Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) was an English novelist and poet who didn't live long enough to give the world all she could have, but she is best known as being one of the three critically acclaimed Bronte sisters, along with Anne and Emily, and all three of them wrote novels that are now considered classics of English and Western literature.

Of all the sisters' works, it is Emily's Wuthering Heights that has aged the best over time, continuing to retain its place as a classic of English literature. Anne's Agnes Grey was written as a Volume III to be packaged with Wuthering Heights and was finished within a year of Emily's novel. But it was Charlotte who survived the other two's illnesses in 1848-1849, giving her nearly another decade to produce more Jane Eyre and other novels, including The Professor and Emma. 

The Professor was the first novel written by Charlotte, and at the time it was rejected by many publishing houses, until it was finally published posthumously in 1857.The book is the story of a young man, William Crimsworth, and is a first-person narrative from his perspective. It describes his maturation, his loves and his eventual career as a professor at an all-girl's school.