Interesting although not always great
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This was Bronte's first novel, and as a consequence it is interesting to read because she lays out here, many of the issues that she addresses in her later, and so much greater novels, Jane Eyre and in particular Villette.
This book is set in Belgium, where Bronte herself went as a teacher in her short lived career as an independent woman. In this book the protagonist is a man, William Crimsworth, who goes abroad to work as a teacher and falls in love. His love is then subject to trials and tragedy due to the machinations of an interfering older woman.
It is easy to see that Bronte identifies with Crimsworth herself, and that at the beginning of her career she had the inkling that putting such passions and forbidden subjects for women, into the mouth of a man, would make her transition into an author easier. Yet, it is all the poorer a novel for this transformation. Bronte really comes into her own power when she dares to speak what nobody else will say using women like Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe as her protagonists.
An interesting book and certainly not dull, or as hard work as a book like Shirley, but still unsatisfactory in many ways.
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The author's first novel
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Readers aspiring to have a knowledge of Charlotte Brontë’s work should read "The Professor" as it contains the key to much of her subsequent writing like "Jane Eyre" or "Vilette". The novel is based on the author’s own experiences in Brussels. The central character, William Crimsworth, an orphan, leaves his dreary clerking post in a Yorkshire mill to start a career as a teacher of English in the Belgian capital. He falls in love with a Protestant pupil, Frances Henri, teacher and lace mender. However William’s relationship is complicated by the manipulative and beguiling Catholic headmistress, Zoraide Reuter, and her cunning attempts to divert him from his destiny.
The novel, written in 1846, astonishes by its brevity and realism and by its portrayal of the heroine’s insistence on a working career after her marriage.
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A Male Perspective
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This book did not live up to my expectations. I was originally very excited to read this book because I wanted to see how C. Bronte wrote from a male perspective. In William Crimsworth, she creates a character with a great deal in common with Jane Eyre; yet, he is not as interesting to follow or as sympathetic. William continues to perservere through any struggle that life has given him. He holds his head with dignity while his closest relative throws him on the street. Then, he maintains a strong Protestant work ethic in the heavily Catholic city of Brussels. C. Bronte seems to be reflecting upon her own experiences while living in Belgium; however, I found the constant negativity surrounding the Catholic faith to be distracting from her message concering hard work and perserverance. When descibing the girls at his school, William says, "I suspect the root of this precocious impurity so obvious, so general in Popish countries, is to be found in the discipline if not the doctrines of the Church of Rome." The comparison between Catholics and Protestants is contant thoughout this book. I found it zenophobic and ignorant while reading. While a teacher at a girls' finishing school, Crimsworth falls in love twice. First with the coquettish Catholic school mistress, Zoraide Reuter and then with the subserviant Protestant lace-mender, Frances Henri. Frances and Zoraide are as different as night and day; however Crimsworth is attracted to both of them. Again, it seems as though Charlotte is making a comparison between two religions as well as two different types of women with her choices of love interest for William C. All in all, William Crimsworth is not the character I was expecting to meet. He is pompous, conceited, and non-sympathetic. I suppose there is usually a touch of superiority in most Bronte characters, yet I usually find their circumstances to cause sympathy. I felt none for WC. One more thing about this addition: there are frequent typographic errors. I suppose that is why it only costs 1.50.
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