The Professor

Rating:
Summary: Only for diehard Charlotte Bronte Fans
Review: Although the spark of creativity is there, it still takes some time to appreciated this novel after reading Janes Eyre. The main character Crimsworth seems to be arrogance, aristocratic, and audacious. This could be Bronte's first take on a male perspective, but is that what she considered the male psyche to be as she portrays on her other novels' male characters. All in all the novel has some worth, but needs getting used to.

Rating:
Summary: I expected more
Review: As a fan of Jane Eyre and Shirley I was thoroughly taken aback by how much this book irked me. There was much I found commendable: the attempt to write from a male point of view, the contemplation of cultures and the assertionof female rights by a good female character. There is even humor in this book (the description of the students made me laugh aloud), but I disliked the obviousness of the novel: it is easy to predict. I was also very disturbed by the character's xenophobia and attacks on Catholicism, although those were the prevalent English views of the time. This book is really for people who want to see how the great Bronte developed as an artist and one of the finest writers of the English language.

Rating:
Summary: The genius is there, but the personality isn't
Review: For a young writer's first attempt this novel is quite well-written and the plot is fairly well-conceived. However, the narrator is badly done (the Bronte girls should never try to write from a man's perspective!) and the narrative is both dull and sentimental. The characters have none of the strength and personality which makes Jane Eyre such a timeless favorite. I prefer Charlotte's later work, which has acquired depth and realism. In The Professor, her emotional maturity had clearly not caught up to her precocious intellect.

Rating:
Summary: Only for an avid reader of the Brontes
Review: The Professor is the story of William Crimsworth, a young man of small means and weak family connections who travels to Brussels to earn a living. He settles there as an English professor in an all-boys school and teaches part-time in the neighbouring girls' school. There he falls in love with one of his pupils, a poor lace-mender, and is pursued by the school's directress, an artful self-interested woman.

If this sounds rather dull to you, then you have the correct impression. The book is not as exciting as Jane Eyre or as moving as Villette. The narrative moves slowly, and Crimsworth is a very analytical type of character who does not scruple to record his thoughts on every detail. Nothing really dramatic happens and emotions are not heightened. But what I really dislike about this novel is the prejudiced portrayal of the Flemish, described often as coarse and unthinking, as inferior to the English.

The novel has a strong negative sound, very different to that in Villette. Although Crimsworth is the marble image of perseverance and self-control, almost to an inhuman level, he is haunted by hypochondria. There is a general sense of mistrust and hostility between all the characters. The editor explains in her introduction that this is the result of suppressed impulses and denied indulgences of the main characters, and reveals Bronte as a social critic. And there is one very interesting character, Mr. Hunsden, a cynical, but very like-able artistocrat who dislikes wealth (he's a bit like Rochester). Though the story is lacking in feeling, it still has bits here and there of beautiful prose and warmth that make it worth reading for a Bronte fan, but most others would judge it too slow-paced and dull.

Rating:
Summary: Although not one of her best, a glimpse at Bronte's genius.
Review: The Professor proves to detail humanity in a way only Charlotte Bronte can. She depicts human nature, thought, and emotion brilliantly utilizing the English language to highten the reader's experience of the situation at hand. The Professor was, however, Bronte's first novel and, although controversial at the time, now seems to illustrate how much Bronte had grown as a writer throughout the years. In my opinion, Jane Eyre and Villete were her finest works, but The Professor is still a must read for any Bronte fan.