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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
A genuinely interesting and skillfully written short work by (Dame) Muriel Spark that I have read, now, for the second time.
The Marcia Blaine School for girls was influenced in so many ways (overtly and covertly) by the teaching methods of a very singular teacher - Miss Jean Brodie - and by the behaviour of her ‘special’ five girls (the Brodie set) that, for a time, I am sure it felt itself a little off-kilter after Miss Brodie’s eventual departure. For some years before this eventuality Miss Brodie was, however, in her prime, and to say more than this would constitute my review turning into a spoiler!
The Marcia Blaine School for girls was influenced in so many ways (overtly and covertly) by the teaching methods of a very singular teacher - Miss Jean Brodie - and by the behaviour of her ‘special’ five girls (the Brodie set) that, for a time, I am sure it felt itself a little off-kilter after Miss Brodie’s eventual departure. For some years before this eventuality Miss Brodie was, however, in her prime, and to say more than this would constitute my review turning into a spoiler!
It's only possible to betray where loyalty is due.’
‘Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life,’ states Miss Jean Brodie, the titular character of Muriel Spark’s best regarded novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. This slim and seductive masterpiece tells the story of the ‘Brodie set,’ the young girls who were the pupils of Miss Brodie in Junior school and continue their relationship with her, for better or for worse, through the years that follow. This is a story of obsession and obedience, a dark look at the trope of inspirational figures and an examination of how individuality and group dynamics form a messy battlefield of power struggles that can give rise to fascist tendencies. Nearly flawless in its brevity and wit, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie succeeds through its elusive excursions into morality and interpersonal relationships across multiple character studies that are highly nuanced and evade tidy conclusions.
Dame Maggie Smith in her Oscar-winning role as Jean Brodie (1969)
I have a distinct memory surrounding my first read of this book back in 2009. I had picked it up at the Ypsilanti, Mi library and consumed it in one sitting on a warm spring day, sipping wine and near-feverishly pacing back and forth on my apartment balcony for the final chapter—this novel sinks into you and holds a power over your mind not unlike the titular teacher over her pupils. This is a novel that benefits from a re-reading, and many aspects of this struck me with more impact reading it again in 2022. The book struck me as refreshing, a book where the problematic aspects of the characters are certainly of its time, but in a way that really benefits the literary dynamics and emotional resonance of the novel.
In a substack essay by [a:Brandon Taylor|19531469|Brandon Taylor|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1665076623p2/19531469.jpg], he reflects on what [a:D.H. Lawrence|17623|D.H. Lawrence|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1375811585p2/17623.jpg] termed ‘moral’ or ‘immoral’ novels. ‘Morality in the novel is the trembling instability of the balance,’ Lawrence wrote, ‘when the novelist puts his thumb in the scale, to pull down the balance to his own predilection, that is immorality.’ The way Sparks crafts her characters with a realism of flaws and foibles, an instability of right and wrong, brought to mind Taylor’s reflections on the moral novel. While it is easy and correct to condemn Brodie for her flirtations with fascism, we also find her ‘quite an innocent in her way’ as well and sympathetic to her fight against the obdurate Calvanist moralizing and the undue campaign to oust her. There is a delicious irony in that she bests the oppressive system only to be brought down in secret by one of her own in what may very well be more an act of revenge instead of earnest concern to add another layer of complexities to what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in the novel. Returning to Taylor, I enjoy what he says about insatiable and complex ideas such as this:
This is, I believe, the type of fiction Sparks set out to create with Brodie, something that—while admittedly risking intentional fallacy here—may have inspiration from her time in 1944 working as a propagandist for Political Warfare Executive and the conflicts of her christian morality where the ends should not justify the means with a looser wartime morality where, perhaps, some might say they do. The way Sparks looks at how Brodie teaches the children to become a force to be reckoned with as a group but while preaching individuality (also praising Mussolini), while simultaneously using Mary Macgregor as a scapegoat and whipping post for the girls to rally around and, thusly, unify themselves more, is a hodgepodge of cruelty and being inspirational. We see here how the lessons of Brodie become propaganda, and give ‘the feeling that if you did a thing a lot of times, you made it into a right thing.’ Though one can’t help but also read the constant terming of the Brodie set as ‘the crème de la crème’ and not think of the ideas of the Übermensch.
