The Professor(教授)

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The Professor

Charlotte Brontë

ELECBOOK CLASSICS

This file is free for individual use only. It must not be altered or resold.

Organisations wishing to use it must first obtain a licence.

Low cost licenses are available. Contact us through our web site

The Electric Book Company Ltd

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www.elecbook.com

ELECBOOK CLASSICS

ebc0026. Charlotte Brontë: The Professor

The Professor

Charlotte Brontë

The Professor
Charlotte Brontë                                                                                                      ElecBook Classics
4
CONTENTS
(Click on number to go to Chapter)
PREFACE ................................................................................................6
Chapter I. Introductory..........................................................................8
Chapter II...............................................................................................19
Chapter III .............................................................................................27
Chapter IV..............................................................................................36
Chapter V...............................................................................................47
Chapter VI..............................................................................................55
Chapter VII............................................................................................65
Chapter VIII...........................................................................................81
Chapter IX .............................................................................................90
Chapter X...............................................................................................96
Chapter XI ...........................................................................................107
Chapter XII..........................................................................................114
Chapter XIII ........................................................................................132
Chapter XIV.........................................................................................140
Chapter XV..........................................................................................148
Chapter XVI.........................................................................................155
Chapter XVII.......................................................................................164
Chapter XVIII......................................................................................174
Chapter XIX ........................................................................................189

The Professor

Charlotte Brontë ElecBook Classics

Chapter XX..........................................................................................214

Chapter XXI ........................................................................................225

Chapter XXII.......................................................................................235

Chapter XXIII .....................................................................................253

Chapter XXIV .....................................................................................273

Chapter XXV.......................................................................................290

The Professor

Charlotte Brontë ElecBook Classics

PREFACE

his 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. A first attempt it certainly was

not, as the pen which wrote it had been previously worn a good

deal in a practice of some years. I had not indeed published

anything before I commenced “The Professor,” but in many a

crude effort, destroyed almost as soon as composed, I had got over

any such taste as I might once have had for ornamented and

redundant composition, and come to prefer what was plain and

homely. At the same time I had adopted a set of principles on the

subject of incident, &c., such as would be generally approved in

theory, but the result of which, when carried out into practice,

often procures for an author more surprise than pleasure.

I said to myself that my hero should work his way through life

as I had seen real living men work theirs—that he should never

get a shilling he had not earned—that no sudden turns should lift

him in a moment to wealth and high station; that whatever small

competency he might gain, should be won by the sweat of his

brow; that, before he could find so much as an arbour to sit down

in, he should master at least half the ascent of “the Hill of

Difficulty;” that he should not even marry a beautiful girl or a lady

of rank. As Adam’s son he should share Adam’s doom, and drain

throughout life a mixed and moderate cup of enjoyment.

In the sequel, however, I find that publishers in general

scarcely approved of this system, but would have liked something

more imaginative and poetical—something more consonant with a

highly wrought fancy, with a taste for pathos, with sentiments

The Professor

Charlotte Brontë ElecBook Classics

more tender, elevated, unworldly. Indeed, until an author has

tried to dispose of a manuscript of this kind, he can never know

what stores of romance and sensibility lie hidden in breasts he

would not have suspected of casketing such treasures. Men in

business are usually thought to prefer the real; on trial the idea

will be often found fallacious: a passionate preference for the wild,

wonderful, and thrilling—the strange, startling, and harrowing—

agitates divers souls that show a calm and sober surface.

Such being the case, the reader will comprehend that to have

reached him in the form of a printed book, this brief narrative

must have gone through some struggles—which indeed it has. And

after all, its worst struggle and strongest ordeal is yet to come but

it takes comfort—subdues fear—leans on the staff of a moderate

expectation—and mutters under its breath, while lifting its eye to

that of the public.

“He that is low need fear no fall.”

CURRER BELL.

The foregoing preface was written by my wife with a view to the

publication of “The Professor,” shortly after the appearance of

“Shirley.” Being dissuaded from her intention, the authoress

made some use of the materials in a subsequent work—“Villette,”

As, however, these two stories are in most respects unlike, it has

been represented to me that I ought not to withhold “The

Professor” from the public. I have therefore consented to its

publication.

A. B. NICHOLLS

Haworth Parsonage,

September 22nd, 1856.

