Status
Checked out
Genres
Publication
Harper Perennial Modern Classics (1999), Edition: 1st Perennial Classics ed, Paperback, 160 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML:"A perfect book"??and basis for the Maggie Smith film??about a teacher who makes a lasting impression on her female students in the years before World War II (Chicago Tribune). "Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life!" So asserts Jean Brodie, a magnetic, dubious, and sometimes comic teacher at the conservative Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh. Brodie selects six favorite pupils to mold??and she doesn't stop with just their intellectual lives. She has a plan for them all, including how they will live, whom they will love, and what sacrifices they will make to uphold her ideals. When the girls reach adulthood and begin to find their own destinies, Jean Brodie's indelible imprint is a gift to some, and a curse to others. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is Spark's masterpiece, a novel that offers one of twentieth-century English literature's most iconic and complex characters??a woman at once admirable and sinister, benevolent and conniving. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Muriel Spark including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's archive at the National Library of Sc… (more)
Media reviews
She writes with cool exactness, a firm voice (each tale has its own) and compassionate wit. In her new novel (originally published last fall, in shorter form, in The New Yorker), she deals with a violent woman whose romantic spirit is impatient with all but the Absolute.
User reviews
LibraryThing member brenzi
Miss Jean Brodie plies her unorthodox teaching methods at the sedate Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she is in her prime, ”the moment one is born to.” In the 1930s, between-the-wars, she was not that different from other spinsters, teaching elsewhere in Scotland.
But her set, her personally chosen crème de la crème consists of six girls who are completely devoted to their teacher. And yet one will betray her. Who? And how? Although the betrayal is revealed fairly early on in the narrative, Spark takes the reader back and forth in time, exposing events that lead up to the forced retirement of the instructor and the later resultant lives of the Brodie set. And why does the teacher reveal so much of her personal life to her young charges? It doesn’t take long for one of her students to figure out that Miss Brodie has taken one teacher as a lover, while actually being in love with another teacher. She is at once both a sympathetic romantic but also has a dark, calculating, self-centered side.
Spark’s prose is divine throughout:
”Mary MacGregor, although she lived her twenty-fourth year, never quite realized that Jean Brodie’s confidences were not shared with the rest of the staff and that her love story was given out only to her pupils. She had not thought much about Jean Brodie, certainly never disliked her, when, a year after the outbreak of the Second World War, she joined the Wrens, and was clumsy and incompetent, and was much blamed. On one occasion of real misery---when her first and last boyfriend, a corporal whom she had known for two weeks, deserted her by failing to show up at an appointed place and failing to come near her again---she thought back to see if she had ever really been happy in her life; it occurred to her then that the first years with Miss Brodie, sitting listening to all those stories and opinions which had nothing to do with the ordinary world, had been the happiest time of her life.” (Page 24)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is full of dark satire, complex characters that are not necessarily likable, and intricate plotting. Highly recommended.
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But she just didn’t fit in with the traditional concepts that prevailed at Marcia Blaine, and the head mistress is bound and determined to find a way to rid the school, and her chosen girls, otherwise known as the Brodie set, of Miss Brodie.But her set, her personally chosen crème de la crème consists of six girls who are completely devoted to their teacher. And yet one will betray her. Who? And how? Although the betrayal is revealed fairly early on in the narrative, Spark takes the reader back and forth in time, exposing events that lead up to the forced retirement of the instructor and the later resultant lives of the Brodie set. And why does the teacher reveal so much of her personal life to her young charges? It doesn’t take long for one of her students to figure out that Miss Brodie has taken one teacher as a lover, while actually being in love with another teacher. She is at once both a sympathetic romantic but also has a dark, calculating, self-centered side.
Spark’s prose is divine throughout:
”Mary MacGregor, although she lived her twenty-fourth year, never quite realized that Jean Brodie’s confidences were not shared with the rest of the staff and that her love story was given out only to her pupils. She had not thought much about Jean Brodie, certainly never disliked her, when, a year after the outbreak of the Second World War, she joined the Wrens, and was clumsy and incompetent, and was much blamed. On one occasion of real misery---when her first and last boyfriend, a corporal whom she had known for two weeks, deserted her by failing to show up at an appointed place and failing to come near her again---she thought back to see if she had ever really been happy in her life; it occurred to her then that the first years with Miss Brodie, sitting listening to all those stories and opinions which had nothing to do with the ordinary world, had been the happiest time of her life.” (Page 24)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is full of dark satire, complex characters that are not necessarily likable, and intricate plotting. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
Wonderful! A note-perfect, densely-woven little novel about an extraordinary, and extraordinarily strange, Scottish schoolmistress and the long-lasting effect she has on her favorite pupils. Candida McWilliams, who composed the introduction to my copy, writes, "So distinguished a technician is
As lighthearted as "Miss Brodie" seems, though, I admire Spark for presenting her readers with a character like Miss Jean Brodie. From a certain perspective, this constitutes an absolutely enormous risk. Miss Brodie, who rejects conventional morality, considers herself cultured and extraordinarily perceptive, and years for artistically-induced ecstasy, seems, at times, to be a cruel caricature of a certain kind of female reader. Like John Kennedy O'Toole, whose Ignatius J. Riley lampooned self-styled intellectuals, Spark might be seeking to challenge her readers with a cartoonishly distorted personification of their own worst intellectual habits. That she manages to pull this high-wire act off without once deviating from her perfectly pitched high-camp tone is nothing short of amazing. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is highly recommended.
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Muriel Spark that one may take practically any section of the book and it will provide metaphor for the entire book itself." She's absolutely right. For a book that lasts just one-hundred-and-thirty pages, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" lends itself to a remarkable number of alternate readings. It's a portrait of its marvelously eccentric title character and a commentary on the shortcomings of a "woman's education" and a critique of twentieth century totalitarianism and a meditation on art and its uses and a love-letter to shabby-genteel Edinburgh and a smutty, funny sex comedy all at once. However, I particularly enjoyed sensitive Spark's depiction of adolescence, a time when everyone can, and maybe should, be "known for something" and the world more or less revolves around gossip and social gamesmanship. As lighthearted as "Miss Brodie" seems, though, I admire Spark for presenting her readers with a character like Miss Jean Brodie. From a certain perspective, this constitutes an absolutely enormous risk. Miss Brodie, who rejects conventional morality, considers herself cultured and extraordinarily perceptive, and years for artistically-induced ecstasy, seems, at times, to be a cruel caricature of a certain kind of female reader. Like John Kennedy O'Toole, whose Ignatius J. Riley lampooned self-styled intellectuals, Spark might be seeking to challenge her readers with a cartoonishly distorted personification of their own worst intellectual habits. That she manages to pull this high-wire act off without once deviating from her perfectly pitched high-camp tone is nothing short of amazing. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member clfisha
Told in a mix of timelines and a whirlwind of delicious characters this is a funny, intelligent and exuberant story of the "Brodie Set". Miss Brodie is an unorthodox teacher at a girls school in the 1930s and she (as she likes to remind people) is in her Prime. Her favourite pupils are groomed to
'This is Stanley Baldwin who got in as Prime Minister and got out again ere long,' said Miss Brodie. 'Miss Mackay retains him on the wall because she believes in the slogan "Safety First". But Safety does not come first. Goodness, Trust and Beauty come first. Follow me.'
