The Professor

When the orphaned William refuses his uncles' proposal to become a
clergyman and angrily leaves his job in the counting-house of his
brother's mill, he decides to accept a position as an English teacher at
a boys' school in Brussels. When his career leads him to take up an
additional post at a girls' school nearby, William becomes emotionally
involved with the manipulative headmistress of the establishment,
Mademoiselle Reuter. The tensions rise until one of his pupils and
fellow teachers - for whom he has tender feelings - is suddenly
dismissed and is nowhere to be found. Based on Charlotte Bronte's own
autobiographical experience in Brussels as a teacher and only published
posthumously, The Professor was Charlotte Bronte's first attempt at
full-length fiction and bears all the hallmarks of her future work, with
touches of genius and an unparalleled sharpness of style.