The Professor
1857
Before Jane Eyre made her famous, Charlotte Brontë wrote this raw, autobiographical novel about a man who travels to Belgium to teach at a girls' school, determined to forge his own destiny after being cast off by his wealthy brother. William Crimsworth is proud, ambitious, and drawn to one of his students, the spirited French-Swiss Frances Henri, whose intellect and independence intrigue him despite the boundaries of propriety and class that separate them. Set against the grim industrial backdrop of mid-century England and the more refined world of Brussels, the novel pulses with Brontë's lifelong preoccupations: the struggle for dignity in the face of social hierarchy, the impossible tensions between desire and duty, and the question of what it means to truly see and be seen by another person. Written years before Jane Eyre but published only after Brontë's death, The Professor carries the energy of a writer still finding her voice, still burning with the injustices she would later anatomize so perfectly. It is Brontë before Brontë: rawer, less polished, but already unmistakable in her convictions.
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“I sought her eye, desirous to read there the intelligence which I could not discern in her face or hear in her conversation; it was merry, rather small; by turns I saw vivacity, vanity, coquetry, look out through its irid, but I watched in vain for a glimpse of soul. I am no Oriental; white necks, carmine lips and cheeks, clusters of bright curls, do not suffice for me without that Promethean spark which will live after the roses and lilies are faded, the burnished hair grown grey. In sunshine, in prosperity, the flowers are very well; but how many wet days are there in life--November seasons of disaster, when a man's hearth and home would be cold indeed, without the clear, cheering gleam of intellect.””
— Charlotte Brontë
“You know full well as I do the value of sisters' affections: There is nothing like it in this world.””
— Charlotte Brontë
“That to begin with; let respect be the foundation, affection the first floor, love the superstructure.””
— Charlotte Brontë
“In sunshine, in prosperity, the flowers are very well; but how many wet days are there in life”
— Charlotte Brontë
“Monsieur, if a wife's nature loathes that of the man she is wedded to, marriage must be slavery. Against slavery all right thinkers revolt, and though torture be the price of resistance, torture must be dared: though the only road to freedom lie through the gates of death, those gates must be passed; for freedom is indispensable. Then, monsieur, I would resist as far as my strength permitted; when that strength failed I should be sure of a refuge. Death would certainly screen me both from bad laws and their consequences.””
— Charlotte Brontë
“Tact, if it be genuine, never sleeps.””
— Charlotte Brontë
“Human beings -- human children especially -- seldom deny themselves the pleasure of exercising a power which they are conscious of possessing, even though that power consist only in a capacity to make others wretched””
— Charlotte Brontë
“No man likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake in the choice of his profession, and every man, worthy of the name, will row long against wind and tide before he allows himself to cry out, 'I am baffled!' and submits to be floated passively back to land.””
— Charlotte Brontë
“I know that a pretty doll, a fair fool, might do well enough for the honeymoon; but when passion cooled, how dreadful to find a lump of wax and wood laid in my bosom, a half-idiot clasped in my arms, and to remember that I had made of this my equal- nay, my idol- to know that I must pass the rest of my dreary life with a creature incapable of understanding what I said, of appreciating what I thought, or of sympathising with what I felt!””
— Charlotte Brontë
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Brontë, Charlotte. The Professor. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-professor-c88db509-8f51-4941-8734-cd28e17e858e.Brontë, C. (1857). The Professor. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-professor-c88db509-8f51-4941-8734-cd28e17e858eBrontë, Charlotte. The Professor. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-professor-c88db509-8f51-4941-8734-cd28e17e858e.
