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kate_standiford 's review for:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Terse. That’s the first word I can think of describe the text of this book. The author doesn’t write with a lot of depth to her characters and holds each of them mainly at a clinical arms length.
Miss Jean Brodie, in her self-declared prime, is wholly focused on a set of girls in her instruction at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls,’in Edinburough. It cannot be said that she is an exceptional teacher, opting to distance herself from the other more traditional instructors and prizing her independent thinking. But, she is invested in HER girls, in her own way. She takes them to around the city, introduces them to culture, but also breaches the student-teacher tradition by telling them of her love life, encouraging them to obfuscate what she is talking to them about from the headmistress who wants her to leave the school, and by shoe-horning each girl by her self own estimation of what their futures will entail: including encouraging one of her girls to have an affair with the man she herself loves (the art teacher who is a married man with a large catholic family).
She is a complex woman, with questionable values from her willingness to cross boundaries, have affairs, belittle Catholicism (but otherwise attend services in all of the other religious services around her), and seemingly support fascism as a better system of governance. She is independently minded, always. She answers to her own particular guidance, and she seems altogether lonely and prepared to be alone, which feels motivating for her to become overly invested and personal with “her lot” of girls.
There’s a lot to chew on, not least of which being Sandy, the primary perspective of the story, and what she makes of Miss Brodie throughout her own life.
Miss Jean Brodie, in her self-declared prime, is wholly focused on a set of girls in her instruction at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls,’in Edinburough. It cannot be said that she is an exceptional teacher, opting to distance herself from the other more traditional instructors and prizing her independent thinking. But, she is invested in HER girls, in her own way. She takes them to around the city, introduces them to culture, but also breaches the student-teacher tradition by telling them of her love life, encouraging them to obfuscate what she is talking to them about from the headmistress who wants her to leave the school, and by shoe-horning each girl by her self own estimation of what their futures will entail: including encouraging one of her girls to have an affair with the man she herself loves (the art teacher who is a married man with a large catholic family).
She is a complex woman, with questionable values from her willingness to cross boundaries, have affairs, belittle Catholicism (but otherwise attend services in all of the other religious services around her), and seemingly support fascism as a better system of governance. She is independently minded, always. She answers to her own particular guidance, and she seems altogether lonely and prepared to be alone, which feels motivating for her to become overly invested and personal with “her lot” of girls.
There’s a lot to chew on, not least of which being Sandy, the primary perspective of the story, and what she makes of Miss Brodie throughout her own life.
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Infidelity, Sexism