The Professor

The Professor is Charlotte Brontë's novel narrated by William Crimsworth, a young Englishman who leaves an unhappy commercial position and becomes a teacher in Brussels. His work brings him into contact with the school proprietor Zoraïde Reuter and the teacher Frances Henri. Questions of trust and financial independence shape his relationships as closely as romantic feeling. Written before Brontë's other novels but published after her death, the book draws on the educational world she encountered abroad. Its male narrator and emphasis on employment distinguish its treatment of self-reliance from her later fiction.