You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
I must have missed something. Most people love or at least like this book. I couldn’t wait to finish it.
I've always loved this movie, found it on AMC once when I was ten or eleven and memorized the final scene because I used to do that when I was little. So any way, now I'm reading the novel. I stole the play from my 10th grade drama teacher--I think the "sexy" character, Rose was eliminated from the play...weird how that happens.
This is an odd but remarkable read. Spark captures the childs-eye view of the world perfectly while also treating us to a brilliantly witty narrative voice. There is something almost 'stand-up comedy'-esque about her use of repetition when describing the girls that make up the Brodie set: "Rose, who was famous for sex", "Mary MacGregor, with only two eyes, a nose and a mouth". This, combined with the smart and well-executed jumping around in time, makes the slim novel well worth a read.
I read this at University the first time around, and found myself focusing more on the political elements (Miss Brodie's views of Mussolini's Italy etc), but re-reading for an office book club brought out different elements. This time, the conversation centred much more about what teaching should be and how much a teacher's own character should shape the class. Even today there are pertinent questions about the potential abuses of power that teaching affords, yet it is also clear that teachers need the freedom (and power) to inspire children - I'm sure everyone who has at least one teacher who changed the trajectory of their life with a particular question, observation or topic. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie will bring those memories rushing to the surface.
I read this at University the first time around, and found myself focusing more on the political elements (Miss Brodie's views of Mussolini's Italy etc), but re-reading for an office book club brought out different elements. This time, the conversation centred much more about what teaching should be and how much a teacher's own character should shape the class. Even today there are pertinent questions about the potential abuses of power that teaching affords, yet it is also clear that teachers need the freedom (and power) to inspire children - I'm sure everyone who has at least one teacher who changed the trajectory of their life with a particular question, observation or topic. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie will bring those memories rushing to the surface.
Ένας ιδιαίτερος χαρακτήρας, αυτός της κυρίας Μπρόντι. Ή παρουσίαση των προσώπων πραγματοποιήθηκε με επιτυχία εξελίσσοντας τους στον αφηγηματικό χρόνο. Ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο μιας κ υπάρχουν αρκετές αναφορές σε συγγραφείς, κ ποιητές ανάλογα με την δράση της στιγμής που μπορεί να ανατρέξει κάποιος για πληροφορίες. Δεν θα μπορούσα να πω ότι με συνεπήρε διαβάζοντας το, θα το πρότεινα ωστόσο σε κάποιον που θέλει να εξετάσει τον ανατρεπτικό χαρακτήρα μιας παρελθοντικης γυναικείας φιγούρας.
I truly don’t know how to feel about this book. At times it was funny, more often than not cringey, and the character of Miss Brodie was loveable at the same time she was detestable. Curious to read more of Spark’s material in the future.
emotional
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of Muriel Sparks until last week. She was a prolific author who’s work is both literary and engaging, and who was apparently pretty popular in her time. Yet somehow, like so many other great writers, her work hasn’t maintained a consistent following. Or at least I’d never heard of her, and I’m always trying to keep my ear to the ground.
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie is a story told in fractured time. It leaps back and forth among childhood formations in the early 1930’s and the resulting lifestyles of the 1950’s, shedding light on bits and pieces of many lives and the influence one school teacher had on her select set of pupil confidantes. Miss Jean Brodie was a force to be reckoned with, aggressively liberal and artistic in temperament and loose with her educational formula. Her select students, chosen more for their parent’s attitudes than their profound skills, are given the inside scoop on her own highly romanticized personal life and belief system, stocked with romantic modernism and fascist hope.
Eventually, these young girls become teenagers who take or reject her beliefs in a variety of directions. Miss Brodie’s love life becomes an open secret among them, along with a series of complexities in what she expects of herself and her girls in their love lives. Sandy, who becomes the central character over time, seems to be the most consistently connected to and reflective on what Miss Brodie has been in their lives and the meaning or manipulations she has imparted to them.
Sparks does an incredible job of writing a quick, intense, highly complex and literary novel that you can’t put down. So often literature is broken into categories of fun and engaging reading v. important and impactful reading. Sparks seems to have a genius for blending these two seamlessly. A great read full of seamless complexities with a lot left over to reflect on.
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie is a story told in fractured time. It leaps back and forth among childhood formations in the early 1930’s and the resulting lifestyles of the 1950’s, shedding light on bits and pieces of many lives and the influence one school teacher had on her select set of pupil confidantes. Miss Jean Brodie was a force to be reckoned with, aggressively liberal and artistic in temperament and loose with her educational formula. Her select students, chosen more for their parent’s attitudes than their profound skills, are given the inside scoop on her own highly romanticized personal life and belief system, stocked with romantic modernism and fascist hope.
Eventually, these young girls become teenagers who take or reject her beliefs in a variety of directions. Miss Brodie’s love life becomes an open secret among them, along with a series of complexities in what she expects of herself and her girls in their love lives. Sandy, who becomes the central character over time, seems to be the most consistently connected to and reflective on what Miss Brodie has been in their lives and the meaning or manipulations she has imparted to them.
Sparks does an incredible job of writing a quick, intense, highly complex and literary novel that you can’t put down. So often literature is broken into categories of fun and engaging reading v. important and impactful reading. Sparks seems to have a genius for blending these two seamlessly. A great read full of seamless complexities with a lot left over to reflect on.
Much earlier proof that a book can be quite enjoyable even though it's female protagonists are not necessarily likable, but rather, human.