| Title | : | The Professor |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1582870950 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781582870953 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 269 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1857 |
The Professor Reviews
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Every time I finish a Charlotte Bronte novel, my heart pounds and my mind is disoriented. After reaching the end of her stories, closing her pages for the last time, and remembering the long passages written out in long-hand, it's all like slowly surfacing from the depths of another world, and you're back home in reality, not quite sure you want to be there.
Although it doesn't have the exquisite tragedy of Villette or the kick-ass karate-chop combos of romance, ghosts, crazy ladies in the attic, religious nut-jobs, and true love found in Jane Eyre, The Professor is still one hell of a novel.
Its themes are common to Bronte's novels: Catholic wickedness (aka, “Romish wizardcraft” in this book -- HAHAHA!), relationships among the different social classes, social-restraint, and independence. Illustrating these themes are our upright, plain, poor, and virtuous narrator and his love interest, who are contrasted by the so-goddamn-evil-i-love-her Zoraide Reuter and her equally two-faced and back stabbing boyfriend, M. Pelet.
In many ways inferior to Jane Eyre, and in many other ways a "rough draft" of Villette, this novel is probably not the author's best. But I loved it. Why? Because Charlotte Brtone wrote it.
Bronte famously wrote that Jane Austen's writing was like "a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers: but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck ... rather, comprehensive, measured, balanced, certainly “highly cultivated.””
What is Bronte then? Her writing is wild, like weeds, growing out of control and wrapping around you eyes, heart, and mind, but she planted those weeds and cultivated them just as carefully as Austen cultivated her garden -- but with more skill. Bronte gets you in a snare from which you cannot break free. Her words, her writing, her storytelling are all overpowering in their savageness. When you try to release yourself (it's called putting the book down) you'll find your heart beating from the rapid ride that she has taken you on ... and you want to jump right back in.
Seriously, I love this woman. Favorite writer EVER!! -
The Professor, Charlotte Brontë
The Professor, A Tale. was the first novel by Charlotte Brontë. It was written before Jane Eyre, but was rejected by many publishing houses. It was eventually published, posthumously, in 1857.
The novel is the story of a young man, William Crimsworth, and is a first-person narrative from his perspective. It describes his maturation, his career as a teacher in Brussels, and his personal relationships.
The story starts with a letter William has sent to his friend Charles, detailing his rejection of his uncle's proposal that he become a clergyman, as well as his first meeting with his rich brother Edward. Seeking work as a tradesman, William is offered the position of a clerk by Edward. However, Edward is jealous of William's education and intelligence, and treats him terribly.
Through the actions of the sympathetic Mr Hunsden William is relieved of his post, but starts a new job at a boys' boarding school in Belgium. The school is run by the friendly Monsieur Pelet, who treats William kindly and politely.
Soon William's merits as a "professor" reach the ears of the headmistress of the neighboring girls' school. Mademoiselle. Reuter offers him a position at her school, which he accepts. Initially captivated by her, William begins to entertain ideas of falling in love with her, but then he overhears her and Monsieur Pelet talking about their upcoming marriage and their deceitful treatment of him.
William begins to treat Mademoiselle Reuter with cold civility as he sees her underlying nature. She, however, continues to try to draw him back in by pretending to be benevolent and concerned. She asks him to teach one of her young teachers, Frances, who hopes to improve her skill in languages. William sees promising intelligence in this pupil and slowly begins to fall in love with her. ...
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز شانزدهم ماه آگوست سال2015میلادی
عنوان: پروفسور؛ نویسنده: شارلوت برونته؛ مترجم اسماعیل کیوانی؛ تهران، نشر جامی؛ تاریخ نشر روز23تیر، سال1392؛ در344ص؛ شابک9786001760693؛
عنوان: پروفسور؛ نویسنده شارلوت برونته؛ مترجم بنفشه جعفر؛ تهران، نشر روزگار؛ سال1394، در358ص؛ شابک9789643745370؛
عنوان: پروفسور؛ اثر شارلوت برونته؛ مترجم رضا رضایی؛ تهران، نشر نی؛ چاپ چهارم سال1397؛ در344صفحه؛
کتاب «پروفسور» ماجرای زندگی مردی جوان است، و داستان از زبان راوی اول شخص روایت میشود؛ «شارلوت برونته» در این کتاب، بلوغ این مرد جوان، و ماجراهای عشقی و شغلی اش را در مدرسه ای دخترانه بیان میکند؛ داستان «پروفسور» همانند سایر داستانهای «شارلوت برونته» در واقع آیینه زندگی خود او بوده، و نمایشگر احوال روحی و حالات درونی، و چکیده احساسات ایشانست، که اوضاع رقتبار زمان خود را با چیره دستی ویژه ای به زیر ذره بین نقد قرار داده، و در برابر وضع نابسامان آن زمان از خود واکنش نشان میدهد؛ طنزنویسی و عبارات نیشدار ایشان به خیلی از مقامات برمیخورد، و آنها را رنجیده و آزرده خاطر میساخت، ولی نویسنده دست از انتقاد برنداشته، و به کار خویش ادامه میدهند؛ نکته ی جالب توجه این است با اینکه «شارلوت» خود یک زن بوده، ولی اخلاق و روحیات و خواسته های یک مرد را، به طرز قابل تأمل، و تحسین برانگیزی به رشته واژه ها درآورده است، که این خود مهارت و زبردستی ایشان را در نگارش کتاب «پروفسور» میرساند؛ سرگذشت خواهران «برونته» و آثار آنان موجب گردید، که سایر نویسندگان درباره ی آنها قلمفرسایی کرده، و کتابهاس بسیاری راجع به زندگی آنها بنویسند
نقل نمونه از متن: (در طلوع صبح سرد ژانویه با عجله از خانه خانم کینگ به طرف کلوز به راه افتادم، و از خیابان سراشیب یخ زده عبور کرده، و به کارخانه رسیدم. در آن هنگام با خود میاندیشیدم که در مورد صفات افراد، چه از نظر احساسات و عواطف، و چه از نظر حالت و موقعیت در زندگی آنها، اوج و منتها درجه ای وجود دارد. کارگران یک ساعت قبل از من، به سر کار خود آمده بودند، و هنگامی که به آنجا رسیدم، چراغهای کارخانه روشن و کارها شروع شده بود. مانند همیشه به کار خود مشغول شدم. بخاری گرچه روشن بود، امّا دود میکرد، و استیتن هنوز نیامده بود. من در اتاق را بسته و پشت میز خود قرار گرفتم، دستهایم را که تازه با آب سرد شسته بودم، هنوز بیحس و کرخت بودند، و تا وقتی که گرم نشده، و به حال اول خود برنگشتند، نتوانستم کار کنم، لذا در این مدت کوتاه به فکر فرو رفتم، موضوعی که درباره اش فکر میکردم، همان «اوج تحمل مشکلات» بود. اندیشه ناراضی بودن از زندگی و مقابله با مشکلات آن.)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 26/03/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 02/02/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی -
