(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)<br><br>These two classic novels, together with Bront&#235;'s well-known <i>Jane Eyre</i> and <i>Villette</i>, comprise a magnificent oeuvre, each one a singular achievement of characterization, human understanding, and narrative elegance and drama. <br><br><i>Shirley </i>is the story of a complicated friendship between two very different women: shy and socially constrained Caroline, the poor niece of a tyrannical clergyman; and the independent heiress Shirley, who has both the resources and the spirit to defy convention. The romantic entanglements of the two women with a local mill owner and his penniless brother pit the claims of passion against the boundaries of class and society. <br> <br><i>The Professor</i>&#8212;the first novel Bront&#235; completed, the last to be published&#8212;is both a disturbing love story and the coming-of-age tale of a self-made man. At its center is William Crimsworth, who has come to Brussels to work as an instructor in a school for girls. When he becomes entangled with Zor&#228;ide Reuter, a charismatic and brilliantly intellectual woman, the fervor of her feelings threatens both her own engagement and William's chance of finding true love.