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callmemadamWay back in June, I announced my intention of re-reading the whole series of Chalet School books by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. I started very well, getting through a book a day and constantly replenishing my pile. Then, half way through Mary-Lou, I stuck, stopped and gave up.
My first reason is the transfer of part of the school to Switzerland. I always thought this was daft, when the school was getting well established in England and I well understood those parents who didn’t want their daughters to travel so far away to school. I also sympathised with Miss Slater. She shocks the staff room by announcing that she won’t be going to Switzerland; she doesn’t want to teach maths in three languages, she’s been offered a good post elsewhere and has hopes of an eventual headship. Laudable and sensible in a young, single woman, you might think? Not a bit of it. The very idea of wanting to leave the Chalet School! Then Joey refers to her as ‘that ass Slater’ and she’s out in the cold forever because you simply can’t offend Jo. There’s another, more trivial point about Switzerland which annoys me. The first branch to open there is called Unter die Kiefern. This elementary slip in German has irritated me since I first read it. Surely anyone’s heard of Unter den Linden? The error is corrected in later books.
Joey
Joey is good fun as a schoolgirl but it all changes when she marries. After the birth of her triplets, she becomes a madwoman, carting the babies around in a basket and gabbling to all and sundry about their respective ages and colourings; she even predicts their characters and futures. Had I been teaching at that school I would not have been at all pleased to have Joey barging into my classroom, interrupting the lesson in order to display her brats so the girls can admire them and her own cleverness for producing them. She really is bonkers. She will not let the school go. Tom Gay (one of my favourite characters), makes rather a telling point when, as a new girl, she asks another, ‘Why should your aunt bother about the school?’ (I may have paraphrased this) and is immediately shouted down and told why.
’The Foundation Stones’
Joey and her friends like Gisela and Simone are sometimes referred to as the ‘foundation stones’ of the school because they were there at the start. The trouble is that the school began in 1925 and by the 1950s that’s ancient history. Not to EBD and Joey, though. Even when these girls are grown women with daughters old enough to attend the school themselves, they are constantly harking back to the dear old days. New girls are soon initiated into the now legendary goings-on of the ‘naughty middles’ of the past and expected to be interested in them. When I was at school, nothing could have been more boring for me than hearing about the doings of girls before our time. We simply did not care about such stuff.
The One-Family School
The school is started by Jo’s sister Madge. Once married to Jem Russell, she gives up teaching but retains a financial interest in the school. Jem and Joey’s husband Jack (both doctors, of course), take a keen interest in the school and know many of the girls. By the time the series ends, the school is absolutely packed with their relatives: Jo’s and Madge’s daughters, the Maynards and Russells; brother Dick’s daughters, the Bettanys. Then more distantly connected friends and relations join: Lucys, Ozannes and Chesters. I can’t keep up! No wonder the staff worry that it will seem like favouritism as yet another pupil from one of these families is appointed Head Girl. I think it’s a shame that the school loses its international flavour as fewer foreign girls join. It’s one of the things which make the early books enjoyable but the War made continuity impossible.
Boredom
The later books become so formulaic. There’s always a new girl with a problem to be sorted by the Chalet School. There’s always an accident. There’s always a boring play or sale of work. Worst of all are the expeditions. These could be great fun for the girls, visiting interesting European places. Unfortunately, EBD had not been to these places herself and one member of staff, as it might be Miss O’Brien, gives a lecture on e.g. Swiss history which goes on for pages and pages, is extremely boring and so obviously a cut and paste job. Invariably on these outings, some girl will fall into water somewhere.
So, there I am with a full set of the books, most of which I will never read again. Should I just sell all the later ones? It goes against the grain, after spending time accumulating a collection (mostly very cheaply), to break it up. Looks like I’m stuck with them for the moment.