Mr. William Crimsworth newly graduated from exclusive Eton College, writes a letter to his one and only friend Charles, about his adventures since both left the school ( Charles never receives it, having departed for parts unknown). William late mother was an aristocrat but having married "beneath her," had been shunned by her family, something common in the unforgiving mid 19th century England. His father was a wealthy businessman until going bankrupt also deceased. What to do? William has an older brother by ten years Edward, a cold tyrant but rich mill owner he has little seen. Rejecting an offer from Lord Tynedale and the Honorable John Seacombe his maternal uncles, to become a man of the cloth, a rector in a church controlled by Seacombe and even marry one of his six unappealing daughters , young Crimsworth does not like his cousins, they in turn cut loose the ungrateful boy no longer supporting him. So the reluctant distant Edward, gives him a job as a low paying clerk in northern England, a dirty, polluted, ugly town when you can see it through the thick noxious fumes. Translating foreign language business letters, the jealous brother hates the better educated William shows no love, the rich man has little contact with the poor one, kept from Crimsworth Hall...
So proper etiquette must be maintained between the two ... the letter ends but life continues, disaster William is dismissed by his enraged brother when an acquaintance, Mr. Hunsden gossips about the ill treatment receives by the younger Mr. Crimsworth. To make amends Mr. Hunsden ( his nefarious plan successful) tells William to travel to Brussels, Belgium, seek better employment and gives him a letter of introduction. Since no other prospects are on the horizon and always wanting to see the continent he complies, receives an offer as an English teacher from the seemingly affable Monsieur Francois Pelet, a Frenchman who owns a boys school in the Belgium capital, does well and later teaches a class next door at the girls school of charming, older Mademoiselle Zoraider Reuter, a native of the country. But conflict appears a love triangle, William and M.Pelet are enamored of the fetching Mademoiselle Reuter though not beautiful, neither is the professor she does sparkle during their romantic walks in her institutes gardens, and enjoys being wanted by the suitors, playing a fun game of causing the men pain...Still the emotions are complicated, more when another enters the scene, Frances Henri a Swiss seamstress living with her old aunt, employed by Mademoiselle Reuter, becomes a pupil in William's English class the not well educated girl, somehow is brilliant the best of his students impossible... the mystery is solved, she had a English mother. The professor starts to like the young shy lady and Zoraider doesn't like this, she is not happy at all. And the school mistress can do much harm... The perplexing Mr. Hunsden arrives in town, curious to discover what his protege has been up to, and the stories revealed...they have not been dull. The inexperienced in life William, learns ( even teachers must too) the mendacity of people ...The great writer Charlotte Bronte's first novel but not published ( you can see why) until she was no more, interesting view of her beginning, the talent is there... in some pages but it just needed more polish and experience to blossom . -
OMG I should update this. I do have a love life and it is with Bill, the Starbucks guy. I'm so happyish. It won't last. It never does.
_________
Mostly my love life, or lack of it.
This may have to much personal info for some! I read this in my teens, I know I added it to my shelves but it has disappeared... I can't remember many of the details except that I thought it was very unusual that a woman would write her first novel through the voice of a man. Something she didn't do again. It puts me in mind of
Lady Susan, Jane Austen's first novel of a woman in her 30's, somewhat sociopathic and amoral, a character Austen never attempted again. I wonder what made them both choose something so far outside their own experience and do them both so brilliantly, but then for subsequent books change their voice so completely?
__________
So I have a new relationship. I think I might be falling in love again. But because of his tragic story, I'm wary. I don't know if he's ready or will ever be ready for more than a casual fling. I met Bill online back in April, we got on so well on the phone, but were only able to meet once before I came back to the island as he had Covid.
We met in Starbucks. I watched him walk up, one leg dragging, one shoulder slightly down making his tall rangy frame look even more angular. He gave me roses, silver pink ones with thorns and I got coffees. We had a great topic of conversation: we've both travelled a lot and he got kidnapped in Syria, me in Turkey.
Gee was he handsome! He also looked very young and so after Starbucks closed I said to him that it was really great meeting him let's be friends and stay in touch. I thought he was too young for me. But he just looks young as I do, we are both older than our faces!
Bill is gorgeous though, drives a scratched up dirty old Toyota, lol (not the sports cars I like so much). He's a tenured law professor, ex Harvard, interned for Scalia, ex Obama taxation committee. Very interesting, I don't normally even meet academics.
We spoke on the phone for 2 hours each time a few times a week. I held nothing back because we were just friends. I told him of Mr B whom I moved in with in Fort Lauderdale (who ghosted me) and Avon, well he was around one of the times Avon stalked me to my place. We were just friends, and we went out to dinner and he told me he thought I was hot and thought of me as more than a friend. YAY! Six months of friendship.... He also, like me, looked a lot younger than he was.
