Reading The Professor

Currently Reading
The Professor (Penguin Classics)
By Charlotte Brontë,

It is hard to speak ill against a classic. Unless of course, I am having to read something written after the 1900's that modern critics are calling classical! If that is the case, I feel like I should stand on top of a mountain and passionately yell out, "Are y'all reading the same junk that I am?" So I will inform you now that I don't like to say anything bad about true classical literature!

I say all this because I have to remember to find something that I liked about this novel. The Professor by Charlotte Bronte wasn't a favorite. It isn't a bad novel though. I just happen to like her Victorian Gothic novels which were written later in her writing career. You see, The Professor was actually her first novel, so she had not totally found her voice yet. However, she does deal with many social and political issues which is a signature of all authors of this time period. Saying all this, I did enjoy The Professor's life journey told from the male point of view. I also liked the love theme that she slowly entwined in a practical, self awareness way for her main character. I liked how Charlotte showed how love can slowly change someone and that a book doesn't have to be written with a couple falling in love at first sight!

My favorite quotes and passages typically are NOT the ones that make novels well known. I tend to always pull out different little nuggets! This time, I loved the sweetness of what The Professor says to his lady love just after she accepts his proposal. (She has had to support herself as a single woman)

"Life has been painful and laborious enough to you so far, Frances; you require complete rest; your twelve francs would not form a very important addition to our income, and what sacrifice of comfort to earn it! Relinquish your labors; you must be weary, and let me have the happiness of giving you rest."

Now I had this book 90 % read by the time I got home last week but it has taken me a week to read the last 20 pages. Responsibilities at home keep me busier than life on the road! Our goal around the house is to SPRING CLEANING and get some much needed projects done so hopefully I will be picking up Emily Bronte's book some time in the near future but it maybe our next trip. Regardless, Emily's' book will finish up my study of the Bronte sisters.