Book Review: The Professor by Charlotte Bronte

Website design By BotEap.comThe Professor was Charlotte Bronte’s first book, written in 1845-6 but not published until 1857, two years after her death and ten years after the publication of her most famous work, Jane Eyre. Although a new revision of a well-known classic is of little use, it is interesting to record one’s views from a modern perspective. From the beginning of The Professor, it’s clear that the young Charlotte Bronte had amazing fluency and a wealth of vocabulary, but she writes with charming ingenuity and seemingly limited experience.

Website design By BotEap.comThe main character is a young man, William Crimsworth, and one must immediately wonder if the young writer can create a realistic male mind. The author obviously had more success with a female heroine in Jane Eyre. Although he is straight, William Crimsworth has a particularly clean view of members of the fair sex. It is impossible to say how much this is due to the conventions of the time and how much to the author’s inevitable shortsightedness.

Website design By BotEap.comAll the major characters in The Professor are described in detail with regard to physical appearance and behavior, but attention is given to the pseudoscience interpretation of the head by phrenology, which was popular in the period immediately before the book was written, but has since been discredited Miss Bronte’s tendency to distinguish nationality from head shape is also difficult to accept in the modern world. However, this is not a harsh criticism, since all authors run the risk that their scientific knowledge will be surpassed in later years.

Website design By BotEap.comSome of the characters seem to be of such an extreme nature that it’s hard to believe. Can anyone be as callous and cruel as William’s brother Edward, or as detached, rude and omniscient as Mr. Hunsden? Extreme cartoons can heighten drama and intrigue, like Sherlock Holmes, for example, but there may be too many in a novel. Miss Bronte’s female characters, Frances Henri and Zoraide Reuter, are completely believable and can be trusted as creations of a female mind.

Website design By BotEap.comWilliam Crimsworth makes his living as an English teacher, and although he would need a TEFL certificate today, he seems well qualified for the job and successful in executing it. William is fluent in French, and since much of the dialogue is presented in that language, Miss Bronte seems to expect her readers to have at least a solid basic understanding. Presumably, sophisticated aristocratic Victorian readers of hers could cope with this amount of French, but many modern readers may find this substantial use of a foreign language annoying. However, it is remarkable how little the English language has changed in nearly one hundred and seventy years, and The Professor will continue to be read and enjoyed long after this and most other reviews are forgotten.