But he had a tragic story that made me wary of wanting to get involved with him. He was a Washington man, as all government men are, but his wife wanted to move to Florida for the sake of their two daughters. She could work from anywhere - she wrote for the NY Times, Washington Post, Salon and had published a book, made tv appearances. Really a glittering couple, the law professor and the successful journalist with two beautiful daughters living in a big house shaded by old trees in Coconut Grove.
But looks are deceiving. She had been battling depression for years. No medications, no therapy, no hospital stays, no anything at all lifted the depression for long. She wanted to die but promised Bill she would never do anything because of the children.
Four years ago this coming New Year's Eve, her teenage daughter found her body in the swimming pool. She had strapped herself to the heaviest chair in the house, put on swim goggles and clutching her favourite water bottle, drowned herself leaving a note, 'you will all be better off without me'.
Bill's in therapy, one of his daughters is in school in New York, the other lives in a small house in the grounds of the family home and goes out once a week to get her medications. She's become a recluse and refuses therapy: her entire life is online. This traumatised family are looked after by a housekeeper that was the children's nanny, so she is just as devastated.
This doesn't sound like it's going anywhere, does it?
But we had a lovely time at the Miami book fair and Art Basel. We walked 3 miles and still didn't see anything. It's a kind of ordinary relationship, not a fancy car, not fancy restaurants, certainly not fancy clothes (he looks like a slightly unkempt professor who needs a haircut). Sex, well, it's yet again ED, but he's going to see a specialist. I'm like a virgin again since Richie 29th March. See I even know the day and hopefully when I go back to Miami in January, I will lost my virginity and it will better than the first time I did it. (Think: forest, black ants....) -
I think the best way of approaching this book is to look at is a learning curve for the author. The prose in Jane Eyre is sophisticated and eloquent; it is developed and persuasive: it is powerful, and a points simply beautiful. Charlotte’s writing in this just isn’t at the same level.
Perhaps it is because she writes from the perspective of male, a rather bland one at that. The point is there is little point to this book. Jane Eyre is rich in passion and argument. Charlotte was trying to make a point; she was trying to show her readership the corruptness of society and the failing of the governess role; she was trying to show how worthy women are and how the misogyny of the mid-nineteenth century chained up their faculties, and left them to rot in intellectual depravity. With the Professor we have a mundane little romance plot and that really is all.
There are no fiery exchanges of willpower and a mutual understanding of equal partnership on the basis of individuality. There is just simple, dry, love in all its ordinariness. And I don’t care for it. Where is the passion? Where is the soul’s persecution? Where is the mental haunting, the insane power of finding such a person you can be with on such a level? The story is weak, the writing is weak: the book is weak. This is best considered as an early attempt of writing by someone who would one day learn to write like a true artist.
It's only worth a read if you wish to track the author's literary progress. -
The Professor is Charlotte Bronte's first written novel though not published till after her death. To me it is ironic, for I found a more interesting story here than in Jane Eyre.
The Professor tells the story of William Crimsworth whose circumstances turned him into a teacher and who with courage, perseverance, and self-control and by relying on his education, skills, and intelligence lifts him up from poverty and dependency. Simultaneously it is also a sweet love story. Though this is a short novel, a number of Victorian themes such as love, jealousy, envy, ambition, tyranny, and morality are all artfully included. It can be said that this book is almost a model of a Victorian Novel.
Written in Bronte's preferred first-person narrative, William tells his story as plainly and unreservedly as possible. The narrative is strong, powerful, and passionate, yet controlled. Interestingly, I found this writing style to suit the male voice very well. In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf says that Charlotte Bronte writes in anger. There is some truth to Virginia's remark. Charlotte Bronte vents out her frustration, dissatisfaction, the social injustice that is caused by class and gender differences quite strongly in her writing. And while it might not suit a Victorian female voice, it suits well a Victorian male when he is the narrative and the protagonist.
Imbued with beautifully written prose, precision in structure, smooth flow, the powerful and controlled narrative, and the different yet interesting characters, the story was quite engaging. I found all aspects of the novel - writing, characters, and the storyline to be in perfect harmony. This would have earned a higher rating had not Bronte willfully ventured into a long and tedious final chapter to describe the marital bliss and the happy ending which kind of destroyed the controlled manner in which the story was unfolded and marred the perfect balance which was kept up until that point. -
Charlotte's first attempt at a novel comes across as... well... an attempt. It can be clearly seen that elements from this novel reappear in both Jane Eyre and Villette. However this novel pretty much lacks everything that made both of those novels such classics. It's a basic 19th-century romance novel with Charlotte this time writing from a male POV. Even though this is the second shortest Brontë novel (Agnes Grey is the shortest) it still felt vastly overlong. While bits of humour seep in now and again, leaving you with a faint smile, they are not enough to save this somewhat boring misstep. On the plus side however, this is a fairly easy read and won't trouble anyone who isn't familiar with Victorian literature. Reading it though will explain to you why this wasn't published in Charlotte's lifetime.
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3.5. An enjoyable read, though slow to start, and not as interesting as other Bronte novels for me.
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I have always found Charlotte Bronte’s anger to be subversive. The rage that drives the machine, her understanding of the particular being so needlepoint sharp that it becomes universal.
But she hasn’t got it yet. Not here. It’s all the same material, the same sentiments we’re used to, but she is at once wearing too many masks to be truthful and speaking with the memory of slights too raw for them to be useful. She can’t quite name and point to the root of her anger yet- whether that’s because her publisher made her pull her punches (as is suggested in the forward) or because she isn’t there yet as a writer, I don’t know. But this felt like the thinly veiled diary of a particularly smart teenager who is still reliving her anger rather than being able to reflect on it and use it.
