554. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark
1961

Around 170 pages

I wish I had a teacher like Jean Brodie. Besides the whole, you know, pushing her students into bed with a married man part. The closest I had was a geometry teacher who would tell us he was suicidal by making all the math problems about him hanging himself or jumping off a building. Jean definitely sounds cooler.

Jean Brodie believes in educating her students by filling them in on her personal life as much as possible. The six girls that Jean singles out gain notoriety as the "Brodie set" (which is a much more appealing moniker than the Slug Club). Jean is involved in a love triangle between the singing teacher and the married art teacher. We learn early on in the story that one of the Brodie set will betray Jean later in life, who steadily rebukes the stereotype of a schoolmarmish spinster.

Non chronological stories can be confusing, but I appreciated the frequent flash forwards in this novel. They helped set up the main mystery: who betrayed Jean Brodie? I really loved the setting of Edinburgh in the 1930s, and as someone who dreams of being a British school child, I enjoyed the descriptions of academic life in the era.

This is also a definite improvement from Spark's last novel, so I'm excited to watch her continue to sharpen her skills as a writer.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present.

Jean Brodie was inspired by a teacher of Spark's who encouraged her to write.

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