The Professor by Charlotte Brontë

Another classic from a Brontë sister… The Professor is supposed to be semi-autobiographical, and draw from Charlotte's experiences as a student or teacher (I forget which) at a boarding school abroad. It sounded familiar as I read, and I wondered why at first, then found out that she later rewrote the story from a female perspective, adding several plot changes, in Villette, which I have also read.

I actually liked this a bit more than Villette. Although the voice of the narrator was a bit overdramatic and there were several dialogue choices that sounded a bit immature, it was refreshing to hear Charlotte Brontë write from a male perspective. And in some ways, some of the long, drawn-out nature of Villette was avoided in this first, shorter tale.

In The Professor a young man finds himself out of options for money, so he turns to trade. He works for a bit for his tyrannical older brother, but soon is out the door again, looking for something else to do. He takes a frenemy's advice to go to the Continent to find a job, and is soon hired as an English professeur in Belgium. He has to learn how to navigate the youth-driven, political world of boarding school… Not an easy feat.

As I said before, I recognize this book's flaws. It's certainly not polished or mature-sounding. But it was quite interesting and I appreciated the pace of plot development a bit more than in some of Charlotte's other books. Worth reading if you want to know more.

~7/10~