The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jan 23, 2015 Sara rated it it was ok

I would have given it a 2.5 if that were possible. I found it somewhat disappointing and bland. It was very short or I might have abandoned it as the story seemed to be going nowhere. I think it helps if you can put this in the context of the 60s and early 70s when the sexual liberation of young women was all the rage. In the end all I saw was a pathetic school-marm spinster who made a wreck of some young lives along the way.

One of the weaknesses of this novel for me is that you never feel the l I would have given it a 2.5 if that were possible. I found it somewhat disappointing and bland. It was very short or I might have abandoned it as the story seemed to be going nowhere. I think it helps if you can put this in the context of the 60s and early 70s when the sexual liberation of young women was all the rage. In the end all I saw was a pathetic school-marm spinster who made a wreck of some young lives along the way.

One of the weaknesses of this novel for me is that you never feel the least involved in either Jean Brodie or the young narrator, Sandy. If you cared about either of them the story would have a different depth of meaning. As it was, Sandy seemed vacuous and in the end vindictive and cruel and Jean a clueless and shallow pedant who is less interested in guiding her charges than in touting herself by telling stories of her exploits that are more fiction than fact.

One point Spark does make well is that we are influenced greatly when we are young by those who have authority over us and some of those people remain in our minds and find their way into our image of ourselves. Miss Brodie's effect upon the six girls who become her followers is long-lasting. How can poor Mary ever be expected to think well of herself after years of being told she is stupid and clumsy? Why does Sandy become a nun, when it is obvious that her religious leanings are weak at best? I think this is a way of trying to compensate and forgive herself for her ultimate betrayal of Jean, but I reach this conclusion despite the fact that Spark does not paint her with any brush of remorse. Nor does Jean seem to feel any remorse for sending Rose out to fulfil her own lusts after the art teacher...only a total preoccupation with knowing who gave up her secrets to the headmistress.

I could not help comparing this book to other books set in schools of this age. A Separate Peace came to mind. Such a mental comparison serves to diminish this book even farther in my view. Having been aware of this book for a long time and promising myself to read it, I know that it is well respected and has a following. I must say it is perhaps just not the book for me. ...more

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Feb 04, 2021 Annette rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-read, books-by-women, library, 2021, short-story-or-novella, gbbw-challenges-2021, gbbw-read, catching-up-on-classics-read

I failed to be engaged by any aspect of this book.

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Jan 25, 2024 Katherine Sas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: realistic

In this first book I'm reading in preparation for a trip to Edinburgh later this year, Muriel Spark delivers dry Scottish humor, ruminations on Calvinism, and one of the great charismatic and manipulative teachers in fiction. ...more

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Feb 19, 2015 Suzan (Suus Leest) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

3.75 stars. Because I thoroughly enjoyed it but sometimes it dragged.

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May 13, 2021 Z. rated it really liked it

Shelves: coming-of-age, scotland, modern-classics

Having grown up on the perhaps unsurpassable 1969 Maggie Smith performance, was curious as to the kind of impression this would leave - Geraldine McEwan also gave a satisfyingly fruity rendering in the (unfortunately unfinished) 1978 TV version.

Really liked the playful, jaunty tone, occasionally bordering on farce, and all the vivid observations around the awkwardness, curiosity of growing up — in this case under the rather unbenign influence of larger-than-life Brodie — came as little surpris ...more

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Aug 26, 2023 Elanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: checked, novels, classics, audio-books, 1001-libri, favourites, coming-of-age, england, audible

Sharp and pitiless, a jewel with a razor's edge. Constant shifting perspectives under the deceptive appearance of an omniscient narrator make it impossible to fall into comfortable assumptions about the characters' motivations and their ethical stance. The story that takes shape is more the story of two jungle beasts devouring each other in turns, than anything else.
Weeks after reading, the perfect economy of the style still stays with me - not one word too many, nothing left unsaid but what nee ...more

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Oct 10, 2020 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

I listened to this on audio, and I think I need to read it on paper. I think I missed a lot because I was not concentrating. This is a short book, and there's actually quite a bit going on. It was not at all what I expected. I expected some melodramatic thing about a beloved spinster teacher. Umm, no. Pleasantly, it was about a whole lot more. Packed into about 130 pages, there's questions about education, feminism, sex, fascism, religion, friendship, loyalty, and art. Phew. Just who betrayed wh ...more

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