I found her use of a male mask to be particularly debilitating here. Her young professor, William, is not generally believable as a man in any way. It is, for instance, clear to me that she has not much idea of how men interact with each other (which of course is reflective of her own experience of the world). And beyond him, most of the rest of the cast are mere shadows of what’s to come, in Jane and Lucy. I enjoyed Hunsden, deus-ex-smug-jackass that he was. It was also an interesting commentary that Bronte tried to resist using him that way, but couldn’t do so and then deny the reality of what would have happened to William without him or someone equally unlikely coming along. Frances really came into her own with a few speeches just at the end that were glimmers of Lucy, though it had to peek out from behind lines like “it pleased her to make me the master in all things,” after describing in detail her competence and utter lack of need for the protagonist to be any such thing. (PS on this theme though the “you’re the master” stuff between them that’s repeated just a litttttlllee too much and goes just a litttttleee too far for me not to read some kink into it, especially given the letters we *know* she wrote to that teacher she had a crush on. Don’t @ me with your charges of anachronisms.)
I think we also have to mention that you’ll need to endure a good deal of racist judgment of various ethnicities present during the character’s stay in Brussels, with particular emphasis on the “Popish morals” of any character who happens to be Catholic (complete, I swear to God, with a line along the lines of “I’m the last person to be a religious bigot, but....”). I think it is not an accident that the woman our protagonist gets together with is ultimately Protestant and half-English. It’s not just once, either. When I saw her start to describe new characters I’d sometimes flip a few pages ahead to when I thought she might have done with her thoughts one the national character of the Flemish. (The Flemish come in for the most insults by far, for some reason.) There’s some attempt to indicate opposition to these views by both Frances and Hundsen late in the novel, so it may not be entirely editorial position, but it was rather too little, too late to fully convince me. While of course we know time and place, these sections made me think less of the young Charlotte. I don’t remember any of this in Jane Eyre or Villette (other than the standard shorthand of “French lady” for “questionable morals” that is eyerollingly common for this period of Brit lit.)
The writing is earnest, the plot is just almost charmingly straightforward, it’s all just... nice but not there yet. And I think Charlotte herself would have agreed. She’s a fantastic example of the idea that writers often really only tell one story. They just get better at it.
Unless you are a completionist, hie thee to Villette and don’t look back. You’ll thank me later. -
In the midst of life, we are in death.
Charlotte Brontë died untimely, three weeks before her 39th birthday. The Professor, the first novel Charlotte had written, was published posthumously in 1857.
“A man is master of himself to a certain point, but not beyond it.”
Orphaned in infancy, William Crimsworth had been receiving meager support from his deceased mother's aristocratic brothers. Upon his graduation from Eton, William parts away, in contempt for his abhorrent uncles and seeks employment from his tyrannical brother. Enduring harsh blows of fate, William eventually departs for Brussels and accepts teaching as a career as Charlotte once did in her life. There he meets his future wife, Frances Henri and together they strive to render meaning to their shared lives.
The professor, despite repeated efforts of the author, is a poorly conceived, first attempt of a young novelist at telling a story from an unpolished, under developed male perspective. While the gender issues posed by this work allure the readers, Charlotte's characters are nevertheless unnatural both in speech and act. However Charlotte succeeds to an extent in understanding gender relations and portraying convincingly male dominance and sexual suppression..
“That to begin with; let respect be the foundation, affection the first floor, love the superstructure"
While Charlotte's attempt at voicing an exemplary, conscientious man had been unsuccessful, she triumphed at drawing compelling, spirited female characters. The professor, not necessarily exhibiting the best of Charlotte Brontë, may serve as an introduction to Victorian literature. -
Translation widget on the blog!!!
O carte unică în felul ei! Pentru prima data de când citesc o carte de-a autoarei, avem un personaj principal bărbat.
O poveste frumoasa, incitantă, o lecție de viață, asistăm la maturizarea unui tânăr și la viața pe care o ia în piept.
Recenzia mea completă o găsiți aici:
https://www.delicateseliterare.ro/pro... -
Mi libro favorito de Charlotte!!
No soy editora ni nada, pero no comprendo porque rechazaron la novela si tiene muchas cosas interesantes para debatir, así como la historia de amor más bonita y menos rebuscada de las parejas que formó.
William es todo un caballero, encantador y trabajador. La vida no lo favoreció con una gran fortuna, pero eso no lo inquieta, sabe que tiene la capacidad para trabajar y labrarse su propio camino. Se vuelve profesor, y no solo se gana una buena reputación y un sueldo considerable, sino que encuentra su vocación en la formación de nobles caballeros y señoritas de sociedad.
Su interés amoroso es una chica, que, a pesar de tener una precaria situación económica, no pierde el tiempo en lamentaciones, al contrario, busca un empleo y toma cualquier oportunidad para mejorar sus aptitudes y así tener un mejor trabajo, y una mejor calidad de vida.
La chica sabe que no se le paga igual al hombre y a la mujer y busca la manera de hacerse valer, de que sus conocimientos cuenten, y me encanta que él, en lugar de cortarle las alas, la alienta a perseguir sus sueños.
El romance se va formando a fuego lento, del respeto a la admiración y luego al amor. La declaración es muy bonita. Cuando él le propone que no trabaje, ella le expresa sus intenciones y William las acepta. Forman una pareja muy equilibrada y con una relación sana. Se dan su lugar.
En fin, un libro precioso y lleno de significado a pesar del número de páginas. -
This title was a lot harder going than I was expecting, being a lifelong fan of Jane Eyre. This is a fine example of an author honing their craft, knowing the masterpiece that Bronte would write later in her life.
The story follows William Crimsworth from his humble beginnings, to his career as a teacher and eventual marriage to the woman he loves.