See, the thing is though, you can’t help but enjoy reading Brodie ‘flattening their scorn underneath the chariot wheels of her superiority,’ but also feel remiss about cozying up to her character. Particularly as the group dynamics and her leadership is symbolic of how fascism can crop up under the guise of innocent ideas and activities and take hold of impressionable sorts who are most likely to idolize an authority figure. Sparks uses all her skills to make you like these characters even when you know you shouldn’t. She’s teasing you and breaking you down, not unlike the individual wills of the students. This is also Taylor’s point on moral fiction : this is a book about morality because nothing is clean-cut, everyone is a mixture of good and bad, as are all social dynamics. This is reality, and Taylor writes about how ‘moral fiction does not signal. That is propaganda.’ You don’t get to read this book and feel smugly superior to anyone for having the right morals, which is fitting as the novel is most critical on those who behave in this way. This is a glorious mess of morality and that is what I noticed most and loved during the reread.
‘Sandy looked back at her companions and understood them as a body with Miss Brodie for the head. She perceived herself, the absent Jenny, the ever-blamed Mary, Rose, Eunice, and Monica, all in a frightening little moment, in unified compliance to the destiny of Miss Brodie, as if God had willed them to birth for that purpose.’
The complexities of this book are outstanding, and expertly done as the novel is so succinct there is little room to hide the mechanics of it all. While written in a third person narration, it slowly becomes apparent that we are getting a narrative through the lens of a central character and any objectivity is suddenly on shaky grounds. Particularly with the knowledge of a Judas in the group, with the back and forth of the timeline teasing out tension and unveiling at a perfectly measured pace. While Brodie claims the title and is, for much of the novel, the focus, it is also about a usurping of power as we watch Sandy employ manipulations she learned from her teacher to take center stage and even becomes Mr. Lloyd’s lover. But at all times each student is what Brodie has made them, best exemplified when all of Lloyd’s portraits of the girls resembles both the girl and Brodie at the same time.
‘The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry,’ wrote poet [a:Robert Burns|13037960|Robert Burns|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], and we also witness the same occur to Miss Brodie. There is a wonderful irony present here, as Brodie rages against the Calvanist doctrine of predestination, creating her group of six and directing them on her own path as a rebuttal, only to watch her plans come undone. Even her own affair with Mr. Lowther comes to a quick end. In contrast, Sandy rejects Brodie’s teachings of individualism and free will, ending up a Catholic nun to carry out a larger plan of faith. The novel is rife with religious symbolism, turning Eidenburg into Spark’s near biblical narrative.
‘[M]y prime has truly begun. One’s prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognise your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.’
There is much to explore in this novel, one so morally labyrinthian and nuanced while coming in just under 140pgs. The prose is flawless, like a siren seducing you in before emotionally dashing you on the rocks and forcing you to confront the many ambiguities in the book. But most of all, Jean Brodie is such a memorable character and written in such a way that questions if she is wise or manipulative, or is she good or bad, become beside the point as each aspect of this novel is so slippery. The film is quite good too, though it does take a more sympathetic approach towards the student who betrays than I believe was present in the novel (and preferred the ambiguity more). A quick read, but one that stays with you. It did with me for over a decade, and I suspect it will continue for many more.
4.5/5
‘Nothing infuriates people more than their own lack of spiritual insight.’
