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Audiobook edition · 10 h 0 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does independence cost when you have no money, no patron, and a brother determined to keep you small?
In Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor, William Crimsworth refuses help from wealthy relatives and seeks work with his older brother, Edward. But the Yorkshire mill offers humiliation rather than independence. Proud and watchful, William must find a way to earn his living without surrendering his self-respect.
A fresh start takes him to Brussels, where he teaches English in two neighbouring schools. Monsieur Pelet is smooth and calculating; Zoraïde Reuter knows how to charm. Among William’s pupils is Frances Evans Henri, a poor lace mender eager to learn. Work, ambition, and love test his ability to see beyond appearances.
What you’ll discover
- The price of pride Follow a young man whose refusal of charity makes earning his independence a difficult task.
- Power behind polite manners Enter schools where graceful words and careful flattery can conceal calculation and self-interest.
- A pupil hungry to learn Meet Frances, whose poverty does not diminish her pride or her serious desire for learning.
- Character before charm Watch William learn to judge people by their character rather than their looks or charm.
- Brontë in a quieter key Discover her first novel through a plain, watchful narrator who values work and self-respect.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy observant first-person narrators, stories of self-made effort, and Charlotte Brontë's early writing will love this novel. It also suits those drawn to Brussels schoolrooms and love stories built on respect.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Pride sends William into trade
- A rough friend opens another door
- Teaching gives William a fresh start
- Flattery gives way to disillusion
- Frances earns notice through her work
- Supporting Frances puts work at risk
- William does not see everything clearly
- Respect matters more than flattering attention
Who’s who
- William CrimsworthA penniless young Englishman, orphaned and proud, who wants to earn his own living and finds that trade does not suit him.
- Edward CrimsworthWilliam's older brother, a rich mill owner who rules his clerks and his horse with a whip and hates being matched.
- Hunsden Yorke HunsdenA blunt, ironic mill owner who mocks everyone, helps William in his own rough way, and wants a woman who matches his ideal.
- M. PeletThe gentle-looking French director of a Brussels boys' school, who flatters William and has plans for the neighboring headmistress.
- Zoraïde ReuterThe shrewd, calm headmistress of a girls' school, who studies William for a weak point and prizes cunning over feeling.
- Frances Evans HenriA Swiss and English lace mender who studies English with William and means to rise by her own work and see England.
- Victor VandenhutenA kind, slow-speaking Dutch merchant whose son William once pulled from a lake, and who stands ready to help.
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The Professor
by Charlotte Brontë · 1857
Penniless William Crimsworth leaves his tyrant brother's mill for a Brussels schoolroom full of surprises.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Charlotte Brontë's recently edged out Dostoevsky...I owe my career, and a lot else besides, to Jane Eyre and Villette.”
In short
What would you do if your rich uncles offered you a church and a cousin to marry, and you wanted neither? William Crimsworth says no to both and goes north to ask his harsh older brother for work.
The Professor at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 50 min4 h 40 min fast, 6 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 83,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1857by Charlotte Brontë
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
William refuses the church and chooses trade
William Crimsworth begins his story with a letter to an old Eton friend named Charles. His father, a rich manufacturer, went bankrupt and died. His mother, who married beneath her aristocratic family, died soon after William was born.
When school ends, his uncles Lord Tynedale and Mr. Seacombe offer him a church living and one of six cousins as a wife. He dislikes the girls and doubts he would make a good clergyman. He says no to both. Then Lord Tynedale sneers that William might follow his father into trade, and the scorn in that word decides the matter. William answers hotly that he will go into trade.
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Details
- First published
- 1857
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 30 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Brontë, Charlotte. The Professor. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-professor.
Brontë, C. (2026). The professor. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-professor (Original work published 1857)
Brontë, Charlotte. The Professor. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-professor.
@book{bronte2026professor,
author = {Brontë, Charlotte},
title = {The Professor},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-professor},
note = {First published 1857}
}
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What is The Professor by Charlotte Brontë about?
It tells how William Crimsworth, an orphaned young Englishman, leaves his unkind brother's mill for Brussels, where he teaches in two schools. There he meets a scheming headmistress and a quiet lace-mending pupil named Frances Henri.
Was The Professor written before Jane Eyre?
Yes. Brontë says in her preface that she wrote it before Jane Eyre and Shirley. Publishers turned it down, so it appeared later. It uses her experience of Brussels, where she once studied and taught.
Who is Hunsden in The Professor?
Hunsden is a mill owner from William's home county who speaks bluntly, mocks lords, and enjoys arguing. He helps William leave his brother's mill and sends him to Brussels, and he turns up again as a lasting, sharp-tongued friend.
The author
Charlotte Brontë
1816–1855 · English novelist and poet
Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) was an English novelist and poet. She was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, and lived mainly in Haworth. She published Jane Eyre in 1847, Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853 under the name Currer Bell. Her novel The Professor appeared after her death, in 1857.
“Those who are low need fear no fall.”
More by Charlotte Brontë
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