Though intended to be a sympathetic hero, Crimsworth is very judgemental and xenophobic (he doesn’t think highly of women or anyone who isn’t English) character and goes on at some length about how superior he is to absolutely everyone. Knowing that this story is the main basis for Charlotte Bronte’s other book, Vilette, which is told from the perspective of a female main character – I can safely say that I prefer this plot as narrated by a character who isn’t a prat.
While this book did lack the underlying passion and angst that Bronte became so brilliant at writing later on, I did find some of the dialogue quite entertaining and more direct than I necessarily expect from a Victorian novel.
On a practical note, I would mention that the font size in this particular edition (9781847497178) is smaller than a standard book. For me, this was a bit of an issue as I struggle with eye strain though it may not be an issue for most other people. -
This is Charlotte Bronte's first novel. She chose to write in a male voice with his concerns for a livelihood, his freedom to choose a vocation, authority to insist on compensation, and his refusal to accept and believe disrespectful pronouncements from others. His search for the employment that suited his soul continued his meeger existence, but his freedom to persist was unlike the females of the time.
It is for these reasons that Bronte chose a male persona for her debut. In 1846 the antithesis was true for women, especially female authors. It was the Bronte Sisters view that women were treated differently from male authors by critics who flattered rather than praised their works. With success as the ultimate goal, Charlotte wrote in a gender that alluded her in life.
Her first outing as an author was about a young man without family financial support. Deaths of parents awarded his older brother the family business. With little education and knowledge of how to decide on a vocation, "he that is low need fear no fall".
But fall he did. The arc of his life is the story of "The Professor".
Recommended for the words, writing style, world view, and struggles different but somehow recognizable today.
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."
Charlotte Bronte -
What if Jane Eyre had been written from the point of view of Rochester? Would he have seemed more manipulative, more self-centered? Would readers have allowed themselves to be swept away by Jane's passion, and to desire its fruition? In The Professor, Charlotte Bronte narrates the tale from the viewpoint of the male protagonist, and I must confess to finding him frequently unsympathetic. Without seeing this character from the eyes of his affection's object, it is difficult to appreciate him. He too often comes off sounding pious and condescending. There are moments when the narrator acknowledges his vulnerabilities, but this is usually in order to display his virtue in resisting temptation.
Like Jane Eyre, the professor insists on following the stern voice of conscience rather than the warm pull of passion, and the moral of both books is the same: flee temptation. The Professor, however, is more obviously evenagelical than Bronte's later work, and these scenes of moral struggle and victory appear more strained, more self-satisfied than in Jane Eyre. The difference may simply be one of narration; perhaps I am more inclined to accept didacticism from a female narrator than from a male, authoritarian voice. The professor's strength is less impressive, perhaps, because he is less vulnerable in 19th century society than a woman would be. The risks he takes for his values are smaller than the risks Jane Eyre assumes. More importantly, his resistance of temptation sometimes smacks more of pride than of virtue. He seems alternately dominering and liberal; indeed, the book as a whole contains a rather odd mixture of feminism and male authoritarianism.
Despite my inability to fully relate to and admire the protagonist, and despite the annoyance of repeated anti-Catholic thrusts, I found this book to be interesting. It does have many moments of penetrating insight, couched in almost poetic language. I was impressed by the way Bronte weaved scripture and literary allusion so constantly into her work. And the book is well enough written to keep me curious of the outcome, even if I do not precisely adore the narrator. The other primary character, Frances, appears at first docile and then suddenly seems transformed into a vocal feminist. She appears to feel her inferiority and then to assert her perogative. We do not get to know her as we know Jane Eyre, because we can only see her through the eyes of the professor, and his narration seems, at times, slightly unreliable. I do not know that Bronte intended it to be; but as a reader, I hesitate to accept fully the narrator's pronouncement on all matters.
The Professor, Bronte's first novel, was never published in her own lifetime. But it is, in fact, more concise and better structured than Jane Eyre. Nevertheless, the book is simply not as likeable as Bronte's later classic. It is an enjoyable and comparatively easy read, but it does not make as profound an impression on the mind. Indeed, there is a sort of feeling of incompletness to the tale. As a reader, I got the impression that the narrator was, at the close of the novel, painting a happy picture of marital harmony, but underneath this seemed to course tiny hints of something darker. That something darker may have been a figment of my imagination, or it may have been an undeveloped theme. One of the most interesting characters in the book, however, is certainly undeveloped. Hundsen makes an appearance towards the beginning of the novel, disappearing from the tale for many chapters, before returning to capture the reader's interest once again. He is sometimes likeable, at others off-putting, depending on the lens of the narrator, and he seems to demand a book unto himself. This, however, we do not receive, and we are left instead with the story of the professor. -
This book starts off promisingly enough, but as the character grows less sympathetic and the plot draws out predictably, much of the charm is lost. Perhaps it was not unexpected that I would be drawn into the plight of a young, educated man thrust out alone into the world with no prospects, forced to work pointless jobs for frustratingly inept employers for subsistence. It mirrors not only my experiences, but that of most of my generation.
Unfortunately, our narrator becomes a rather stuck-up prig as the text goes on, which slowly killed off my sympathy. It wasn't merely that he conducted himself with pride and intelligence; it was his condescension and self-assuredness that soured the taste. He read into every word and expression, giving the reader an absurd amount of subtext about glances or pauses. He also professed that his certainty in psychology allowed him to manipulate others, by which he meant snide, callous remarks, a cold shoulder, and a childish inability to keep himself in check.
It was like people who write in their dating profile: "I'm interested in psychology, because I have always been really good at reading people" despite the fact that they are not good enough at psychology to recognize that this makes them sound naive and pretentious. So, there certainly was a comical aspect to his arrogant ineptitude, but conceited prigs rarely make for very good romantic interests.
Sure, Austen did it with Darcy, but she knew that the secret was to make his prickly exterior an embittered defense to the false, superficial world around him and give him a good heart despite it all. It's not that The Professor was a bad man, merely that he wasn't interesting enough to overcome his defects.