It's a damn hard book to review, short and chaotic it's full of pitch perfect, intelligent and humorous writing. I cannot really find anything to pick out. From the intriguing and enticing way Spark introduces the Brodie set by narrowing them to a simple skill (Rose is famous for her sex appeal, Monica for her maths and her anger) to extra tension of the ominous betrayal and the bitter-sweet edge of future reality. It is a book of many layers and complexity but it is never confusing or tiresome and oddly, although very much of it's time it doesn't feel dated.
"We shall discuss tomorrow night the persons who oppose me' said Miss Brodie. 'But rest assured they shall not succeed.'
'No,' said everyone. 'No, Of course they won't.'
'Not while I am in my prime. It is important to recognize the years of one's prime, always remember that,..'
Highly recommended. It's my second attempt at Muriel Spark, I didn’t quite gel with the character in [Drivers Seat] but I loved this.
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be the crème de la crème: the Brodie set.'This is Stanley Baldwin who got in as Prime Minister and got out again ere long,' said Miss Brodie. 'Miss Mackay retains him on the wall because she believes in the slogan "Safety First". But Safety does not come first. Goodness, Trust and Beauty come first. Follow me.'
It's a damn hard book to review, short and chaotic it's full of pitch perfect, intelligent and humorous writing. I cannot really find anything to pick out. From the intriguing and enticing way Spark introduces the Brodie set by narrowing them to a simple skill (Rose is famous for her sex appeal, Monica for her maths and her anger) to extra tension of the ominous betrayal and the bitter-sweet edge of future reality. It is a book of many layers and complexity but it is never confusing or tiresome and oddly, although very much of it's time it doesn't feel dated.
"We shall discuss tomorrow night the persons who oppose me' said Miss Brodie. 'But rest assured they shall not succeed.'
'No,' said everyone. 'No, Of course they won't.'
'Not while I am in my prime. It is important to recognize the years of one's prime, always remember that,..'
Highly recommended. It's my second attempt at Muriel Spark, I didn’t quite gel with the character in [Drivers Seat] but I loved this.
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LibraryThing member ctpress
A story about an eccentric and progressive teacher in an Edinburgh girls’ school that have her special favorite pupils who become known as "the Brodie set” - Miss Brodie is an interesting character - and the premise of the story also interesting. How far can you go, should you go in molding
Miss Brodie’s unusual way of diverting from the curriculum puts her in conflict with the schools principal - and we know from the start that someone in the “Brodie set” will betray Brodie.
I had a hard time following this novel in the first part. Specially separating the different girls in the “Brodie-set”.
The novel starts very abrubtly and shifts back and forth in time. But by the end the novel focus on only two of the girls and you will know who betrays Brodie. Of course by that time her relationship with her favorite girls have become a dangerous manipulation game of sex and love affairs.
A very literate modern novel written in a very confusing way with quick and short flashbacks all the time. Some will love it - I didn’t.
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students thinking? An exploration of the peculiar relationship between a strong willed mentor and young minds who still needs molding.Miss Brodie’s unusual way of diverting from the curriculum puts her in conflict with the schools principal - and we know from the start that someone in the “Brodie set” will betray Brodie.
I had a hard time following this novel in the first part. Specially separating the different girls in the “Brodie-set”.
The novel starts very abrubtly and shifts back and forth in time. But by the end the novel focus on only two of the girls and you will know who betrays Brodie. Of course by that time her relationship with her favorite girls have become a dangerous manipulation game of sex and love affairs.
A very literate modern novel written in a very confusing way with quick and short flashbacks all the time. Some will love it - I didn’t.
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LibraryThing member craso
Miss Jean Brodie teaches at a small Scottish day school for girls. She uses unusual teaching methods such as telling her impressionable prepubescent girls romantic stories and taking them on excursions to art galleries and plays. Her favorite pupils are referred to as the "Brodie set" a group of
When Miss Brodie continually reminds her girls that she is "in her prime" the author is alluding to her being a woman past marrying age that is trying to hold on to her influence and sex appeal. She is an egotistical spinster who uses her "Brodie set" as confidants and co- conspirators. They keep her secrets and help her to keep her job. She influences her students for the better or worse. She instills poise and confidence in some of her girls and they look back to there time with her with fondness. She also lets some of the girls down like the harassed Mary Macgregor and the misguided Joyce Emily.
Miss Brodie is an idealistic admirer of the fascists. She feels persecuted by the head mistress of the school and she in turn persecutes one of her students, Mary Macgregor, by constantly blaming her for anything that goes wrong. Poor Mary is so dim that she takes the abuse. The other pupils copy the behavior and tease Mary to please their teacher.
This is a very sexual novel. When we first meet the young pupils they are 10 or 11 years old and are both curious and naive about sex. The girls have conversations and write stories elaborating on the tales Miss Brodie tells of her past lover who died in World War I. Later Miss Brodie manipulates the girls into covering for her new affair and even encourages one pupil to start an affair with one of the teachers.
This short novel is packed with meaning. I am impressed by Muriel Spark's economy of words, yet so much is said. By using repetition we learn so much about the characters personality and motives. This is a very well written novel and I look forward to reading more of her works in the future.
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girls especially selected because of their parents love of Miss Brodie's methods or just indifference. She constantly reminds the girls how lucky they are to know her while she is "in her prime" and manipulates them to her own ends.When Miss Brodie continually reminds her girls that she is "in her prime" the author is alluding to her being a woman past marrying age that is trying to hold on to her influence and sex appeal. She is an egotistical spinster who uses her "Brodie set" as confidants and co- conspirators. They keep her secrets and help her to keep her job. She influences her students for the better or worse. She instills poise and confidence in some of her girls and they look back to there time with her with fondness. She also lets some of the girls down like the harassed Mary Macgregor and the misguided Joyce Emily.
Miss Brodie is an idealistic admirer of the fascists. She feels persecuted by the head mistress of the school and she in turn persecutes one of her students, Mary Macgregor, by constantly blaming her for anything that goes wrong. Poor Mary is so dim that she takes the abuse. The other pupils copy the behavior and tease Mary to please their teacher.
