professor by Charlotte Brontë
5.0
...still we are none of us perfect.
The time for dissertation research is upon me, and as I’m writing mine on the one and only Charlotte Brontë, I’m spending my summer re-reading/reading everything by or about her (I’m omitting Jane Eyre though – I know it like the back of my hand!). I wanted to start at the beginning, reading her novels in order to get a feel for her literary progression, so I started with The Professor – the first novel she wrote, and the only one she didn’t see published (it was published posthumously by the permission of her husband).
It tells the tale of William Crimsworth – a parentless man, who has the opportunity for wealth, but turns himself away from it. He leaves England behind in order to forge a new life in Brussels as a teacher. Through the narrative, we see William’s attraction to the school’s directress, Mademoiselle Reuter – an overtly sexual woman who is unfortunately already spoken for – and Frances Henri, a pupil of nineteen whose naivety entices him. For those of you who are familiar with the life of Charlotte, you’d know she was attracted to – and to a certain degree – rather obsessed with to her professor, Monsieur Heger, whilst studying away in Brussels. As The Professor was written shortly after Charlotte’s return from Brussels, it’s clear she uses the story as medium to discuss her feelings about Heger. The sombre and sometimes disturbing approaches to situations, etc. illuminates how rejected she felt by him. Due to the union of Crimsworth and Henri at the end of the novel, I can’t help but feel she may have used this narrative in order to fantasise how she wishes her relationship with him ended up.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I’m not sure if it’s because of my long-standing love for Charlotte, or if the narrative just sat right with me, but I did really like it. However, I am not oblivious to the fact that it’s a flawed novel. I think of The Professor as more of an experiment than anything else – this was the first time she wrote a full length novel (disregarding her juvenilia of the Angrian tales) as everything else she wrote before was poetry. When writing this novel, Charlotte was at a low point in life – from reading many sources, she was supposedly depressed due to the unfair dismissal and cold-shoulder she received from Heger (she sent him many letters when she returned to Haworth, all which he ignored) – and I believe this hindered her writing. Her mind was elsewhere, and thus she was withdrawn from the writing process. Charlotte continually refused to “stretch” the novel out into three volumes (this was how novels were published in the 19th century; authors had to “stretch” their narrative out in order to fit this) and thus Smith, Elder & co. denied publishing the novel. I think if she were to have redrafted this novel, adding more depth to characters and more passion between the love interests, then it would have received a much better response.
I often chuckled to myself when reading the teacher/student relationship between Crimsworth and Henri. Charlotte was truly a writer ahead of her time; she was writing crappy 21st contemporary stories way back in the 1800s (though, she was rather respectable about the whole situation – no hiding it from other people, both were of age, etc.). Normally I hate these kinds of narratives, but the way Charlotte executed this was different from the others I’ve read. I think it’s because it was raw, and emotional, and obviously she put her own experiences (and feelings) into it. Although I wasn’t convinced of their love for each other, I was always routing for Crimsworth and Henri to end up together. Because of this, I’m rather looking forward to finally reading Villette – many see that novel as a more mature version of The Professor. Charlotte takes the teacher/student relationship, as well as some other things she minutely explored in this novel, and develops them into more sophisticated narrative.
Other than that, I have nothing else to say really. It was a good first novel – you can’t get Jane Eyre without first having written something as flawed as The Professor. The descriptions of the landscapes and Brussels were beautifully orchestrated – all the Brontës have this knack for writing such enchantingly whimsical descriptions of places, especially those which are shrouded by nature. Most of the characters were likeable, my favourite being Frances Henri – she was smart, outspoken when Hunsden challenged her and she wasn’t willing to lose her independence because she was to be married. Other than that, the plot short and sweet, making it simplistic and a good place to start with Charlotte’s novels. I would definitely recommend!
Just be aware that Charlotte has this thing where she likes to unnecessarily drop in French. A lot of the conversations in this book, especially between Crimsworth and Henri, were in French. I was oblivious to what they were saying – my edition had no translations and I was too lazy to look them up – so I’d suggest finding an edition with added notes. You pretty much find this in every novel by Charlotte – I think she just likes to show off her French, but don’t let that put you off because her writing is phenomenal!
Taking into consideration all that I have said, I should probably rate this lower than 5 stars, but I can’t seem to bring myself to do that!