Bronte's messages were also a bit underwhelming. I found delight in the unintentional humor of her mistrust of Continental ways and those devilish Papists in particular, but this was hardly a mark in her favor. Likewise, the feminist aspects were a bit confused. One female character is strong, but only inasmuch as she is a heartless manipulator. The main love interest is also strong, occasionally moving to defend herself and her ideas, but she is mainly characterized as being our protagonist's devoted subservient--she never argues with him, of course.
Now some of this I must chalk up to the narrator's unreliability. The case that the first woman is heartless and the second woman subservient are things we mostly have to take his word for. Given the circumstances as they are given, it seems more like he makes groundless assumptions, seeing the world in stark black and white and revolving around him.
He also meets a friend on the way, a man who is equally as stuck up and sure of himself, and throughout their dialogues they seem constantly to sneer superiority at one another's faults. That neither is capable of recognizing in himself what he laments in authors.
If tackled with a more satirical style, this could have been a very effective book, lampooning a world of naive, short-sighted people lost in ungrounded assumptions and misunderstandings. As it was, Bronte kept the sentimental, romantic heart of the book. Since we could not take the characters entirely lightly, we had to take them somewhat seriously, which resulted in a story of dumb, somewhat dull characters living out a standard romance plot. -
No matter how hard I looked I could not even begin to find a Rochester or a Jane Eyre character in this book. Charlotte Bronte’s The Professor was her first (or last) book. By that I mean this was the first book she wrote for publication in 1846. She shopped it around but was not successful in getting it printed. It was put aside and only published after her death.
The writing isn’t bad, in fact it usually quite good. My big problem with the book is the characters. The “good” people are uninspiring or even unlikeable and that goes for the protagonist/narrator. He’s a prig, thought too much of himself and displays even more than the usual Victorian religious and national prejudices. The “bad” are wrongheaded but not a bit Byronic. Give me Heathcliff (her sister Emily’s character in Wuthering Heights or Rochester in her own Jane Eyre any day. I’d have really preferred the protagonist in the Professor to end up with a little more comeuppance. He was so unlikeable.
It is amazing that Charlotte’s very next book was Jane Eyre. No comparison. I’d recommend reading this if you’re a real Bronte fan. -
Very early effort which reads like a practice run for later novels like Villette and Jane Eyre (which reminds me, I must read Villette again). It is an engaging first person narrative in which William Crimsworth describes his young adulthood and his attempts to earn his living.
We learn about his grim family and Bronte uses her experience teaching in Brussels when Crimsworth moves there to teach. Most of the novel revolves around Brussels and the world of the small teaching establishments. The novel doesn’t move at any great pace and we see Crimsworth through romance, dense pupils, and difficult employers to eventual independence, marriage and his own school. The last chapter packs a great deal into a short space of time and it feels like a sketch for extending the novel by another couple of hundred pages.
There are some interesting themes in the novel. Bronte clearly has issues with Catholics and Belgian youth. However, her view of an ideal marriage is noteworthy. When Crimsworth asks Frances Evans Henri to marry him, she is very clear that she will only marry him if she can be independent of him, earning her own money. Crimsworth readily agrees and keeps to the agreement (unlike many men of the time I suspect). This was quite radical for the time.
The ideas are roughly sketched and developed in later novels. It is also a bit reminiscent of the Victorian self help books; hard work and self-reliance win out over the bonds of family and community. It is an easy, pleasant enough read which I enjoyed for what it was; an early effort. -
DNF at 20%. The first 20% that I read didn’t hold my attention and I’d rather read something that I know I’ll enjoy rather than this which I already know won’t get more than 3 stars from me, ya feel me?
-
Esperava bastante mais, fiquei desiludida, 3 stars.
Tornou-se bastante entediante.
Uma história com personagens demasiado arrogantes e incoerentes.
Não me conseguiu cativar.
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Charlotte Brontë's first novel, and it shows. The book is rather cutesy: not in the tone but in the choice of the story. The characters are caricatures and not very sympathetic. The hero, in particular, is unattractive.
The whole thing is quite dull. -
The first novel by Charlotte Brontë, though not published until her death. It has been reviewed as a simple, unimaginative portrait of an English teacher's life in Brussels, an early attempt to what her best known novel Villette would later become.
I don't agree.
This work shines in itself, it's the only story in which Charlotte dares to talk through a man's voice. She talks about responsibility, about earning your own success through effort and sacrifice, to defy the strict clichés and the hypocrisy of the English Society and to stand up to your ideals.
In this novel, William Crimsworth can be seen as a mere strict teacher or as a revolutionary who chooses her wife-to-be because of her intellect and not because of her looks or her position. And later, he lets her grow professionally to work together as good companions, elbow by elbow, always treating her like an equal.
I loved the message the book tries to convey, that work, perseverance and fair values lead you to a happy outcome. As worthy as any other of Charlotte's works, even more so, as I think this book talks more about the writer's own view of life than any other of her novels. -
William teve uma infância e adolescência conturbada; ficou órfão desde de pequeno, saiu de casa porque brigou com os tios, procurou ajuda de um irmão bruto ,frio e agressivo que deu lhe um emprego ,mas a convivência de ambos era insuportável, com isso William decide então sair da casa do irmão e recomeçar novamente indo para a Bélgica , tentar a vida como professor de inglês em uma escola para garotas. Nessa escola ele começa a se relacionar e ter amizades com várias pessoas , sendo as duas principais uma diretora, Zoraide Reuter e uma professora ,Frances Evan Henri, que ele ajuda com a língua inglesa. É aí que sua vida até então solitária sem sentido começa a mudar...
Como sempre Charlotte Bronte cria personagens marcantes e fortes que refletem o mundo a sua volta e indagam a melhor maneira de se viver de se vencer os problemas cotidianos.
