The Professor by Charlotte Brontë
It is rare for me to pick up a book that I already have an idea I might not enjoy so since I had heard many people who disliked it, I had put off reading The Professor for some time. However, after picking up a copy in a second-hand bookshop recently, I decided I should find out for myself what it was like. Unfortunately, although I have loved Charlotte Brontë’s other novels, I really disliked The Professor and it is definitely my least favourite of all the novels by the Brontë sisters.
The Professor follows William Crimsworth as he reaches a crossroads in his life and finds himself unsure which path to take as he thinks about his future career. An unexpected connection leads him to move to Brussels and take employment as a teacher both in a boys’ school and the neighbouring girls’ school. There he encounters Frances Henri, a young teacher at the school who starts to take his classes in order to learn English, and Zoraïde Reuter, the headmistress of the girls’ school who has a hidden agenda in hiring him.
Although I love Charlotte Brontë’s writing, I have never liked the male characters in her novels: they rarely treat the female protagonists well and many of their shortcomings are glossed over in the narratives. The Professor is written from the perspective of one of these male characters meaning that, in addition to seeing how poorly Crimsworth speaks to the women in his life, the reader is also given an insight into how awful his thoughts are with regards to those around him. Crimsworth, although presented to the reader as a heroic figure, rescuing Frances from her position, is in no way a sympathetic protagonist and the more I read of the narrative, the more I disliked him. His prejudice towards those from different countries and religions to him permeates every thought he has and his obsession with the bodies and appearance of the teenage girls he is teaching is completely inappropriate.
In addition to the lack of a sympathetic protagonist, there is also not much of a plot to maintain reader interest in the narrative of The Professor. Unlike Jane Eyre and Villette, which are focused on the growth of a character, Crimsworth does not change much from beginning to end of the narrative and it is simply the circumstances of his life that change. If the reader was able to see the events of the narrative through the perspective of Frances, or even Zoraïde, it would have been much more intriguing. Despite Crimsworth’s interpretation of these two characters as one-dimensional: Frances as a meek victim and Zoraïde as a cold-hearted villain, their actions do seem to imply a richer inner-life than Crimsworth can see and it is frustrating that Brontë, with the strength of her female characters in all her other novels, does not give herself the space to explore these two in more depth throughout the narrative.
It is not often that I write fully negative reviews, and I should be clear that a large part of my disappointment in The Professor is because of how much I love Charlotte Brontë’s other novels and writing. Having said that, in my opinion there are only small glimpses here and there of the aspects of Brontë’s writing that will shine in her later novels. I had a feeling that I would not enjoy this novel simply based on what I had heard from others, but I was not expecting to dislike it as much as I did. It took me longer than expected to read it as I was simply struggling to feel any desire to finish the narrative. This would not be a novel that I recommend, although it has been helpful in gaining a fuller picture of Brontë’s development as a writer.
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