The Professor Book

Mr. William Crimsworth newly graduated from exclusive Eton College, writes a letter to his one and only friend Charles, about his adventures since both left the school ( Charles never receives it, having departed for parts unknown). William late mother was an aristocrat but having married "beneath her," had been shunned by her family, something common in the unforgiving mid 19th century England. His father was a wealthy businessman until going bankrupt also deceased. What to do? William has an older brother by ten years Edward, a cold tyrant but rich mill owner he has little seen. Rejecting an offer from Lord Tynedale and the Honorable John Seacombe his maternal uncles, to become a man of the cloth, a rector in a church controlled by Seacombe and even marry one of his six unappealing daughters , young Crimsworth does not like his cousins, they in turn cut loose the ungrateful boy no longer supporting him. So the reluctant distant Edward, gives him a job as a low paying clerk in northern England, a dirty, polluted, ugly town when you can see it through the thick noxious fumes. Translating foreign language business letters, the jealous brother hates the better educated William shows no love, the rich man has little contact with the poor one, kept from Crimsworth Hall...


So proper etiquette must be maintained between the two ... the letter ends but life continues, disaster William is dismissed by his enraged brother when an acquaintance, Mr. Hunsden gossips about the ill treatment receives by the younger Mr. Crimsworth. To make amends Mr. Hunsden ( his nefarious plan successful) tells William to travel to Brussels, Belgium, seek better employment and gives him a letter of introduction. Since no other prospects are on the horizon and always wanting to see the continent he complies, receives an offer as an English teacher from the seemingly affable Monsieur Francois Pelet, a Frenchman who owns a boys school in the Belgium capital, does well and later teaches a class next door at the girls school of charming, older Mademoiselle Zoraider Reuter, a native of the country. But conflict appears a love triangle, William and M.Pelet are enamored of the fetching Mademoiselle Reuter though not beautiful, neither is the professor she does sparkle during their romantic walks in her institutes gardens, and enjoys being wanted by the suitors, playing a fun game of causing the men pain...Still the emotions are complicated, more when another enters the scene, Frances Henri a Swiss seamstress living with her old aunt, employed by Mademoiselle Reuter, becomes a pupil in William's English class the not well educated girl, somehow is brilliant the best of his students impossible... the mystery is solved, she had a English mother. The professor starts to like the young shy lady and Zoraider doesn't like this, she is not happy at all. And the school mistress can do much harm... The perplexing Mr. Hunsden arrives in town, curious to discover what his protege has been up to, and the stories revealed...they have not been dull. The inexperienced in life William, learns ( even teachers must too) the mendacity of people ...The great writer Charlotte Bronte's first novel but not published ( you can see why) until she was no more, interesting view of her beginning, the talent is there... in some pages but it just needed more polish and experience to blossom .