The deliberately unromantic hero of The Professor is William Crimsworth - the only time the author used a male narrator - in a story based on her own experiences as a language student in Belgium. The theme was reworked with a woman as the leading character in Villette (1853) and it has always been an interesting point of comparison for keen readers of Charlotte Bronte's work. '... as good as I can write. It contains more pith, more substance, more reality, in my judgment, than much of Jane Eyre.'

Author Biography

Charlotte Bronte was the eldest of the three Bronte sisters who lived with their father and brother at the parsonage in Haworth in Yorkshire. Between them, they produced some of English literature's greatest novels. In addition to Jane Eyre, Charlotte also wrote Shirley and Villette. She died in 1855 after suffering complications during pregnancy.