The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Stark

Miss Jean Brodie, a maiden teacher in the prime of her life, has chosen six students from her class (the ones whose parents are less likely to complain about her unorthodox methods) to train to become the crème de la crème, the very best. She tells them about her travels through Europe and love of art, as well as of her admiration for Mussolini, Franco, and later Hitler. Even as the girls move up to the senior school and are no longer her students she still meets with them to make sure that they've set themselves apart from the rest of the students, eschewing team spirit in favor of their status as the Brodie set. One girl is trained to become the lover of the man Miss Brodie wants but can never have -the married art teacher, Mr. Lloyd- while another girl surprisingly takes that position. As the story is told in flashbacks and flash forwards it is revealed that Miss Brodie lost her job after World War II because one of her girls betrayed her. But which one? And why?

First of all, drop what you're doing and track down a copy of the film. Maggie Smith (probably best known to all you young whippersnappers as Professor McGonagall) is amazing in it.

I made the mistake of keeping the movie in mind the entire time I read the novel. As a big fan of the movie for years it's hard to get used to the story being told any other way --as with most films, it includes only a few incidents and characters from the novel. Nevertheless, the story itself (whether book, movie, play, or puppet show) is fantastic and I recommend it to anyone who likes good books in general.

I really need to do some digging into Muriel Spark's life and find out what she was going for here. The whole thing has this conservative, anti-feminist slant to it that should be exasperating, but I actually find quite funny and interesting. Miss Brodie, despite her political leanings, really knows nothing about politics. She loves the romance of war and overall regime changes, but never really shows any signs that she knows what it's all about. Her opinions and views are law in her classroom and (because she is a feminist apparently) has opinions and views on everything. In the book she's compared to the God of Calvinism because of the Calvinists' beliefs of predestination and the way she tries to play God with her girls' futures. This inspires one girl to eventually convert to Catholicism, a religion Miss Brodie has no time for. Usually in books and movies it's the students that are liberal and free-thinking, while the teachers are conservative and traditional. Regardless of my or anyone else's politics, I thought the role reversal was interesting.

On some level it reminded me a lot of Lois Duncan's Daughters of Eve, with teenage girls trying to understand their burgeoning sexuality and place in the world while under the negative influence of a teacher.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is quick, enjoyable, and a must-read. Check it out!

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