The Professor

‘ … as good as I can write. It contains more pith, more substance, more reality, in my judgment, than much of Jane Eyre.’ Charlotte BronteThe Professor was Charlotte Bronte’s first novel, completed as early as 1 846.The central character is the reserved William Crimsworth, an English teacher at an all-skirls’ school in Brussels who falls in love with one of his pupils.Based on the author’s own experiences as a language student in Belgium, The Professor is the only novel in which Charlotte Bronte chose to use a male narrator. She would later rework the heart-felt story with a woman as the leading character, in Villette.