This is a very sexual novel. When we first meet the young pupils they are 10 or 11 years old and are both curious and naive about sex. The girls have conversations and write stories elaborating on the tales Miss Brodie tells of her past lover who died in World War I. Later Miss Brodie manipulates the girls into covering for her new affair and even encourages one pupil to start an affair with one of the teachers.
This short novel is packed with meaning. I am impressed by Muriel Spark's economy of words, yet so much is said. By using repetition we learn so much about the characters personality and motives. This is a very well written novel and I look forward to reading more of her works in the future.
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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
I have grown to become quite the fan of Ms Spark's writing style. As far as the modern novel goes, and as far as poetic writing goes, this is what I love and no more (and no less).
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the perfect example, and perhaps the most celebrated of Spark's works. Brodie is a
Though this sounds rather dry, Spark's wit and inventiveness keeps the tale of love and growing-up interesting and cool, by leaping around from one time to another almost in mid-sentence. The strangest, most surprising aspect is that it all works so well - I've read other authors who try such complicated maneuvres and fall flat on their face.
It's almost a shame that this is only a couple of hours' entertainment, but at the same time I can't imagine how making it longer could make it better. The story grows with the children brought up by and around Miss Brodie, and as they outgrow her we begin to feel ready to move on ourselves.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the perfect example, and perhaps the most celebrated of Spark's works. Brodie is a
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girls school teacher in 1930s Edinburgh; she is unorthodox in a time when unorthodox practices have their place in modern schools rather than traditional, and instead of teaching her young students the curriculum she instead educates them about life.Though this sounds rather dry, Spark's wit and inventiveness keeps the tale of love and growing-up interesting and cool, by leaping around from one time to another almost in mid-sentence. The strangest, most surprising aspect is that it all works so well - I've read other authors who try such complicated maneuvres and fall flat on their face.
It's almost a shame that this is only a couple of hours' entertainment, but at the same time I can't imagine how making it longer could make it better. The story grows with the children brought up by and around Miss Brodie, and as they outgrow her we begin to feel ready to move on ourselves.
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LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
Miss Jean Brodie is an teacher at a girl's school who has a coterie of young girls that she teaches whom she has decided are la "crème de la crème". Always reminding them that she is in her prime, Miss Brodie spends her time trying to mold these girls into young Brodies, and has definite notions
There are a lot of interesting themes to explore in this book, and it has been well covered, so I won't go into any depth here; I thought one of the most interesting ideas was the recurring theme of Miss Brodie's fascination with fascism -- one could easily see after reading this book why she was so taken with Mussolini and the black shirts in the 1930s (at the time in which this book was set). I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions, but I will say that this was a fabulous book and you will continue to think about it long after you've finished it. Don't look to it for plot, so much, but rather look at the characters. The wonderful job the author does with the characters is what makes this book so incredibly good.
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about the meaning of education -- to the extent to which later, after they've left her, she begins to try to live her life somewhat vicariously through the lives of some of the "Brodie Set." It is this which leads one of them to Miss Brodie's "betrayal," and forced retirement.There are a lot of interesting themes to explore in this book, and it has been well covered, so I won't go into any depth here; I thought one of the most interesting ideas was the recurring theme of Miss Brodie's fascination with fascism -- one could easily see after reading this book why she was so taken with Mussolini and the black shirts in the 1930s (at the time in which this book was set). I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions, but I will say that this was a fabulous book and you will continue to think about it long after you've finished it. Don't look to it for plot, so much, but rather look at the characters. The wonderful job the author does with the characters is what makes this book so incredibly good.
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LibraryThing member kylekatz
Published in 1961. Jean Brodie is a melodramatic, manipulative lower school teacher at a private girls' school. She exerts an overwhelming influence over some of her students who worship her. She tells them about her life instead of bothering to teach them much. Eventually one of the students grows
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to resent her control over them and decides to help the head mistress get her fired. A very interesting look into the minds of the girls and how their almost larger-than-life teacher affects them for the rest of their lives. Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
Spark at her Sparkiest, taking what should by rights be a wistfully comic look back at her Edinburgh schooldays and turning it into a dark, difficult, morally complex - but hilariously funny - novel about sex and politics, betrayal and loyalty, romanticism and hard reality, eccentricity and
It's a great book to re-read - you can do it in a couple of hours, and you will find something quite different in it from last time you read it. This time I found myself focussing on the way the story is tied into the historical moment, Miss Brodie's status as one of the many young women of her generation left a spinster because their men had been killed in the great War, and the way that anomalous position provided a kind of licence for them to behave in ways that would otherwise have been outside the pattern for their generation and class. That generation of women were still around when I was a child, and they were all quite special in their different ways, although of course I didn't think of it that way at the time...
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conventionality, Catholicism and Calvinism, childhood's end, and the confusing historical moment of the 1930s. And all crammed into not much more than 100 pages of high-energy prose, with her classic mid-sentence ironic pauses destabilising the most harmless phrases and turning them into enough gunpowder to blow up this school.It's a great book to re-read - you can do it in a couple of hours, and you will find something quite different in it from last time you read it. This time I found myself focussing on the way the story is tied into the historical moment, Miss Brodie's status as one of the many young women of her generation left a spinster because their men had been killed in the great War, and the way that anomalous position provided a kind of licence for them to behave in ways that would otherwise have been outside the pattern for their generation and class. That generation of women were still around when I was a child, and they were all quite special in their different ways, although of course I didn't think of it that way at the time...
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LibraryThing member Notesmusings
The setting is a conservative private girls' school in Scotland during the 1930s. In part this is a story of growing up, as the tale takes us through the teen years of six girls - Sandy, Rose, Jenny, Monica, Eunice, and Mary. But it revolves mainly around a primary teacher, Miss Jean Brodie, who
Romantic and statuesque, Miss Brodie has intensity, colour and great self-assurance. Her goddess-like quality captivates her group of girls, and also the school's two male teachers, Mr Lloyd who takes art, and Mr Lowther, music. But her self-assurance shades over into narcissism, hence her many references to being in her prime. She tries to mould the girls into extensions of her idealised self.
Miss Brodie's quirkiness generates tension with the headmistress and most of the other staff, particularly since Miss Brodie disdains the set curriculum in favour of her idiosyncratic takes on culture and history, and anedotes from her own life and love-life. The headmistress keeps trying to sack Miss Brodie, who exploits her support base in her struggle to hold her ground, and indeed selects for her following "those she can trust; or rather those whose parents she could trust". The head tries to split up "Brodie girls"; she pokes and probes for a sackable indiscretion of a sexual nature, or any nature.
