Professor Romeo

by Anne Bernays

A classic academic satire set at Harvard University and a New York Times Notable Book of 1988, Professor Romeo is the story of Jacob Barker, professor of psychology, best-selling author, leading scholarly researcher, and indefatigable seducer of women. Anne Bernays chronicles the conquests of this Don Juan from his undergraduate affairs to the terrifying moment, when, as a middle aged rogue, he is called to accounts by the newly-appointed Dean of Women's Affairs.

Genres: Fiction

287 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Anne Bernays is a novelist and writing teacher. Her articles and essays have appeared in numerous major publications, among them The Nation, The New York Times, Town & Country, and Sports Illustrated. She lives in Cambridge and Truro, Massachusetts with her husband, Justin Kaplan.

Reviews

[Linda]

This book was very odd. I thought a book written by a woman in 1989 about a philandering college professor sleeping with female students would be more serious about the problem. Unlike, say, Richard Stern's Other Men's Daughters, which takes the situation and glorifies it. So this one is, I think, supposed to come off mildly as a comedy of manners in which the reader is meant to discern that the author is making fun of the short-sightedness of the main character, that is, the college professor. Everything is from his point-of-view. As it is, though, it doesn't really come through that way. It reads a lot like Other Men's Daughters, as far as how a man like that sees young women. Ultimately I was perplexed. Is what Bernays doing so subtle it's actually kind of brilliant? Or is she still operating with the masters' tools? I guess the judging position the narrative puts the reader in is kind of interesting, but something is not feeling right about how this book functions. The more I think about it, the less I know.

[Sonia Reppe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although published in 1989, and spanning 1963-1985, the content and issues are so relevant to the current state of sexual harassment allegations in the media. Harvard professor Jake Barker (the titular Professor Romeo) is being ruined by a #metoo situation: three former students are bringing sexual harassment allegations against him.

Because the POV was through Barker, I felt that he was a sympathetic character. Some people might disagree, because it's wrong for a professor to sleep with a student, and Barker acknowledges to himself this wrong and the unfortunate power of his lust. The choice that the author made was interesting: Barker slept with several students over the years, all willing, but the three that brought sexual harassment allegations against him years later (claiming that they thought their grade would be affected if they said no), were the disastrous experiences, the ones that Barker never called again.

These sex disaster scenes made for entertaining, humorous reading. But these were the ones that came back to ruin him. The woman scorned!

Ironically, Professor Barker is researching gender differences; one of his projects involves observing babies. Adding to that frame is a political climate of emerging female chauvinism (also timely), which is unfortunate for Barker later in his career.

I am surprised that book this doesn't have a higher rating on Goodreads. It's well-written novel about gender equality, sexual politics, and American Academia.

[China · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, Anne Bernays - I had such high hopes for you, and you presented me with this pile of trash, a predictable story with a predictable ending, all the while told from a voice that is supposed to follow a male protagonist yet is obviously provided by a woman's pen. It's not even interesting trash, either - this story of a professor's affairs over two decades of teaching, balancing lust over students with adult relationships, doesn't find me sympathizing with the protagonist or siding either way on the feminist-bashing that seems to lightly show itself here. Every character in this book is dull, based on a stereotype, and reeks of 1989.