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The Professor
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The Professor (1857) (edit title/settings)

by Charlotte Brontë (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

The hero of Charlotte Bronte's first novel escapes a dreary clerkship in industrial Yorkshire by taking a job as a teacher in Belgium. There, however, his entanglement with the sensuous but manipulative Zoraide Reuter, complicates his affections for a penniless girl who is both teacher and... read more

Summary edit see section history

Orphaned in infancy, William Crimsworth had been meagerly supported by his mother’s brothers, Lord Tynedale and the Honorable John Seacombe. William’s brother Edward, ten years his senior, had taken over his deceased father’s mill and had prospered.

Upon his graduation from Eton, William... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Orphaned in infancy, William Crimsworth had been meagerly supported by his mother’s brothers, Lord Tynedale and the Honorable John Seacombe. William’s brother Edward, ten years his senior, had taken over his deceased father’s mill and had prospered.

Upon his graduation from Eton, William refused to accept further aid from the uncles who had treated his mother so coldly and asked his brother for employment. When he arrived at Bigben Close where the mill was located, Edward shunned his brother and treated him as coldly as if he were an inferior and kept him isolated from the company of respectable people. Hunsden didn't fail to notice the treatment Willaim was receiving on his brother's hands. He freed him by putting him in contact with a friend of his in Brussels.

William moved there and started his career as an English teacher in a boys' school, and became good friends with its Director M. Pelet. William marvels at the way Pelet treats him, for he was quite cruel with other people. Shortly after receiving this post, William was asked to take the post of an English teacher at the Girls' school, and accepted it. He failed altogether to find a 'favourite' student among the girls in the school.

Mdlle. Reuter the Directress of the Girls' school, starts flirtting with William, and after a lot of effort she gained his affection and he thought himself in love.

One night William spied Mdlle. Reuter and M. Pelet together in the garden, and unaware of his presence in the window above, they had their gaurd down and were speaking affectionately with each other about their already arranged marriage, as well as insulting William.

Willaim turned cold towards the both of them, and made a vague hint to Mdlle. Reuter that he'd heard her talk with M. Pelet. The same day Mdlle. Reuter informed him that one of her teachers wishes to attend his English classes. And lo! William finds his favourite student in Mdlle.Frances Henry. He finds her hardworking and quite creative, and his interest in her increases gradually. Eventually he learns that she had an English mother and a Swiss father, and after her mother's death she lost most of her English from the lack of practising it. He learnt also that she was now living with her Aunt, her last relative living and that her greatest dream was to travel back to England.

One day, Frances was absent from the class, and William decided not to ask about her in order not to recieve unwanted attention from Mdlle. Reuter who was watching his relationship with his student and her teacher with keen interest. But as Frances' absence stretches to a longer time he
asked about the reason of her absence, and learnt that she'd left the school as a teacher and a student.

He inquired after her adress and Mdlle. Reuter denied him the chance of getting in contanct with Frances. Days later, Frances sends him a note informing him that she tried to conact him, but Mdlle. Reuter had also refused getting her to talk to him. The note was, unfortunately, without an address. Wlliam sought the yound lady for a month and failed to find her anywhere.

One day, William was taking a walk in the streets, after resigning his post at the Girls' school, and he comes across the Graveyard. He finds someone there, a woman crying beside a grave. The name on the haedstone carried the name of Mdlle. Henry's aunt, and the woman there turns out to be Mdlle. Henry herself!

Mdlle. Henry and William keep acquiantance from then, and she finds a new post at another school, as Willaim finds a post in a College in Brussels.

Frances and William get married eventually, and have a child named Victor. Frances opens her own school, and they get quite rich and move back to England, realising Frances' dream.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Madame Reuter: Add a description of this character.
  • Mr. Hunsden: The man who frees William from his brother's clutches. He sets him up with contacts in Brussels and the two become good friends. He is a unique but not unattractive man who has a similar taste in women as William, though he remains a lifelong bachelor.
  • M. Pelet: The French headmaster of a boy's school in Belgium who employs William and becomes a good friend. He later betrays him in order to ensure the affection of Zoraïde Reuter, who he later marries.
  • Frances Evans Henry: A pupil-teacher at the school in Belgium where William Crimsworth finds himself. After the two fall in love they get married and eventually move to England. She is a Swiss orphan of English extraction who was raised by her aunt
  • Mdlle
  • Edward Crimsworth: William's tyrannical elder brother. He is an accomplished tradesman, owner of a Yorkshire mill, married and more handsome than his brother. Jealous of his sibling's education, he treats William cruelly. He later loses his wealth and wife, only to become rich again by the end of the book
  • Monsieur
  • Madame Pelet
  • M. Vandenhuten
  • Eulalie
  • William Crimsworth: The protagonist, an orphaned child who is educated at Eton College after being taken in by his uncles. Rejecting their offering of a role as a clergyman - as he does not believe himself good enough for the role, he severs ties with them to walk in his late father's shoes and become a tradesman. His time in Yorkshire as a clerk for his cruel elder brother is short and he departs for Belgium, where he becomes a teacher/professor and meets his wife-to-be, who is a pupil of his. He is educated, religious and healthy, though not handsome.
  • Lucia
  • Yorke
  • Sylvie
  • Mr. Brown
  • Victor
  • Zoraide Reuter: The Catholic headmistress of the school in Belgium. William is initially attracted to Reuter, though she is destined to marry Monsieur Pelet.
  • Rosalie
Show all 18 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Human beings--human children especially--seldom deny themselvesthe pleasure of exercising a power which they are conscious ofpossessing, even though that power consist only in a capacity tomake others wretched.”

First Sentence edit see section history

THE other day, in looking over my papers, I found in my desk the following copy of a letter, sent by me a year since to an old school acquaintance:- 'DEAR CHARLES, - I think when you and I were at Eton together, we were neither of us what could be called popular characters: you were a sarcastic, observant, shrewd, cold-blooded creature; my own portrait I will not attempt to draw, but I cannot recollect that it was a strikingly attractive one - can you?

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: London : Smith, Elder & Co
Country: UK
Publication Date: 1857
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 330

Classification edit see section history

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