All this is set against the cultural backdrop of Edinburgh, with its puritanical Calvinist heritage, its Catholic minority, its rich and poor; this backdrop touches the girls to varying degrees, and influences events. The wider background also appears in the Spanish civil war and the rise of fascism, which Miss Brodie fiercely and naively admires.
Early in the book we have this classroom scene:
"Mr Lloyd showed his pictures from an exhibition of Italian art in London. He had a pointer with which he indicated the design of the picture in accompaniment to his hoarse voice. He said nothing of what the pictures represented, only followed each line and curve as the artist had left it off - perhaps at the point of an elbow - and picked it up, perhaps at the edge of a cloud or the back of a chair. The ladies of the Primavera, in their netball-playing postures, provided Mr Lloyd with much pointer work. He kept on passing the pointer along the lines of their bottoms which showed through the drapery. The third time he did this a collective quiver of mirth ran along the front row of girls, then spread to the back rows."
The theme of transformation, transference, the surrendering one form for another, is introduced here - saved from heavy-handedness by the distracting reference to ladies' bottoms. It plays a large part in the story, alongside the themes of loyalty and betrayal, sex and puritanism, and the deep ambiguities of female bonding.
Spoiler alert
Sandy is only girl developed to any real extent in the story. She is the most imaginative and deep-thinking of them, and most sensitive to cultural influences. She sees a lot through her tiny eyes. Her fantasies are of adventure, but also of belonging, of being valued and loved. She tries to reconcile her awakening sex drive with the puritanical atmosphere around her. At the same time she wants to fit in. She is hungry for a female role models, and inevitably Miss Brodie is the key one.
She is strongly impacted when one of the other girls is confronted by a flasher. The girl is interviewed by Sergeant Anne Grey, a blonde-haired young policewoman, and the incident is much discussed among the Brodie set. After a time the girls think less and less about the flasher, and ever more about the policewoman: his gross sexuality is slowly transferred, in purified form, into her beauty and glamour. In Sandy's fantasies the policewoman also personifies puritanism, and stylishly strives to stamp out all sexual activity in the neighbourhood.
Sandy matures. She discovers, in Calvinism, a betraying God who springs 'a nasty surprise' on almost everyone upon their deaths.
Ultimately she gets caught up in the suppressed, vicarious sex life of Jean Brodie. Miss Brodie and the art teacher Mr Lloyd are in love, but she foreswears it since he is married. At first she transfers her energy to a discreet relationship, sexual but passionless, with Lloyd's rival, Mr Lowther. But as the Brodie girls bloom she fixes on the idea of a vicarious affair with Lloyd himself - by delivering one of her followers to him: Rose, renown for her sex appeal. Sandy is allocated the role of go-between and spy. As things turn out, Rose sits as a model for Lloyd, but that's all; it is Sandy who ends up having the affair with him.
All of Lloyd's portraits of the Brodie girls mysteriously look like Miss Brodie herself. Sandy challenges him about this with 'an insolent blackmailing stare'. He kisses her, tells her she is 'just about the ugliest little thing I have ever seen in my life', and the affair begins. By throwing down her challenge, Sandy has successfully embodied Miss Brodie for him, and become desireable.
A huge wave of bitterness is building in Sandy. She cannot really have Lloyd, who already has his fine wife, his large family and his obsession with Jean Brodie. Mr Lloyd is a Catholic, and if Sandy cannot have him she can have his religion; she ends up a sequestered nun, clutching at the bars through which she speaks to visitors.
Due to her bitterness, then, Sandy betrays herself, killing off any future hope of happiness. Then she betrays Jean Brodie. She tersely furnishes the headmistress with the weapon that can finally accomplish Miss Brodie's sacking: her facism. When informing Miss Brodie of her dismissal the head does not fail to mention that the fatal piece of intelligence came from one of her own 'set'. It is this that breaks her spirit; Miss Brodie ends her days a lost soul, fretting over which girl had done the deed.
When challenged about her betrayal, Sandy implies that it was the girls themselves who were betrayed, without further explanation. Miss Brodie's attempt to pimp Rose to Lloyd comes to mind, but perhaps, more deeply, Sandy feels that Miss Brodie has betrayed all the girls - and Sandy herself most crucially - simply by offering her true love to Lloyd, not them. And perhaps, in Sandy's heart, Mr Lloyd himself is ultimately a stand-in for the longed-for, goddess-like Miss Brodie, a primal figure indeed.
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cultivates these girls as her special favourites, welding them together and nurturing this collective over the following years. Romantic and statuesque, Miss Brodie has intensity, colour and great self-assurance. Her goddess-like quality captivates her group of girls, and also the school's two male teachers, Mr Lloyd who takes art, and Mr Lowther, music. But her self-assurance shades over into narcissism, hence her many references to being in her prime. She tries to mould the girls into extensions of her idealised self.
Miss Brodie's quirkiness generates tension with the headmistress and most of the other staff, particularly since Miss Brodie disdains the set curriculum in favour of her idiosyncratic takes on culture and history, and anedotes from her own life and love-life. The headmistress keeps trying to sack Miss Brodie, who exploits her support base in her struggle to hold her ground, and indeed selects for her following "those she can trust; or rather those whose parents she could trust". The head tries to split up "Brodie girls"; she pokes and probes for a sackable indiscretion of a sexual nature, or any nature.
All this is set against the cultural backdrop of Edinburgh, with its puritanical Calvinist heritage, its Catholic minority, its rich and poor; this backdrop touches the girls to varying degrees, and influences events. The wider background also appears in the Spanish civil war and the rise of fascism, which Miss Brodie fiercely and naively admires.
Early in the book we have this classroom scene:
"Mr Lloyd showed his pictures from an exhibition of Italian art in London. He had a pointer with which he indicated the design of the picture in accompaniment to his hoarse voice. He said nothing of what the pictures represented, only followed each line and curve as the artist had left it off - perhaps at the point of an elbow - and picked it up, perhaps at the edge of a cloud or the back of a chair. The ladies of the Primavera, in their netball-playing postures, provided Mr Lloyd with much pointer work. He kept on passing the pointer along the lines of their bottoms which showed through the drapery. The third time he did this a collective quiver of mirth ran along the front row of girls, then spread to the back rows."
The theme of transformation, transference, the surrendering one form for another, is introduced here - saved from heavy-handedness by the distracting reference to ladies' bottoms. It plays a large part in the story, alongside the themes of loyalty and betrayal, sex and puritanism, and the deep ambiguities of female bonding.
Spoiler alert
Sandy is only girl developed to any real extent in the story. She is the most imaginative and deep-thinking of them, and most sensitive to cultural influences. She sees a lot through her tiny eyes. Her fantasies are of adventure, but also of belonging, of being valued and loved. She tries to reconcile her awakening sex drive with the puritanical atmosphere around her. At the same time she wants to fit in. She is hungry for a female role models, and inevitably Miss Brodie is the key one.
