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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I thought a lot about popular teachers I've had. How charming they can be, how cool and inclusive they can be, and how they have the strong tendency to be tremendous arses.
I adored Miss Jean Brodie. Her fun and artistic atmosphere is a haze around her personality warts, like a keen fascination for twentieth century fascism. Her enlightened diatribes underscore a sharp pettiness, and her five favorite pupils shape their lives in accordance to, and reaction against, her philosophies that can be boiled down to: "Love me."
Originally, I was going to give this 4 stars. The last line is so unnecessarily cliche, the focus wobbles around, and characters that have a lot of color become caricatures towards the end. But the more I think on its faults, the more I realize that the story of Jean Brodie could not have been written any other way. When it comes time to draw a portrait of a former object of affection, a whole messy mix of emotions are bound to come out.
I adored Miss Jean Brodie. Her fun and artistic atmosphere is a haze around her personality warts, like a keen fascination for twentieth century fascism. Her enlightened diatribes underscore a sharp pettiness, and her five favorite pupils shape their lives in accordance to, and reaction against, her philosophies that can be boiled down to: "Love me."
Originally, I was going to give this 4 stars. The last line is so unnecessarily cliche, the focus wobbles around, and characters that have a lot of color become caricatures towards the end. But the more I think on its faults, the more I realize that the story of Jean Brodie could not have been written any other way. When it comes time to draw a portrait of a former object of affection, a whole messy mix of emotions are bound to come out.
3.5 stars. I read this first when I was about twenty, and my recollection now (age 50) is that I loved it, although I might be remembering the film more than the book. This time around I did enjoy it: Spark's peculiar style, the repetition, the characters of the girls and their teacher, the forward looking moments, but also it felt quite slight; somehow there wasn't enough meat in the story. It was nice though to read a book that was mostly about women.
www.clairefuller.co.uk
www.clairefuller.co.uk
Outwardly she differed from the rest of the teaching staff in that she was still in a state of fluctuating development, whereas they had only too understandably not trusted themselves to change their minds, particularly on ethical questions, after the age of twenty. (p. 45)
Petit livre étrange & savoureux sur Miss Jean Brodie, enseignante édimbourgeoise dans la fleur de l'âge, & les petites filles qu'elle pétrit & travaille d'une main extravagante. J'ai beaucoup aimé la structure du roman, qui réussit si bien à s'entortiller autour d'elle-même ; j'ai aimé l'intelligence vive de la plume, son humour sec, parfait, qui craquèle les pages, & son audace tranquille. Très hâte de lire autre chose de Muriel Spark.
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This book is a brief flash of literary genius. Muriel Spark, as far as I'm concerned, penned this--the most famous of her novels--in the midcentury, capturing the idiosyncrasies, the profane, and the noble of humanity in a masterful command of characterization.
The entire brief novel centers on Miss Jean Brodie, who will regularly remind you that she is in her prime. She is an instructor at the Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, and she has her select chosen girls to which she plays an almost god-like role, directing their steps, forgoing lessons for personal aphorisms and anecdotes, and weaving between and among them a tapestry of her own creation. She is an eminently dislikable character, but delightfully so--as are the "Brodie set" as the girls refer to themselves.
Spark's work won't soon leave my mind, as the humor, wit, and bluntness of the prose was thoroughly quirky and enjoyable. Among the characterization also lies a plot that is more complicated than it seems, in so few pages. She will drop lines that reveal major points in such a casual way as to make her readers double-take. What a thrilling way to begin this year's reading challenge.
The entire brief novel centers on Miss Jean Brodie, who will regularly remind you that she is in her prime. She is an instructor at the Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, and she has her select chosen girls to which she plays an almost god-like role, directing their steps, forgoing lessons for personal aphorisms and anecdotes, and weaving between and among them a tapestry of her own creation. She is an eminently dislikable character, but delightfully so--as are the "Brodie set" as the girls refer to themselves.
Spark's work won't soon leave my mind, as the humor, wit, and bluntness of the prose was thoroughly quirky and enjoyable. Among the characterization also lies a plot that is more complicated than it seems, in so few pages. She will drop lines that reveal major points in such a casual way as to make her readers double-take. What a thrilling way to begin this year's reading challenge.
I appreciate the technical aspects of this story, the way it unfolds, how the characters are revealed (or not), but I didn't particularly enjoy reading it all that much. As much as the narrator was omniscient and revealing bits of information all along the way, I never felt terribly invested in any of the characters. I'm interested enough to try reading more of Muriel Spark's work, though.
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes