The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a novel by Muriel Spark, the best known of her works. It first saw publication in The New Yorker magazine and was published as a book by Macmillan in 1961. The character of Miss Jean Brodie brought Spark international fame and brought her into the first rank of contemporary Scottish literature. In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie No. 76 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Review of 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Four stars for making me think, and for being an original work of art. Maybe it deserves give, it was well wrought and full of interesting and multidimensional characters who are developed quickly and efficiently. It has social critique, some pretty damn funny scenes, as well as some dark ones. Like Edinborough weather I suppose. Ultimately, Miss Brodie is quite a terrible mentor and as Sandy says, ridiculous woman. Yet she is not without her finer points. There is also this sad misanthropy in the narrative that I cannot put my finger on yet.I get the feeling that there was a lot going on that I did not pick up on, and that I need to read more about this book to get it, especially in regards to Scotland at the time and likely Muriel Sparks.
Review of 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Nederlands (English below)
These are the years of my prime. You are benefitting by my prime
‘Een klaslokaal is als een theater,’ zei Muriel Spark (1918-2006) in een interview met BBC in 2004. Het toneel dat ze opzet in haar bekendste roman The prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) kent autobiografische elementen. Wie de roman gelezen heeft en bekend is met de lessen van mevrouw Brodie zal bij dat gegeven fronsen.
The word ‘education’ comes from the root e from ex, out, and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul. To Miss Mackay it is putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education, I call it intrusion, from the Latin root prefix in meaning in and the stem trudo, I thrust. Miss …
Nederlands (English below)
These are the years of my prime. You are benefitting by my prime
‘Een klaslokaal is als een theater,’ zei Muriel Spark (1918-2006) in een interview met BBC in 2004. Het toneel dat ze opzet in haar bekendste roman The prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) kent autobiografische elementen. Wie de roman gelezen heeft en bekend is met de lessen van mevrouw Brodie zal bij dat gegeven fronsen.
The word ‘education’ comes from the root e from ex, out, and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul. To Miss Mackay it is putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education, I call it intrusion, from the Latin root prefix in meaning in and the stem trudo, I thrust. Miss Mackay’s method is to thrust a lot of information into the pupil’s head; mine is a leading out of knowledge, and that is true education as is proved by the root meaning.
Het onderwijs van Jean Brodie is naar maatstaven van Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh onorthodox: in plaats van de lesstof op te dreunen neemt Brodie haar zes leerlingen mee op pad en vertelt ze uitvoerig over zichzelf – haar liefdesaffaires daarbij inbegrepen – om hen kennis te laten maken met het leven en te leren op eigen benen te staan. Pedagogisch verantwoord is dat niet altijd, zeker niet wanneer haar methode naarmate het verhaal vordert steeds meer manipulatie vertoont en haar favoritisme afhankelijk blijkt te zijn van de trouw van haar ‘Brodie set’. Dat Brodie niet slechts een vrijgevochten, ongetrouwde vrouw is, maar ook veel waarde hecht aan traditionele, religieuze waarden en daarnaast een vergaande fascinatie heeft voor Hitler en Mussolini, pleit niet voor haar zaak. Uiteindelijk verraadt één van haar leerlingen haar, zoals al vroeg in het verhaal duidelijk wordt.
The prime of Miss Jean Brodie is een uiterst grappig boek met een bijzondere structuur. Spark steekt de draak met de zeden uit haar jeugd. De flashforwards en de nadruk op kinderfantasieën werken goed. Ik kan me goed vinden in de vele lovende kritieken.
English
Miss Jean Brodie is one of those classic novel characters that is not easily forgotten. Using pupils’ perspectives and flashforwards, Muriel Spark creates an intriguing portrait of a teacher who succeeds in becoming a forward-thinking, worldly mentor, yet comes with a dark twist. The prime of Miss Jean Brodie is funny at times, and contains interesting thoughts on education and morals. I quite enjoyed it.
Review of 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is a deceptively simple novel, written with a lot of craft under the hood. The narrative structure flips back and forth across time, which has the effect of hanging the story on a constellation of perspectives for the privileged reader. Everything about this novel is well written, especially its title. I found it poignant, emotionally resonant, and very entertaining to read.
Review of 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I'd seen the movie when I was a kid on the late show and while it wasn't great it had interesting enough things going on in it that I wanted to read the book. There seemed to be many movies about school teachers in the 1960s. To Sir With Love, Up the Down Staircase, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Trouble with Angels. Not all movies succeeded, and most critics agreed that Miss Brodie didn't, but the book is a good one.
Review of 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This book feels more like a short story than like a novel. Set in Edinburgh, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" jumps back and forth between Miss Brodie and her students when they are 11 (and then 12, 15, 18, as the story progresses) and Miss Brodie's and the girls' futures (which are all surprising and glum to varying degrees). While there is a story, what I found most interesting about the book is that it captures the pre-WW2 feel. It is a comment on fascism as much as a story about girls and their beloved teacher. To read more about the book, visit my blog right here: outsideofacat.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/lets-not-talk-about-sex-baby-the-prime-of-miss-jean-brodie/
Review of 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
It was hard to get excited about this prescribed reading at school that my 16-year-old self simply didn't care much about as it contained everything I hated about real life; school, bullies, untrustworthy adults and teachers who insist they know your capabilities better than you do (I had undiagnosed ADHD and yes, I'm salty).
The story is about the power teachers have over their students, particularly the limited power of females in the 1930s, particularly their beauty and charm. Brodie's ideals are problematic yet also progressive, and the danger of those ideals getting passed down to impressionable young girls is given a particular spotlight. That said, every individual has their own power too - even naive female students - and Brodie learns the hard way what misplaced influence can do to ignite that power.
I suppose there is something to be said about being given this as prescribed reading as …
It was hard to get excited about this prescribed reading at school that my 16-year-old self simply didn't care much about as it contained everything I hated about real life; school, bullies, untrustworthy adults and teachers who insist they know your capabilities better than you do (I had undiagnosed ADHD and yes, I'm salty).
The story is about the power teachers have over their students, particularly the limited power of females in the 1930s, particularly their beauty and charm. Brodie's ideals are problematic yet also progressive, and the danger of those ideals getting passed down to impressionable young girls is given a particular spotlight. That said, every individual has their own power too - even naive female students - and Brodie learns the hard way what misplaced influence can do to ignite that power.
I suppose there is something to be said about being given this as prescribed reading as a teenager as it does contain a lesson to question everything and thus remain uncorrupted by potentially immoral or corrupt teachers. It was wasted on me as I'd already learned the lesson from real life, though not specifically from teachers, just from unreliable and immoral adults in general.