‘Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life,’ states Miss Jean Brodie, the titular character of Muriel Spark’s best regarded novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. This slim and seductive masterpiece tells the story of the ‘Brodie set,’ the young girls who were the pupils of Miss Brodie in Junior school and continue their relationship with her, for better or for worse, through the years that follow. This is a story of obsession and obedience, a dark look at the trope of inspirational figures and an examination of how individuality and group dynamics form a messy battlefield of power struggles that can give rise to fascist tendencies. Nearly flawless in its brevity and wit, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie succeeds through its elusive excursions into morality and interpersonal relationships across multiple character studies that are highly nuanced and evade tidy conclusions.
Dame Maggie Smith in her Oscar-winning role as Jean Brodie (1969)
I have a distinct memory surrounding my first read of this book back in 2009. I had picked it up at the Ypsilanti, Mi library and consumed it in one sitting on a warm spring day, sipping wine and near-feverishly pacing back and forth on my apartment balcony for the final chapter—this novel sinks into you and holds a power over your mind not unlike the titular teacher over her pupils. This is a novel that benefits from a re-reading, and many aspects of this struck me with more impact reading it again in 2022. The book struck me as refreshing, a book where the problematic aspects of the characters are certainly of its time, but in a way that really benefits the literary dynamics and emotional resonance of the novel.
In a substack essay by [a:Brandon Taylor|19531469|Brandon Taylor|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1665076623p2/19531469.jpg], he reflects on what [a:D.H. Lawrence|17623|D.H. Lawrence|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1375811585p2/17623.jpg] termed ‘moral’ or ‘immoral’ novels. ‘Morality in the novel is the trembling instability of the balance,’ Lawrence wrote, ‘when the novelist puts his thumb in the scale, to pull down the balance to his own predilection, that is immorality.’ The way Sparks crafts her characters with a realism of flaws and foibles, an instability of right and wrong, brought to mind Taylor’s reflections on the moral novel. While it is easy and correct to condemn Brodie for her flirtations with fascism, we also find her ‘quite an innocent in her way’ as well and sympathetic to her fight against the obdurate Calvanist moralizing and the undue campaign to oust her. There is a delicious irony in that she bests the oppressive system only to be brought down in secret by one of her own in what may very well be more an act of revenge instead of earnest concern to add another layer of complexities to what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in the novel. Returning to Taylor, I enjoy what he says about insatiable and complex ideas such as this:
‘moral fiction is not fiction that affirms your ideology about power systems and oppression. It does not make you feel like a good and righteous person. It may have no lessons for you to tweet about or put on Instagram or explain readily, wittily at dinner parties…Moral art…implicates and complicates your notions of good and bad. Moral art may call you a liar to your face. It reveals the shallowness of your thought…Moral does not mean good or lawful. Moral means true. Moral means you take your finger off the scale...’
This is, I believe, the type of fiction Sparks set out to create with Brodie, something that—while admittedly risking intentional fallacy here—may have inspiration from her time in 1944 working as a propagandist for Political Warfare Executive and the conflicts of her christian morality where the ends should not justify the means with a looser wartime morality where, perhaps, some might say they do. The way Sparks looks at how Brodie teaches the children to become a force to be reckoned with as a group but while preaching individuality (also praising Mussolini), while simultaneously using Mary Macgregor as a scapegoat and whipping post for the girls to rally around and, thusly, unify themselves more, is a hodgepodge of cruelty and being inspirational. We see here how the lessons of Brodie become propaganda, and give ‘the feeling that if you did a thing a lot of times, you made it into a right thing.’ Though one can’t help but also read the constant terming of the Brodie set as ‘the crème de la crème’ and not think of the ideas of the Übermensch.
See, the thing is though, you can’t help but enjoy reading Brodie ‘flattening their scorn underneath the chariot wheels of her superiority,’ but also feel remiss about cozying up to her character. Particularly as the group dynamics and her leadership is symbolic of how fascism can crop up under the guise of innocent ideas and activities and take hold of impressionable sorts who are most likely to idolize an authority figure. Sparks uses all her skills to make you like these characters even when you know you shouldn’t. She’s teasing you and breaking you down, not unlike the individual wills of the students. This is also Taylor’s point on moral fiction : this is a book about morality because nothing is clean-cut, everyone is a mixture of good and bad, as are all social dynamics. This is reality, and Taylor writes about how ‘moral fiction does not signal. That is propaganda.’ You don’t get to read this book and feel smugly superior to anyone for having the right morals, which is fitting as the novel is most critical on those who behave in this way. This is a glorious mess of morality and that is what I noticed most and loved during the reread.