Charlotte Bronte também explora o tema do trabalho, onde só alguns privilegiados conseguem ter sucesso na carreira, os demais dependem de uma força de vontade extraordinária para ter pelo menos um trabalho digno.
Charlotte Bronte não poderia estrear de maneira Mais brilhante como escritora , o livro é muito bom!! -
I can see why Charlotte could never get this published. The Professor was her first outing as an author, or at least her attempted first outing. And oh my, does it read like a first attempt.
The way I see it, this is essentially poorly conceived Charlotte/Monsieur Heger fanfiction. For those of you who don’t know, whilst she was studying in Brussels, Charlotte became slightly obsessed with her (married) Belgian tutor, Monsieur Heger. She did eventually confess her feelings to him via a string of suggestive letters - but he never replied.
Poor Charlotte. She had it bad.
Apparently her solution to this Monsieur Heger-induced depression was to write speculative fiction as to what might have been. The lukewarm ‘romance’ within The Professor, however, doesn’t quite cut it for me. There’s no passion, no fiery dialogue. I don’t believe for a second that this in any way resembles Charlotte’s real fantasies. Perhaps she was just being cautious, testing the water as it were before she wrote anything vaguely truthful - but the result is a relatively dry novel that’s certainly never emotionally compelling.
The publisher Smith, Elder & Co. however saw some potential and offered Charlotte the prospect of publication… on the grounds she could actually write something half decent. Enter
Jane Eyre. Hallelujah! The tepid teacher/student relationship was transformed into that sensuous love story we all know and love. In many ways, The Professor was recycled into Jane Eyre and served as a rehearsal for
Villette. So I guess we should be grateful for The Professor’s failure - we have it to thank for the sheer awesomeness of Charlotte’s other works.
The main problem I had with this is the unappealing narrative perspective: I hated William Crimsworth. Besides being devoid of soul, he’s slimy, unsympathetic and so up himself. His xenophobia just gets in the way - it serves no other purpose than as a handy plot device. Instead of proof of someone actually doing something unprincipled, we’re expected to accept William’s assertion that someone just is unprincipled - because they’re Flemish and can’t make a proper cup of tea (it’s important to us Brits) or, God forbid, they’re Catholic. Charlotte’s prejudices really shine through here, especially her aversion to ‘Romish witchcraft’ (Catholicism, mwah ha ha…) Which is very ironic - when she was in Brussels, she felt so bad about about fancying Monsieur Heger that she actually went to Confession. Hypocrite.
And that’s not the only instance of double standards. The Professor is a bizarre blend of feminism and male authoritarianism. Frances Henri is said to be Charlotte’s most realistic feminist heroine and I actually agree. Her circumstances are much less extraordinary than Jane Eyre’s or Lucy Snowe’s, and her attitude to work, especially after marriage, is very different. She is however a devoted subservient to William, and insists on relentlessly addressing him as ‘Master’ or ‘Monsieur’ Charlotte was obsessed with power dynamics - especially the romanticised ones. That’s something I appreciated about The Professor: despite the constraints within which Charlotte was writing, it’s very insightful into her emotional life.
I also think Charlotte picked the wrong characters to focus on. This is a distinguished writer whose powers in characterisation are unparalleled, in my opinion - and yet her two central characters are overwhelmingly bland. The supporting characters however are fascinating - they had visible substance, I didn’t have to rely off William’s obsession with physiognomy to get a sense of their personality. Oh they're great, I loved them so much. Mr Hunsden is related to Lord Henry from
The Picture of Dorian Gray, I swear - and the Mademoiselle Reuter/ M. Pelet dynamic was so entertaining. Why Charlotte didn’t give these characters more screen time (page space?) I don’t know.
Charlotte Brontë wrote this - of course there was something I inevitably enjoyed. She has a lovely rich (though at times, superficial) writing style and her setting is so atmospheric. It’s tenderly written, and though not outright witty, there are rare instances of warm humour that just about elicit a faint smile.
Ultimately, this novel just feels pointless. There’s no drive to it, no purpose. It’s lacking any evidence of Charlotte’s passion for writing. An ambiguous ending doesn’t help - it’s almost as though she just gave up. (Perhaps she did.)
Other things to mention:
1) For its shortness as a novel, it felt overly long. Be warned, the plot meanders.
2) There’s also a lot of French.
To be completely honest, I think this is only really worth the read if you want to appreciate Charlotte’s astounding growth as a writer. This may also be an excellence source of reassurance for aspiring writers: even Charlotte Brontë wrote crap that no one wanted at first - and look where it got her. -
O Professor, foi o primeiro livro escrito por Charlotte Brontë e o último a ser publicado, já depois da sua morte.
De forma muito resumida a história do livro é mais ou menos esta: quando Charlotte esteve na Bélgica ter-se-á apaixonado por um dos seus professores. O senhor era casado, tinha filhos, e Charlotte achou prudente regressar a casa. Terá então decidido escrever o livro inspirada no seu amor proibido, mas sob o ponto de vista do professor. Anos mais tarde escreveria Vilette, uma história muito semelhante, mas desta vez pelo prisma da personagem feminina. O primeiro é, claramente, uma obra de principiante em comparação com obras futuras. Em Vilette já se nota um maior desenvolvimento da história assim como personagens mais complexas e um desfecho que é um desafio ao leitor e não feito para agradar a corações moles. Em O Professor, pelo contrário, o final é-nos apresentado num bonito embrulho com as pontas todas amarradinhas e certinhas. Um final que talvez fosse o reflexo do sonho da jovem autora.
Não será o melhor da Charlottinha, mas foi um bom começo. -
The Professor is
Charlotte Brontë’s first novel, and not surprisingly, not her best. There are glimpses of the genius that would become Charlotte Bronte in this novel, but it has not emerged yet, as it would with her epic,
Jane Eyre. As in
Villette, she has set her tale abroad, this time in Belgium, and she deals with the life of a man, William Crimsworth, who finds himself teaching English at a school for young women. I must confess that I believe Charlotte Bronte is far better at fashioning female protagonists than male ones.
