Description

By (author) Bronte Charlotte

Short /annotation
Alma Classics edition of The Professor is here presented with a comprehensive extra material section, including notes on the text, pictures and information on Bronte”s life and works

When the orphaned William refuses his uncles’ proposal to become a clergyman and angrily leaves his job in the counting-house of his brother’s mill, he decides to accept a position as an English teacher at a boys’ school in Brussels. When his career leads him to take up an additional post at a girls’ school nearby, William becomes emotionally involved with the manipulative headmistress of the establishment, Mademoiselle Reuter. The tensions rise until one of his pupils and fellow teachers – for whom he has tender feelings – is suddenly dismissed and is nowhere to be found.Based on Charlotte Brontë’s own autobiographical experience in Brussels as a teacher and only published posthumously, The Professor was Charlotte Brontë’s first attempt at full-length fiction and bears all the hallmarks of her future work, with touches of genius and an unparalleled sharpness of style.

Review quote
At the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Bronte … It is the red and fitful glow of the heart”s fire which illuminates her page. — Virginia Woolf

Biographical note
Charlotte Bronte (1816-55) was the eldest of the three celebrated Bronte sisters. Under the care of her father, Charlotte was educated and encouraged to take an interest in natural history. This freedom inspired Charlotte to argue strongly for the intellectual worth of women through her novels, and her success and the respect she won paved the way for future female authors.

Promotional headline
The Professor bears all the hallmarks of Charlotte Bronte”s future work, with touches of genius and an unparalleled sharpness of style.

Feature
Follows on the success of Jane Eyre, also in the Alma Classics series

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The next best-known work after Jane Eyre by one of English literature’s best-loved writers of all time

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One of four new editions of the Brontë sisters’ works to join the Alma Classics list in spring 2018

Feature
Includes a comprehensive extra material section, including notes on the text, pictures and information on Brontë’s life and works