She is strongly impacted when one of the other girls is confronted by a flasher. The girl is interviewed by Sergeant Anne Grey, a blonde-haired young policewoman, and the incident is much discussed among the Brodie set. After a time the girls think less and less about the flasher, and ever more about the policewoman: his gross sexuality is slowly transferred, in purified form, into her beauty and glamour. In Sandy's fantasies the policewoman also personifies puritanism, and stylishly strives to stamp out all sexual activity in the neighbourhood.
Sandy matures. She discovers, in Calvinism, a betraying God who springs 'a nasty surprise' on almost everyone upon their deaths.
Ultimately she gets caught up in the suppressed, vicarious sex life of Jean Brodie. Miss Brodie and the art teacher Mr Lloyd are in love, but she foreswears it since he is married. At first she transfers her energy to a discreet relationship, sexual but passionless, with Lloyd's rival, Mr Lowther. But as the Brodie girls bloom she fixes on the idea of a vicarious affair with Lloyd himself - by delivering one of her followers to him: Rose, renown for her sex appeal. Sandy is allocated the role of go-between and spy. As things turn out, Rose sits as a model for Lloyd, but that's all; it is Sandy who ends up having the affair with him.
All of Lloyd's portraits of the Brodie girls mysteriously look like Miss Brodie herself. Sandy challenges him about this with 'an insolent blackmailing stare'. He kisses her, tells her she is 'just about the ugliest little thing I have ever seen in my life', and the affair begins. By throwing down her challenge, Sandy has successfully embodied Miss Brodie for him, and become desireable.
A huge wave of bitterness is building in Sandy. She cannot really have Lloyd, who already has his fine wife, his large family and his obsession with Jean Brodie. Mr Lloyd is a Catholic, and if Sandy cannot have him she can have his religion; she ends up a sequestered nun, clutching at the bars through which she speaks to visitors.
Due to her bitterness, then, Sandy betrays herself, killing off any future hope of happiness. Then she betrays Jean Brodie. She tersely furnishes the headmistress with the weapon that can finally accomplish Miss Brodie's sacking: her facism. When informing Miss Brodie of her dismissal the head does not fail to mention that the fatal piece of intelligence came from one of her own 'set'. It is this that breaks her spirit; Miss Brodie ends her days a lost soul, fretting over which girl had done the deed.
When challenged about her betrayal, Sandy implies that it was the girls themselves who were betrayed, without further explanation. Miss Brodie's attempt to pimp Rose to Lloyd comes to mind, but perhaps, more deeply, Sandy feels that Miss Brodie has betrayed all the girls - and Sandy herself most crucially - simply by offering her true love to Lloyd, not them. And perhaps, in Sandy's heart, Mr Lloyd himself is ultimately a stand-in for the longed-for, goddess-like Miss Brodie, a primal figure indeed.
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LibraryThing member nigeyb
What a curious book. In terms of style, Muriel Spark's non-sequential narrative and extensive use of prolepsis, is unusual, and yet works well as Muriel Spark repeats the same themes and phrases. The book is also very simple to read and well written.
I thought it was refreshing to read about such a
Whilst initially appearing to have the welfare of her special students at heart, Miss Brodie's primary motivation appears to be to control and manipulate her pupils, and ultimately this is a disturbing portrait of a self-obsessed and psychologically disturbed teacher. This is the brilliance of the book, behind the rebellious and unorthodox teaching style which is cloaked in the benign appearance of taking special care of a small coterie of hand picked pupils, lies a monster. The revelations which emerge throughout the book would create a tabloid newspaper feeding frenzy if they came to light in the modern era. Not only does Miss Brodie appear to want to force her special pupils - The Brodie Set - to fulfil a destiny she has predetermined, she also has cast each girl into a tightly defined character. Muriel Spark constantly repeats these characteristics throughout the story, almost as if, like Miss Brodie, if she repeats them often enough they will become self-fulfilling. There are also other more amusing stylistic motifs that are frequently employed by Miss Brodie, for example, "you are the crème de la crème", and "I am in my prime". These help the reader to see through the Brodie character and hint at her self-delusion.
Whilst the book's primary focus is Miss Brodie we find out very little about her motivation. I think it's to Muriel Spark's credit that she leaves the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, and yet I would be very interested to know the extent to which Muriel Spark is sympathetic to her literary creation. Ultimately that is the most puzzling thing about the book - on one level it's just a quirky story about a slightly weird teacher, on another more profound level I think Miss Brodie is meant to mirror her fascist leader heroes. Like Hitler, Miss Brodie employs slogans, charisma and mind control to subjugate a group and attempt to force them to comply with her own twisted agenda.
This is unusual, weird and very good. It's also very short and simple to read - it's well worth a couple of hours of your time.
I thought it was refreshing to read about such a
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free thinking, idiosyncratic and rebellious woman working in a deeply traditional environment in an era where great store was still placed on conduct in the bourgeois world of a girls' school in the 1930s. Miss Brodie is unconventional and daring. Instead of following the curriculum of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, she treats her pupils as adults and discusses all manner of subjects which include her admiration for the emerging fascist leaders in Italy and Germany, her personal history, and her emotional life. Miss Brodie also invites her pupils to her home, and the home of other teachers, and takes them to the theatre and other outings. Whilst initially appearing to have the welfare of her special students at heart, Miss Brodie's primary motivation appears to be to control and manipulate her pupils, and ultimately this is a disturbing portrait of a self-obsessed and psychologically disturbed teacher. This is the brilliance of the book, behind the rebellious and unorthodox teaching style which is cloaked in the benign appearance of taking special care of a small coterie of hand picked pupils, lies a monster. The revelations which emerge throughout the book would create a tabloid newspaper feeding frenzy if they came to light in the modern era. Not only does Miss Brodie appear to want to force her special pupils - The Brodie Set - to fulfil a destiny she has predetermined, she also has cast each girl into a tightly defined character. Muriel Spark constantly repeats these characteristics throughout the story, almost as if, like Miss Brodie, if she repeats them often enough they will become self-fulfilling. There are also other more amusing stylistic motifs that are frequently employed by Miss Brodie, for example, "you are the crème de la crème", and "I am in my prime". These help the reader to see through the Brodie character and hint at her self-delusion.
Whilst the book's primary focus is Miss Brodie we find out very little about her motivation. I think it's to Muriel Spark's credit that she leaves the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, and yet I would be very interested to know the extent to which Muriel Spark is sympathetic to her literary creation. Ultimately that is the most puzzling thing about the book - on one level it's just a quirky story about a slightly weird teacher, on another more profound level I think Miss Brodie is meant to mirror her fascist leader heroes. Like Hitler, Miss Brodie employs slogans, charisma and mind control to subjugate a group and attempt to force them to comply with her own twisted agenda.