Bronte, in what seems to be the be a very affected manner, resorts to writing some of the dialogue in French, and while I wish that I were conversant in French and could read it without missing a beat, my school days are far behind me and even then the textbook French I knew would no doubt have let me down. So, at some crucial times in the narrative, entire conversations are patchy because the French I possess does not allow for accurate translation and the effort of translating each passage through Google breaks the action too much to be endured.
While at moments interesting, the story itself is a bit stilted and goes on too long past the point when one feels it should naturally end. As one might expect in a first effort, she also feels the need to give her characters a happy ending, so there seems very little of the conflict which is necessary to make a book really interesting. Her most interesting character, for my money, is the sarcastic, and inexplicable, Mr. Hunsden, who makes only a few critical appearances, but succeeds in changing the course of the life of our narrator, nonetheless.
I have but one more book by Charlotte Bronte yet to cross off my reading list,
Shirley. I am beginning to suspect that had she not written
Jane Eyre, she might well have sunk into obscurity along with a number of lesser writers of her time. -
Tipicamente inglese, tipicamente Brontë, quindi bellissimo!
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Nu excepțională precum "Jane Eyre", dar interesantă!
"Omul este o ființă extrem de impresionabilă."
"Dar atingând un maxim de indulgență, trebuie să-ți sprijini bine piciorul, să-l înfigi, să-l proptești în stâncă, să devii de neclintit precum turnurile de la St. Gudule."
"- Cei care sunt nechibzuiți pentru ei înșiși sunt în general de zece ori mai nechibzuiți pentru prietenii lor."
"Dar e mai bine să acționezi adesea după propria conștiință."
"Competivitatea unui profesor nu este o chestiune de vârstă."
"Se știe dintotdeauna că, atunci când există un grăunte de perseveranță sau de voință, obstacolele mărunte mai mult stimulează decât descurajează." -
Actual rating 3.5/5 stars.
It's no
Wuthering Heights,
Jane Eyre, or
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but is an enjoyable enough read and full of that Bronte knack for providing an in-depth societal examination without ever seeming to actually do so. -
3,25 🌟
En El Profesor conocemos a William Crimsworth un joven inglés que se niega a recibir las limosnas que le ofrecen sus parientes con los que tiene mala relación y que busca ganarse la vida con su esfuerzo y su trabajo sin depender de nadie. Se embarca en un viaje hacia Bruselas animado por un conocido, Hunsden, para buscarse allí la vida. A través de un contacto que tenía Hunsden en Bruselas, William consigue colocarse de profesor de inglés en una escuela de chicos dirigida por monsieur Pelet; posteriormente, también dará clases de inglés en una de chicas, regentado por mademoiselle Reuter. Conoceremos sus vivencias en su llegada a Bruselas y cómo se va haciendo un hueco allí, las relaciones que entabla con las personas con las que convive y nos describe las opiniones que estas le suscitan (lo que aparentan que contrasta con lo que luego son), así como una detallada descripción de algunas de sus alumnas, de diferentes nacionalidades y de buena posición, que no se lo ponen fácil pero a las que aprende a manejar sin dejarse apabullar por ellas. En cierto momento se topa con una maestra, zurdidora de encajes, que le solicita asistir a sus clases para avanzar en su inglés...
La historia me ha gustado, me ha mantenido expectante. Nos habla entre otras cosas de mantener los valores y principios personales, de alejarse de aquello que consideramos que está mal. De hacer las cosas correctamente, basando los éxitos en el trabajo duro y en el esfuerzo personal... Critica la hipocresía, la mentira y la crueldad. Cosas que me han gustado, pero confieso que no todo ha sido de mi gusto.
El personaje de William al principio me gustaba, pero a medida que iba avanzando me caía cada vez peor (algo totalmente subjetivo pero que a mí me ha afectado a la hora de leer) y en algunas partes he sentido que se estancaba la historia, que se centraba la narración en personajes secundarios o en aspectos de estos que realmente no estaban del todo hilados con la trama (¿Para qué me cuentas esto?).
Charlotte Brontë en esta novela saca bastante el tema patriótico, en muchas ocasiones describe de forma negativa a los belgas, los flamencos, los franceses... magnificando a los ingleses. William desprecia en diversos momentos a los distintos personajes no ingleses, con comentarios bastante xenófobos. Hay momentos en los que describe a sus alumnas que más que aportarme información necesaria para la trama parece que me lo cuenta únicamente para rajar de ellas y dejar claro el desprecio a sus costumbres, formas y disposición no inglesas... Aunque en otros momentos también se mencionan cosas positivas de los "extranjeros" o que no todo lo de Inglaterra es bueno, la sensación de ese odio a todo lo que no sea inglés me deja mal sabor de boca. También hace una crítica en defensa de su religión protestante, despreciando la catolica... lo que se deja ver también en varias ocasiones.
Supongo que todo está sustentado quizás en el posible choque que encontró Charlotte Brontë en su estancia en Bruselas cuando fue a estudiar francés, ella que venía de su ambiente victoriano y con su religión protestante tuvo que encontrar diferencias notables y costumbres que no eran las suyas, desde luego se aprecia que no sentía gran simpatía por los belgas ni por lo "continental" como se refería a lo europeo (estoy deseando leer más sobre su vida a ver si encuentro base real a esta especulación personal).
Quitando esto, la historia en sí, los acontecimientos que se van produciendo con ciertos giros y los personajes (mademoiselle Henri y Hunsden me han gustado mucho, este último un personaje complejo y extraño pero que me ha ganado) te mantienen y su final me ha dejado muy satisfecha. Se aprecia la gran pluma de Charlotte, y aunque no se acerca a lo que me hace sentir Jane Eyre ni de lejos, sí que he disfrutado de la misma.
