The Professor by Charlotte Bronte

 

Title:  The Professor

Author:  Charlotte Bronte

Narrated by:  Frederick Davidson

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 24 minutes

Source: Checked out from the Kewaunee Public Library through Hoopla

What is your weirdest reading habit?  I used to love to read in trees when I was younger.

William Crimsworth is an orphan and becomes a clerk for a schoolmate’s brother.  He faces abuse at the job and decides to make a career change, moving to Brussels and becoming a professor.  Once a professor, he finds himself conflicted in love and caught in a bit of a love triangle.  Will he find love and a future in Brussels?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       The Professor was the May pick for the What the Dickens Book Club.  We have an interesting discussion on Facebook on it.

·       I hadn’t read this book since high school.  In high school, I did my senior research paper on Charlotte Bronte.  I read all her novels and watched all of the adaptations of her work that I could get my hands on.

·       The book is the person narrative of William Crimsworth.

·       Most of the book takes place in Brussels.  French is spoken and not translated at times in the book.

·       The main character is very anti-Catholic and seems to look down on the Belgian people that he is teaching.

·       It’s kind of creepy when he and another professor rate and talk about their female students looks. 

·       It’s crazy to think that in the 19^th century, one could beat your employee with a whip!

·       I would rank this as my fourth out of four of Charlotte Bronte’s novels.  It’s worth reading, but it lacks the polish and passion of Jane Eyre.  This was the first novel that Charlotte Bronte wrote in 1845-46 before Jane Eyre.    Bronte used a lot of her own experiences at a school in Brussels for inspiration for this novel.

·       The audiobook was a bit dry and boring to listen to, and strangely about halfway through it, I suddenly couldn’t listen to it anymore.  Hoopla said it was no longer available through my library.  I have never had this happen before, have you?  I had to purchase it on Audible to finish it up.

Overall, The Professor by Charlotte Bronte is worth reading, but it is a bit dry and lacks the passion of Jane Eyre.