The Professor

Charlotte Brontë ElecBook Classics

Chapter I

INTRODUCTORY

he other day, in looking over my papers, I found in my

desk the following copy of a letter, sent by me a year since

to an old school acquaintance:—

“DEAR CHARLES, “I think when you and I were at Eton

together, we were neither of us what could be called popular

characters: you were a sarcastic, observant, shrewd, cold-blooded

creature; my own portrait I will not attempt to draw, but I cannot

recollect that it was a strikingly attractive one—can you? What

animal magnetism drew thee and me together I know not;

certainly I never experienced anything of the Pylades and Orestes

sentiment for you, and I have reason to believe that you, on your

part, were equally free from all romantic regard to me. Still, out of

school hours we walked and talked continually together; when the

theme of conversation was our companions or our masters we

understood each other, and when I recurred to some sentiment of

affection, some vague love of an excellent or beautiful object,

whether in animate or inanimate nature, your sardonic coldness

did not move me. I felt myself superior to that check then as I do

now.

“It is a long time since I wrote to you, and a still longer time

since I saw you. Chancing to take up a newspaper of your county

the other day, my eye fell upon your name. I began to think of old

times; to run over the events which have transpired since we

The Professor

Charlotte Brontë ElecBook Classics

separated; and I sat down and commenced this letter. What you

have been doing I know not; but you shall hear, if you choose to

listen, how the world has wagged with me.

“First, after leaving Eton, I had an interview with my maternal

uncles, Lord Tynedale and the Hon. John Seacombe. They asked

me if I would enter the Church, and my uncle the nobleman

offered me the living of Seacombe, which is in his gift, if I would;

then my other uncle, Mr. Seacombe, hinted that when I became

rector of Seacombe-cum-Scaife, I might perhaps be allowed to

take, as mistress of my house and head of my parish, one of my six

cousins, his daughters, all of whom I greatly dislike.

“I declined both the Church and matrimony. A good clergyman

is a good thing, but I should have made a very bad one. As to the

wife—oh how like a night-mare is the thought of being bound for

life to one of my cousins! No doubt they are accomplished and

pretty; but not an accomplishment, not a charm of theirs, touches

a chord in my bosom. To think of passing the winter evenings by

the parlour fire-side of Seacombe Rectory alone with one of

them—for instance, the large and well-modelled statue, Sarah—

no; I should be a bad husband, under such circumstances, as well

as a bad clergyman.

“When I had declined my uncles’ offers they asked me ‘what I

intended to do?’ I said I should reflect. They reminded me that I

had no fortune, and no expectation of any, and, after a

considerable pause, Lord Tynedale demanded sternly, ‘Whether I

had thoughts of following my father’s steps and engaging in

trade?’ Now, I had had no thoughts of the sort. I do not think that

my turn of mind qualifies me to make a good tradesman; my taste,

my ambition does not lie in that way; but such was the scorn

The Professor

Charlotte Brontë ElecBook Classics

expressed in Lord Tynedale’s countenance as he pronounced the

word trade—such the contemptuous sarcasm of his tone—that I

was instantly decided. My father was but a name to me, yet that

name I did not like to hear mentioned with a sneer to my very

face. I answered then, with haste and warmth, ‘I cannot do better

than follow in my father’s steps; yes, I will be a tradesman.’ My

uncles did not remonstrate; they and I parted with mutual disgust.

In reviewing this transaction, I find that I was quite right to shake

off the burden of Tynedale’s patronage, but a fool to offer my

shoulders instantly for the reception of another burden—one

which might be more intolerable, and which certainly was yet

untried.

“I wrote instantly to Edward—you know Edward—my only

brother, ten years my senior, married to a rich mill-owner’s

daughter, and now possessor of the mill and business which was

my father’s before he failed. You are aware that my father-once

reckoned a Croesus of wealth—became bankrupt a short time

previous to his death, and that my mother lived in destitution for

some six months after him, unhelped by her aristocratical

brothers, whom she had mortally offended by her union with

Crimsworth, the —shire manufacturer. At the end of the six

months she brought me into the world, and then herself left it

without, I should think, much regret, as it contained little hope or

comfort for her.

“My father’s relations took charge of Edward, as they did of me,

till I was nine years old. At that period it chanced that the

representation of an important borough in our county fell vacant;

Mr. Seacombe stood for it. My uncle Crimsworth, an astute

mercantile man, took the opportunity of writing a fierce letter to

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TheProfessorCharlotteBrontëELECBOOKCLASSICSThisfileisfreeforindividualuseonly.Itmustnotbealteredorresold.Organisationswishingtouseitmustfirstobtainalicence.Lowcostlicensesareavailable.Contactusthroughourwebsite©TheElectricBookCo1998TheElectricBookCompanyLtd20CambridgeDrive,LondonSE128AJ,UKwww.elecbo...

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The Professor(教授)

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