The Professor
by Charlotte Brontë 1816–1855
The book, and the century it came out of.
An orphaned Englishman refuses his uncles’ patronage, takes a clerkship in Brussels, and teaches at a girls’ school run by a directress who has decided to marry him. Charlotte Brontë wrote it first and could not place it — publisher after publisher declined; it appeared only after her death, by which time she had used the same Brussels material to far greater effect elsewhere. Read it for the plain, cold voice she never used again. Illustrated with 58 full-page plates — paintings by Cochereau and Spitzweg among them.
This little book was written before either “Jane Eyre” or “Shirley,” and yet no indulgence can be solicited for it on the plea of a first attempt.
The Professor, by Charlotte Brontë, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Literary Classics
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 272 pages
- Reading time
- about 5 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486536342
58 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
Written first, published last — 1857
It was Charlotte Brontë’s first completed novel and no publisher would take it; she wrote <em>Jane Eyre</em> instead. This one appeared two years after her death, when her name would sell anything.
It comes out of the two years she spent in Brussels at a boarding school, in love with the married man who ran it — the same material she used again, more savagely, in <em>Villette</em>. Here she used it plainly and nobody wanted it.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
The Professor, first published 1857, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486536342, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of The Professor?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Charlotte Brontë's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 272 pages, which is roughly about 5 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
