The Professor

Charlotte Brontë finished this novel before any of her others, though readers only met it after her death, which makes it a useful starting point for anyone tracing how her voice developed. The story follows William Crimsworth, who leaves England for a teaching post in Belgium and builds a career, a circle of acquaintances and an emotional life far from home. Brontë keeps the focus on work, class and self-reliance rather than on dramatic incident, and the Penguin Classics text gives students a dependable version to quote from. A closer look: • Brontë's first completed novel, published after her lifetime • A Belgian setting drawn from the author's own years abroad as a teacher • Close attention to classrooms, wages and the slow business of making a living • Useful groundwork for readers heading towards Jane Eyre or Villette Suited to Brontë readers, literature undergraduates and collectors of nineteenth-century fiction, stocked at Boipoka.