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A review by spectacledbear
The Chalet School and the Lintons by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
3.0
I didn't realise until reading other reviews that this book and "A Rebel at the Chalet School" were originally in one volume, but at least it explains why this book just... stops.
The opening section of this book is set in England, and introduces us to Joyce and Gillian Linton and their mother, who is newly-diagnosed with TB and has been prescribed a long sojourn at the Sonnalpe. (I have no idea how realistic the whole travelling-across-Europe-with-a-nurse storyline is - I can only imagine that it would have been extortionately expensive in the 30s and completely impossible now (if only because having ambulances, stretcher-bearers, and boats/trains available at an hour's notice seems vanishingly unlikely in this day and age).)
The Linton sisters are chalk and cheese in many ways - Gillian is kind and thoughtful, while Joyce is thoughtless and vain. Her rebelliousness is hardly squashed in this book (though I assume she will be rehabilitated in "Rebel").
Joyce, despite her inability to rise to the top in her cohort at the school, manages to be at the centre of some of the more adventurous episodes during the term (firstly the heinous sin of passing notes in class, and then the organisation of a midnight feast, for which she is punished by what seems to be the worst attack of indigestion ever experienced by anyone).
The School's scholarly offering is expanded during this book by the addition of a Domestic Economy department, where the girls learn how to do laundry, set a table, cook, and other housewifely skills. (I hardly see the point of this since most of them will almost certain marry a doctor (probably one who works at the Sonnalpe, which seems to partly function as a dating service for Chalet alumnae) and be able to afford staff for that sort of thing.)
What it probably should teach is how pregnancy works, since Jo apparently saw Madge when she was at least five (possibly six) months pregnant, and didn't notice... (and it seems her pregnancy also went unnoticed by Robin and Stacie.) This was by far the least likely thing to occur in any Chalet School book so far, which is saying something...
All that aside, it was as enjoyable as ever to spend time in the world of the Chalet School, and I have to admit I'm enjoying the fact that Jo's last year at school is being spread across several books. Despite having read almost all of the books when I was young, I remember very little of them, and it's such a pleasure to return to them now.
The opening section of this book is set in England, and introduces us to Joyce and Gillian Linton and their mother, who is newly-diagnosed with TB and has been prescribed a long sojourn at the Sonnalpe. (I have no idea how realistic the whole travelling-across-Europe-with-a-nurse storyline is - I can only imagine that it would have been extortionately expensive in the 30s and completely impossible now (if only because having ambulances, stretcher-bearers, and boats/trains available at an hour's notice seems vanishingly unlikely in this day and age).)
The Linton sisters are chalk and cheese in many ways - Gillian is kind and thoughtful, while Joyce is thoughtless and vain. Her rebelliousness is hardly squashed in this book (though I assume she will be rehabilitated in "Rebel").
Joyce, despite her inability to rise to the top in her cohort at the school, manages to be at the centre of some of the more adventurous episodes during the term (firstly the heinous sin of passing notes in class, and then the organisation of a midnight feast, for which she is punished by what seems to be the worst attack of indigestion ever experienced by anyone).
The School's scholarly offering is expanded during this book by the addition of a Domestic Economy department, where the girls learn how to do laundry, set a table, cook, and other housewifely skills. (I hardly see the point of this since most of them will almost certain marry a doctor (probably one who works at the Sonnalpe, which seems to partly function as a dating service for Chalet alumnae) and be able to afford staff for that sort of thing.)
What it probably should teach is how pregnancy works, since Jo apparently saw Madge when she was at least five (possibly six) months pregnant, and didn't notice... (and it seems her pregnancy also went unnoticed by Robin and Stacie.) This was by far the least likely thing to occur in any Chalet School book so far, which is saying something...
All that aside, it was as enjoyable as ever to spend time in the world of the Chalet School, and I have to admit I'm enjoying the fact that Jo's last year at school is being spread across several books. Despite having read almost all of the books when I was young, I remember very little of them, and it's such a pleasure to return to them now.