The Professor

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.

The eldest of the famous sisters, Charlotte Brontë (1816–55) is best known as the author of Jane Eyre. The Brontës' first book — a collection of their poems, published under pseudonyms and at their own expense — met with scant notice. Yet despite their remote Yorkshire residence, far from the London literary scene, and their tragically brief lives, all three achieved immortality with their individual novels. Charlotte's works are particularly prized for their moving and articulate depictions of the plight of educated but impoverished women in Victorian society.