My first reason is the transfer of part of the school to Switzerland. I always thought this was daft, when the school was getting well established in England and I well understood those parents who didn’t want their daughters to travel so far away to school. I also sympathised with Miss Slater. She shocks the staff room by announcing that she won’t be going to Switzerland; she doesn’t want to teach maths in three languages, she’s been offered a good post elsewhere and has hopes of an eventual headship. Laudable and sensible in a young, single woman, you might think? Not a bit of it. The very idea of wanting to leave the Chalet School! Then Joey refers to her as ‘that ass Slater’ and she’s out in the cold forever because you simply can’t offend Jo. There’s another, more trivial point about Switzerland which annoys me. The first branch to open there is called Unter die Kiefern. This elementary slip in German has irritated me since I first read it. Surely anyone’s heard of Unter den Linden? The error is corrected in later books.
Joey
Joey is good fun as a schoolgirl but it all changes when she marries. After the birth of her triplets, she becomes a madwoman, carting the babies around in a basket and gabbling to all and sundry about their respective ages and colourings; she even predicts their characters and futures. Had I been teaching at that school I would not have been at all pleased to have Joey barging into my classroom, interrupting the lesson in order to display her brats so the girls can admire them and her own cleverness for producing them. She really is bonkers. She will not let the school go. Tom Gay (one of my favourite characters), makes rather a telling point when, as a new girl, she asks another, ‘Why should your aunt bother about the school?’ (I may have paraphrased this) and is immediately shouted down and told why.
’The Foundation Stones’
Joey and her friends like Gisela and Simone are sometimes referred to as the ‘foundation stones’ of the school because they were there at the start. The trouble is that the school began in 1925 and by the 1950s that’s ancient history. Not to EBD and Joey, though. Even when these girls are grown women with daughters old enough to attend the school themselves, they are constantly harking back to the dear old days. New girls are soon initiated into the now legendary goings-on of the ‘naughty middles’ of the past and expected to be interested in them. When I was at school, nothing could have been more boring for me than hearing about the doings of girls before our time. We simply did not care about such stuff.
The One-Family School
The school is started by Jo’s sister Madge. Once married to Jem Russell, she gives up teaching but retains a financial interest in the school. Jem and Joey’s husband Jack (both doctors, of course), take a keen interest in the school and know many of the girls. By the time the series ends, the school is absolutely packed with their relatives: Jo’s and Madge’s daughters, the Maynards and Russells; brother Dick’s daughters, the Bettanys. Then more distantly connected friends and relations join: Lucys, Ozannes and Chesters. I can’t keep up! No wonder the staff worry that it will seem like favouritism as yet another pupil from one of these families is appointed Head Girl. I think it’s a shame that the school loses its international flavour as fewer foreign girls join. It’s one of the things which make the early books enjoyable but the War made continuity impossible.
Boredom
The later books become so formulaic. There’s always a new girl with a problem to be sorted by the Chalet School. There’s always an accident. There’s always a boring play or sale of work. Worst of all are the expeditions. These could be great fun for the girls, visiting interesting European places. Unfortunately, EBD had not been to these places herself and one member of staff, as it might be Miss O’Brien, gives a lecture on e.g. Swiss history which goes on for pages and pages, is extremely boring and so obviously a cut and paste job. Invariably on these outings, some girl will fall into water somewhere.
So, there I am with a full set of the books, most of which I will never read again. Should I just sell all the later ones? It goes against the grain, after spending time accumulating a collection (mostly very cheaply), to break it up. Looks like I’m stuck with them for the moment.
no subject
Date: 2021-12-20 08:19 pm (UTC)(I'm here via network)
I don't blame you for wanting to give up - I tend to just read the summaries from the New Chalet Club when I want to reference the books these days. The continual obsessions with The Robin and so on - I wish they'd kept up with the branch in the UK, especially given that the days of the San were probably numbered as the books ended.
no subject
Date: 2021-12-21 11:19 am (UTC)I'm not in any of the Chalet groups as I've never been a huge fan, although I enjoy the early books. I do agree with you that it would be nice to know more about the English branch of the school.
no subject
Date: 2021-12-21 11:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-21 11:20 am (UTC)