When I was looking at lists of books for the 1961 Club, I was shocked to find that I had never reviewed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for my blog. This seemed like the perfect excuse to reread it.
Miss Brodie is a teacher in a girls’ school in Edinburgh who picks out a group of girls in their 10th year to be her favorites. This story is told from the point of view of the girls, particularly Sandy.
To ten-year-old girls, Miss Brodie is a romantic figure who tends to favor subjects like Tennyson or the Italian Renaissance or her admiration for Mussolini rather than what she’s supposed to be covering. And it’s an open secret that she has relationships with two of the male staff members, one of whom is married. These points put her into conflict with Miss MacKay, the headmistress, who is always trying to find an excuse to force her to retire.
I had forgotten how centered on the girls this novel is. (I remember the movie better.) The passages where the girls speculate about sex or write their imaginary stories about Miss Brodie’s love life are touching and funny.
Over the course of seven or eight years, Sandy eventually decides that Miss Brodie’s influence is not benign, but it is clear even from the end of the novel that she feels ambivalent about her.
Although Miss Brodie is portrayed at one point as a feminist—and for the 1930s when the book is set, she might be—there is no plan of independence in her mind for her girls. She has described what will become of them, and if they don’t follow her plan, she begins to lose interest—says they haven’t lived up to their potential. But her plans seem to be for her own gratification rather than theirs.
This is an insightful look into a certain kind of character, and I think it seems deeper every time I read it.
What? Me Read? 