This is unusual, weird and very good. It's also very short and simple to read - it's well worth a couple of hours of your time.
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LibraryThing member IntermittentRain
For me it’s an odd little book, very well written, with characters that are all a little lost and confused (as are we all). Jean Brodie is an eccentric character, fully aware that she is out of place but believing that she needs to remain there for the good of her girls. She has a persecution
But I know little about Catholicism or Calvinism so the author’s comparisons and metaphors (pointed out to me after doing some internet searches) went over my head.
The use of time perspectives, flashing forward and back, is excellent. It serves a purpose, it’s never unclear, it doesn’t detract from the flow of the story, and it allows us to see the circumstances of the principle time frame from a multitude of time perspectives. Normally we can see the story from the perspective of different characters within the story but here we get to see the story from the perspective of those characters and from different time frames which magnifies the depth to which we can view the situations. For me this is one of the most excellent aspects of the book; I can’t think of an example where differing time perspectives are used so well and add so much value to the story.
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attitude, she feels she needs to be constantly vigilant against threats because she know that the headmistress would like to find a way to force her to leave. At the same time she is also fully unaware of her own faults, the threats she poses to her students, her own immorality (convincing a student to fight for Franco, manipulating a selected student to sleep with a married teacher in her place), her own shortcomings.But I know little about Catholicism or Calvinism so the author’s comparisons and metaphors (pointed out to me after doing some internet searches) went over my head.
The use of time perspectives, flashing forward and back, is excellent. It serves a purpose, it’s never unclear, it doesn’t detract from the flow of the story, and it allows us to see the circumstances of the principle time frame from a multitude of time perspectives. Normally we can see the story from the perspective of different characters within the story but here we get to see the story from the perspective of those characters and from different time frames which magnifies the depth to which we can view the situations. For me this is one of the most excellent aspects of the book; I can’t think of an example where differing time perspectives are used so well and add so much value to the story.
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LibraryThing member etxgardener
I read this book years ago, and now on re-reading it for my book group I’m struck not so much with how evil Jean Brodie is, but how ridiculous. She pontificates about love, art, and of course the marvels of Mussolini, in such a preposterous manner that one wonders why the adults don’t just
This was one of Spark’s earliest novels and her portrait of the Marcia Blaine School was based on her own experiences at James Gillespie’s High School in Scotland. This short novel packs a punch.
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laugh in her face. Perhaps that’s why she only associates with 10=to-12-year old young girls. And why do these men find her irresistible? She must be REALLY good in the sack.This was one of Spark’s earliest novels and her portrait of the Marcia Blaine School was based on her own experiences at James Gillespie’s High School in Scotland. This short novel packs a punch.
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LibraryThing member dazzyj
Intricately put together, but alienatingly mannered and lacking in narrative drive. One of the many books that make me wonder whether people who describe it as "humorous" are doing so in order to appear clever, rather than because while reading it they actually, well, laughed.
LibraryThing member Talbin
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark, is a wonderful little book about Miss Brodie, a teacher at a girl's school in 1930's Edinburgh, and her "set" - the group of five girls who Miss Brodie personally chose as her crème de la crème. Miss Brodie's teaching style is eccentric, with a
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is about the influence that a teacher can have on impressionable minds. All of the girls are shaped by Miss Brodie and bear that influence throughout their lives. Spark's tale is not so much plot-driven as character-driven. Throughout the book we learn about the tales the girls - especially Sandy - weave about their teacher and how those stories morph and change through the years. Personally, I love Spark's writing style - she is humorous and notes the tiniest details which help to define a person. She repeats certain phrases throughout the book, illuminating the way that individual details help make up our knowledge of a person.
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focus on literature, art, music and stories about her personal life. As the girls mature, they speculate about Miss Brodie's personal life and eventually become embroiled in it. And in the end, one of Miss Brodie's set betrays her.The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is about the influence that a teacher can have on impressionable minds. All of the girls are shaped by Miss Brodie and bear that influence throughout their lives. Spark's tale is not so much plot-driven as character-driven. Throughout the book we learn about the tales the girls - especially Sandy - weave about their teacher and how those stories morph and change through the years. Personally, I love Spark's writing style - she is humorous and notes the tiniest details which help to define a person. She repeats certain phrases throughout the book, illuminating the way that individual details help make up our knowledge of a person.
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LibraryThing member wendyrey
I hated the film and television adaptions, expected to loathe the book but found it interesting clever and enjoyable. Miss Brodie is an evil fascist little madam who damages the lives of the girls she tries to make her own.
Now what else has Muriel Spark written?
Now what else has Muriel Spark written?
LibraryThing member knittingfreak
At under 200 pages, it's really more of a novella, which I finished quite quickly. I enjoyed the book, but it's not what I expected. Since, I'm not exactly sure what I expected, that's not really fair to say.
The book is set in Edinburgh beginning in the years before WWII and continues back and
The story is told in flashbacks and recounts the years of one particular set of her girls known as the Brodie set. Miss Brodie likes to have control over her girls and be involved with their lives inside and outside of school. In fact, it's almost as if she plays God in the girls' lives -- pronouncing who will succeed and who will fail. The girls are loyal to Miss Brodie and support her when she faces attack from the headmistress. However, one of the girls ends up 'betraying' Miss Brodie. At least that's the way Miss Brodie sees it at the time.
The book is humorous at times, and I'm anxious to see how everyone else feels about this book when the discussion takes place on July 12. If you're interested, come on over and join in the discussion.
The book is set in Edinburgh beginning in the years before WWII and continues back and
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forth in time until 1939. Miss Jean Brodie is an eccentric school mistress at the traditional Marcia Blaine School for Girls. She doesn't associate with the other teachers in the junior school, and she is regarded with suspicion by most everyone at the school, including the head mistress. Miss Brodie ignores the structured curriculum taught by the other teachers and prefers to teach her girls about life, art, and culture mainly through stories about herself. Her ideas on everything from education to religion and sex clash with the majority of the people she comes into contact with.The story is told in flashbacks and recounts the years of one particular set of her girls known as the Brodie set. Miss Brodie likes to have control over her girls and be involved with their lives inside and outside of school. In fact, it's almost as if she plays God in the girls' lives -- pronouncing who will succeed and who will fail. The girls are loyal to Miss Brodie and support her when she faces attack from the headmistress. However, one of the girls ends up 'betraying' Miss Brodie. At least that's the way Miss Brodie sees it at the time.
The book is humorous at times, and I'm anxious to see how everyone else feels about this book when the discussion takes place on July 12. If you're interested, come on over and join in the discussion.
