The Professor

Written in 1845-46 prior to her work on Jane Eyre but published posthumously in 1857, this novel draws from Charlotte Bronte's personal experiences growing up in Yorkshire and working abroad as a governess in Brussels In her introduction to The Professor, Bronte states, "I said to myself that my hero should work his way through life as I had seen real living men work theirs -- that he should never get a shilling he had not earned -- that no sudden turns should lift him in a moment to wealth and high station -- that whatever small competency he might gain should be won by the sweat of his brow...." Written in a style both brief and realistic -- and not in demand by publishers of her time -- Bronte relates the experiences of a young man as he changes his life from dreary ancillary work in the local mills to the position of a professor in Belgium. Not only does she depict with honesty the vagaries of a young man abroad, running into women and fellow teachers with different values in love and work than his own, she also illustrates concerns of her own times such as factory conditions in need of improvement for the sake of workers. The seeds of liberal ideas sown contemporaneously with her novel's writing here, just a few years later, would foment revolutions across the European continent. Charlotte Bronte was born at Thornton, Yorkshire, on January 17, 1816. She was the third child of Reverend Patrick Bronte, an Irishman by birth, and Maria Branwell Bronte, who was from a prosperous Cornish family. Following her mother's death in 1821, Charlotte and four sisters and one brother were raised by an aunt, Elizabeth Branwell.