Publisher Description
This story of William Crimsworth, who goes to Brussels to seek his fortune and falls in love with Frances, a schoolteacher and lace-maker while he is himself pursued by Madamoiselle Reuter, is a subtle portrayal of a self-made man and his relationships in a society that worships property and propriety.
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“We read Charlotte Brontë not for exquisite observation of character, not for comedy, not for a philosophic view of life, but for her poetry. Probably that is so with all writers who have, as she has, an overpowering personality, so that…they only have to open the door to make themselves felt. There is in them some untamed ferocity perpetually at war with the accepted order of things.”
—
Virginia Woolf
About Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) grew up in the isolated parsonage at Haworth, Yorkshire, where her father was curate. She and her sisters Emily and Anne thrived in fantasy worlds that drew on their voracious reading of Shakespeare, romantic, and gothic fiction. Charlotte was employed as a teacher and a governess before she began writing with her sisters. The Professor, her first novel, was rejected for publication until 1857, although Jane Eyre, published in 1847 under a pseudonym, achieved great success.
About James Wilby
James Wilby starred as Senator James Dorr in the Masterpiece Theatre production of Island at War. In film, he can be seen in Gosford Park, Howards End, and De-Lovely.