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LibraryThing member debnance
A book that was on many people’s recommended reads lists. Jean Brodie is a teacher at a girls’ school with a following. She’s sharp and well-read and clever, which goes against the grain of the educational institution, but she is also flawed and leads her students onto paths that do not
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always serve them or the world well. Why is it when we find someone we admire we seem to ignore the parts that don’t work for us? A cautionary tale, in a sense, for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member AMQS
"These girls formed the Brodie Set. ...At that time they had been immediately recognisable as Miss Brodie's pupils, being vastly informed on a lot of subjects irrelevant to the authorised curriculum, as the headmistress said, and useless to the school as a school. These girls were discovered to
This was a delightful audio, read by a narrator who is beginning to feel like an old friend. The story takes place in Edinburgh in the 1930s, primarily at the conservative Marsha Blaine School for Girls. Miss Brodie dedicates her prime to the education of her girls, of which she reminds them frequently. Among her class of 11 year-olds she selects a few girls -- to be forever known as "The Brodie Set" to become her special projects and confidantes; the "creme de la creme." The story is told in layers which flash forward and back through time as the girls, particularly Sandy, mature and look back on the influence of Miss Brodie in her prime. Most of the staff, with the exception of two male teachers, distrust Miss Brodie with her unorthodox teaching style and suspected love affairs, and the headmistress never ceases her campaign to coax or force one of the set to divulge incriminating information. When Miss Brodie is betrayed by one of her girls, she is forced to retire, and never gets over the betrayal. The book is both witty and reflective. A small gem.
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have heard of the Buchmanites and Mussolini, the Italian Renaissance painters, the advantages to the skin of cleansing cream and witch hazel over honest soap and water, and the word "menarche"; the interior decoration of the London house of the author of Winnie the Pooh had been described to them, as had the love lives of Charlotte Bronte and Miss Brodie herself."This was a delightful audio, read by a narrator who is beginning to feel like an old friend. The story takes place in Edinburgh in the 1930s, primarily at the conservative Marsha Blaine School for Girls. Miss Brodie dedicates her prime to the education of her girls, of which she reminds them frequently. Among her class of 11 year-olds she selects a few girls -- to be forever known as "The Brodie Set" to become her special projects and confidantes; the "creme de la creme." The story is told in layers which flash forward and back through time as the girls, particularly Sandy, mature and look back on the influence of Miss Brodie in her prime. Most of the staff, with the exception of two male teachers, distrust Miss Brodie with her unorthodox teaching style and suspected love affairs, and the headmistress never ceases her campaign to coax or force one of the set to divulge incriminating information. When Miss Brodie is betrayed by one of her girls, she is forced to retire, and never gets over the betrayal. The book is both witty and reflective. A small gem.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
I think I'd read/heard too much about this book before I read it, and came in with too many expectations. The most helpful bookstore worker ever (no, really, great guy) recommended it for my wife as an airport read, proclaiming it 'delightful.' And so it is. In 'Whatever Happened to Modernism?',
Also, to the reviewer who complained about an omniscient narrator: all narrators are omniscient, some just pretend that they're an individual person in order to make themselves feel better.
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Gabriel Josipovici said that the only two post-war British writers worth reading were Golding (whom I like) and Spark, thus leading me to expect some crazy-dense work of high art. Improbably, both Josipovici and my favorite bookstore clerk were right: it is a real "writer's book" (complex narrative techniques of the type that narratologists spend years studying; experimental moves like the repeated epithets and jarring, challenging transitions). It also led me into a series of theological, moral and political trains of thought for which I couldn't find a conclusion either in the novel or my head. Despite, or maybe even because of all this, it really is delightful. I don't know how she pulled it off, but I'm impressed, and look forward to re-reading. Also, to the reviewer who complained about an omniscient narrator: all narrators are omniscient, some just pretend that they're an individual person in order to make themselves feel better.
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LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher at a girl's school in Scotland in the 1930s. She thinks very highly of herself, regardless of what others think of her. She's in her prime, and she thinks her students are very fortunate to have her as their teacher while she's in her prime. She has little respect for
The audio version narrated by the delightful Nadia May possibly weakened the psychological tension for me. I think I would have been more appalled by Miss Brodie's manipulation of impressionable young girls if I had read the book rather than listened to it. I was fascinated by Spark's method of telling her story, which isn't exactly linear. She foreshadows the fate of most of the major characters, but she does it in such a way that the reader (or listener in my case) is compelled to keep reading/listening to learn not what will happen, but rather what will cause it to happen. This short novel is worthy of more than one reading. I'd suggest trying the audio version on the second or third visit to pick up nuances you might have missed in your first reading.
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authority. Miss Brodie hand-picks a half dozen girls who become known as the “Brodie set” - girls who she believes will yield to her influence and, more importantly, whose parents won't interfere with her methods. Even after the “Brodie set” moves on to the upper level with different teachers, Miss Brodie continues to maintain control over their lives. However, her control isn't as strong as she believes it is...The audio version narrated by the delightful Nadia May possibly weakened the psychological tension for me. I think I would have been more appalled by Miss Brodie's manipulation of impressionable young girls if I had read the book rather than listened to it. I was fascinated by Spark's method of telling her story, which isn't exactly linear. She foreshadows the fate of most of the major characters, but she does it in such a way that the reader (or listener in my case) is compelled to keep reading/listening to learn not what will happen, but rather what will cause it to happen. This short novel is worthy of more than one reading. I'd suggest trying the audio version on the second or third visit to pick up nuances you might have missed in your first reading.
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LibraryThing member msjoanna
Embarassingly for someone with a degree in women's studies, I'd never read this classic. Thanks to jury duty the past couple of days, I've now remedied this gap in my reading. I shall now need to see the classic film, which I've also missed. That background aside, I really enjoyed this book. Yes,
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not much happens in the novel. But the richness of the characters and the dialog make this very short book crackle with electricity and life. Miss Brodie "in her prime" becomes an idealized and nurturing teacher for certain selected students. At the same time, her humanness and flaws are all too clear -- she idealizes Hitler, Franco, and Mussolini; she repeatedly tells the girls their destinies as she sees them (and not always nicely); she encourages one to have an affair with a married man (with whom Miss Brodie is also involved). Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member steller0707
"Education means a leading out, from the Latin e out, and duco, I lead. Instruction is a putting in."
This is the guiding principle of Miss Jean Brodie in the Blaine School for Girls. Make no mistake; Miss Brodie views herself as an educator, not an instructor. But her execution is quite unorthodox.
Though my career has been in the IT area, teaching is something I've done a lot of - to all age groups, small children to adults - and that I really like doing.