‘Sandy looked back at her companions and understood them as a body with Miss Brodie for the head. She perceived herself, the absent Jenny, the ever-blamed Mary, Rose, Eunice, and Monica, all in a frightening little moment, in unified compliance to the destiny of Miss Brodie, as if God had willed them to birth for that purpose.’
The complexities of this book are outstanding, and expertly done as the novel is so succinct there is little room to hide the mechanics of it all. While written in a third person narration, it slowly becomes apparent that we are getting a narrative through the lens of a central character and any objectivity is suddenly on shaky grounds. Particularly with the knowledge of a Judas in the group, with the back and forth of the timeline teasing out tension and unveiling at a perfectly measured pace. While Brodie claims the title and is, for much of the novel, the focus, it is also about a usurping of power as we watch Sandy employ manipulations she learned from her teacher to take center stage and even becomes Mr. Lloyd’s lover. But at all times each student is what Brodie has made them, best exemplified when all of Lloyd’s portraits of the girls resembles both the girl and Brodie at the same time.
‘The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry,’ wrote poet [a:Robert Burns|13037960|Robert Burns|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], and we also witness the same occur to Miss Brodie. There is a wonderful irony present here, as Brodie rages against the Calvanist doctrine of predestination, creating her group of six and directing them on her own path as a rebuttal, only to watch her plans come undone. Even her own affair with Mr. Lowther comes to a quick end. In contrast, Sandy rejects Brodie’s teachings of individualism and free will, ending up a Catholic nun to carry out a larger plan of faith. The novel is rife with religious symbolism, turning Eidenburg into Spark’s near biblical narrative.
‘[M]y prime has truly begun. One’s prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognise your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.’
There is much to explore in this novel, one so morally labyrinthian and nuanced while coming in just under 140pgs. The prose is flawless, like a siren seducing you in before emotionally dashing you on the rocks and forcing you to confront the many ambiguities in the book. But most of all, Jean Brodie is such a memorable character and written in such a way that questions if she is wise or manipulative, or is she good or bad, become beside the point as each aspect of this novel is so slippery. The film is quite good too, though it does take a more sympathetic approach towards the student who betrays than I believe was present in the novel (and preferred the ambiguity more). A quick read, but one that stays with you. It did with me for over a decade, and I suspect it will continue for many more.
4.5/5
‘Nothing infuriates people more than their own lack of spiritual insight.’
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-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
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
tense
medium-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
So, Miss Brodie is an unconventional teacher who befriends a group of six girls and teaches them unorthodox lessons. Miss Brodie, I'm sure, would see herself as a progressive intellect, but really, she is snobby, pretentious, and mean. She calls her girls stupid when they don't answer correctly. She believes she is heads and shoulders above her co-workers. And espouses the arts above all scientific study. The girls, of course, are charmed by her. They form a clique, of which Miss Brodie is the center. Miss Brodie for her part lives a scandalous life. There are 2 male teachers and Miss Brodie is in love with the married one but then decides to have an affair with the unmarried one. She encourages her girls to have affairs with older, married men. And to go off and help fight in the Spanish Civil War. She's awful. In the end, one of the girls betrays her by telling the school that Miss Brodie is a fascist and she is forced to retire early.
This book wasn't as great as I expected. Expected to really like Miss Brodie and her unorthodox ways. Sadly, that wasn't the case.
This book wasn't as great as I expected. Expected to really like Miss Brodie and her unorthodox ways. Sadly, that wasn't the case.