The time for dissertation research is upon me, and as I’m writing mine on the one and only Charlotte Brontë, I’m spending my summer re-reading/reading everything by or about her (I’m omitting Jane Eyre though – I know it like the back of my hand!). I wanted to start at the beginning, reading her novels in order to get a feel for her literary progression, so I started with The Professor – the first novel she wrote, and the only one she didn’t see published (it was published posthumously by the permission of her husband).
It tells the tale of William Crimsworth – a parentless man, who has the opportunity for wealth, but turns himself away from it. He leaves England behind in order to forge a new life in Brussels as a teacher. Through the narrative, we see William’s attraction to the school’s directress, Mademoiselle Reuter – an overtly sexual woman who is unfortunately already spoken for – and Frances Henri, a pupil of nineteen whose naivety entices him. For those of you who are familiar with the life of Charlotte, you’d know she was attracted to – and to a certain degree – rather obsessed with to her professor, Monsieur Heger, whilst studying away in Brussels. As The Professor was written shortly after Charlotte’s return from Brussels, it’s clear she uses the story as medium to discuss her feelings about Heger. The sombre and sometimes disturbing approaches to situations, etc. illuminates how rejected she felt by him. Due to the union of Crimsworth and Henri at the end of the novel, I can’t help but feel she may have used this narrative in order to fantasise how she wishes her relationship with him ended up.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I’m not sure if it’s because of my long-standing love for Charlotte, or if the narrative just sat right with me, but I did really like it. However, I am not oblivious to the fact that it’s a flawed novel. I think of The Professor as more of an experiment than anything else – this was the first time she wrote a full length novel (disregarding her juvenilia of the Angrian tales) as everything else she wrote before was poetry. When writing this novel, Charlotte was at a low point in life – from reading many sources, she was supposedly depressed due to the unfair dismissal and cold-shoulder she received from Heger (she sent him many letters when she returned to Haworth, all which he ignored) – and I believe this hindered her writing. Her mind was elsewhere, and thus she was withdrawn from the writing process. Charlotte continually refused to “stretch” the novel out into three volumes (this was how novels were published in the 19th century; authors had to “stretch” their narrative out in order to fit this) and thus Smith, Elder & co. denied publishing the novel. I think if she were to have redrafted this novel, adding more depth to characters and more passion between the love interests, then it would have received a much better response.
I often chuckled to myself when reading the teacher/student relationship between Crimsworth and Henri. Charlotte was truly a writer ahead of her time; she was writing crappy 21st contemporary stories way back in the 1800s (though, she was rather respectable about the whole situation – no hiding it from other people, both were of age, etc.). Normally I hate these kinds of narratives, but the way Charlotte executed this was different from the others I’ve read. I think it’s because it was raw, and emotional, and obviously she put her own experiences (and feelings) into it. Although I wasn’t convinced of their love for each other, I was always routing for Crimsworth and Henri to end up together. Because of this, I’m rather looking forward to finally reading Villette – many see that novel as a more mature version of The Professor. Charlotte takes the teacher/student relationship, as well as some other things she minutely explored in this novel, and develops them into more sophisticated narrative.
Other than that, I have nothing else to say really. It was a good first novel – you can’t get Jane Eyre without first having written something as flawed as The Professor. The descriptions of the landscapes and Brussels were beautifully orchestrated – all the Brontës have this knack for writing such enchantingly whimsical descriptions of places, especially those which are shrouded by nature. Most of the characters were likeable, my favourite being Frances Henri – she was smart, outspoken when Hunsden challenged her and she wasn’t willing to lose her independence because she was to be married. Other than that, the plot short and sweet, making it simplistic and a good place to start with Charlotte’s novels. I would definitely recommend!
Just be aware that Charlotte has this thing where she likes to unnecessarily drop in French. A lot of the conversations in this book, especially between Crimsworth and Henri, were in French. I was oblivious to what they were saying – my edition had no translations and I was too lazy to look them up – so I’d suggest finding an edition with added notes. You pretty much find this in every novel by Charlotte – I think she just likes to show off her French, but don’t let that put you off because her writing is phenomenal!
Taking into consideration all that I have said, I should probably rate this lower than 5 stars, but I can’t seem to bring myself to do that!