So what do I think of Miss Brodie? I'm a little in awe, but a little incredulous. She's scandalous, courageous and praiseworthy all in one.
This is the guiding principle of Miss Jean Brodie in the Blaine School for Girls. Make no mistake; Miss Brodie views herself as an educator, not an instructor. But her execution is quite unorthodox.
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She gathers her "Brodie set" of six girls and proceeds to educate them while she is "in her prime" and following her own unique path in the world. Though my career has been in the IT area, teaching is something I've done a lot of - to all age groups, small children to adults - and that I really like doing.
So what do I think of Miss Brodie? I'm a little in awe, but a little incredulous. She's scandalous, courageous and praiseworthy all in one.
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LibraryThing member Kristelh
This best known work by Murial Spark, is a story of a woman teacher, Miss Jean Brodie who teaches at an girls day school in Edinburgh, Scotland during the thirties. Miss Brodie is unconventional to say the least. The story is told through the girls of the Brodie set, mostly by Sandy. Miss Brodie
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states; “Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life”. The book starts out by introducing us to the girls along with a prophetic statement about each of the girls. Miss Brodie teaches strongly in the areas of art and history and her own personal travel stories and neglects the subjects of math and science. Early on the reader learns that someone betrays Miss Brodie. There are some flash forwards in the story as well as some details in Miss Brodie’s life that are slowly reviewed. The main focus starts out with Miss Brodie’s love life. The girls are eleven in the beginning. There is a love triangle with Miss Brodie, the art teacher and the music teacher. Inserted into the story are some references to Mussolini, Hitler and to Franco. Major themes relate to individualism and education. Individualism has been taken away from the Brodie set. A teacher has used them to live her own life vicariously through them. The other major theme is the differences between curriculum and cultural learning. The question is, was Miss Brodie betrayed or did she finally trip herself up with her influence over young the young girls? This is a great book for discussion and I experienced it rather than just read it, which makes it a 5 star book for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member WinterFox
For a book that I really just picked up on a whim, because I'd thought to read it idly at a few points over the past few years, this really paid off. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a modern classic (to the degree that I read the Modern Classics edition), which is usually enough to put me off
Our Miss Jean Brodie here is a teacher at a fairly good private school in Edinburgh in the mid-1930s, who has different ideas about teaching than her colleagues. Thus, her headmistress at the school would like to find some reason to kick her out, but it's hard to find purchase among her students to find grounds to do so, since just being unorthodox isn't grounds as long as the students are learning. And her students, and particularly her own Brodie Set of six girls that she has decided to devote her prime to, hold her in high esteem, taking in all the lessons she cares to give, and of course much more from her own life, her lost love in WWI, and then her new romantic connections to two different teachers now in her prime. But in the end, one of them comes to betray her, and she is cast out. How and why this comes to pass, and the growth of the girls, that forms the bulk of the story.
Saying that one of her set betrays her isn't really a spoiler, mind - we hear of this quite early, and find out the identity of the betrayer fairly early on as well, even if the betrayal itself only comes at the end. Spark writes her way through with a wide, knowing eye over the sweep of the years, so that we see the roots of the students' connections with her, starting off in junior school, and then on through the rest of their lives, just with making casual references to the future, and back again. This style actually does a great job of building along to the resolution while letting us see the different characters and how their personalities and lives were shaped, by themselves and by Miss Brodie. It allows for a lot of characterization, given the shortness of the book.
As much as I had interest in the story, though, the writing and the characters really did sell it. The book really is quite funny, for Miss Brodie's teachings, all the Primes and the meanings of education and the nature of her classes, how she cuts through life. What the girls take away from it, what they actually do with the teaching and what they think about, is often presented humorously, as well. But there is a great feeling of psychological reality to it all, both for Miss Brodie and her love interests, and also for the different girls. The thematic structure, of connection and trying to find and protect your role, is really well done, and the characters we see a lot of definitely have complex minds. They're real people, and I imagine this is a book that would stand up quite well to re-reading. There're lots of good metaphor and psychology stuff to dig into.
Anyway, for its size - really, you can probably knock this off in an easy few hours - there's a lot of humor and amusement to get out of this, and a lot of meat, as well. The story's got a real spark, and I really enjoyed it. Definitely this is one that's worth a quick try, to enjoy and to admire.
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something, but perhaps I should reconsider that if this delightful, slim little novel is what I'm missing out on. For something that was a scant 123 pages, there's a surprising amount of depth here.Our Miss Jean Brodie here is a teacher at a fairly good private school in Edinburgh in the mid-1930s, who has different ideas about teaching than her colleagues. Thus, her headmistress at the school would like to find some reason to kick her out, but it's hard to find purchase among her students to find grounds to do so, since just being unorthodox isn't grounds as long as the students are learning. And her students, and particularly her own Brodie Set of six girls that she has decided to devote her prime to, hold her in high esteem, taking in all the lessons she cares to give, and of course much more from her own life, her lost love in WWI, and then her new romantic connections to two different teachers now in her prime. But in the end, one of them comes to betray her, and she is cast out. How and why this comes to pass, and the growth of the girls, that forms the bulk of the story.
Saying that one of her set betrays her isn't really a spoiler, mind - we hear of this quite early, and find out the identity of the betrayer fairly early on as well, even if the betrayal itself only comes at the end. Spark writes her way through with a wide, knowing eye over the sweep of the years, so that we see the roots of the students' connections with her, starting off in junior school, and then on through the rest of their lives, just with making casual references to the future, and back again. This style actually does a great job of building along to the resolution while letting us see the different characters and how their personalities and lives were shaped, by themselves and by Miss Brodie. It allows for a lot of characterization, given the shortness of the book.
As much as I had interest in the story, though, the writing and the characters really did sell it. The book really is quite funny, for Miss Brodie's teachings, all the Primes and the meanings of education and the nature of her classes, how she cuts through life. What the girls take away from it, what they actually do with the teaching and what they think about, is often presented humorously, as well. But there is a great feeling of psychological reality to it all, both for Miss Brodie and her love interests, and also for the different girls. The thematic structure, of connection and trying to find and protect your role, is really well done, and the characters we see a lot of definitely have complex minds. They're real people, and I imagine this is a book that would stand up quite well to re-reading. There're lots of good metaphor and psychology stuff to dig into.
Anyway, for its size - really, you can probably knock this off in an easy few hours - there's a lot of humor and amusement to get out of this, and a lot of meat, as well. The story's got a real spark, and I really enjoyed it. Definitely this is one that's worth a quick try, to enjoy and to admire.
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Subjects
Awards
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction — 1962)
David Bowie's Top 100 (2013)
Original publication date
1961
Physical description
160 p.; 7.95 inches
ISBN
0060931736 / 9780060931735
Local notes
fiction