Book - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark's classic novel was the pick for January's book club meeting, and, without having seen the film or really having any cultural awareness beyond 'was played by Maggie Smith' (with the associated connotations of a wry, headstrong Miss Brodie), I was expecting a book-club-y read. By which I mean strong focus on characters that you can subsequently psycho-analyse, dealing with broad themes, and, well, objectively good, but nothing particularly radical in form or style.



I was very mistaken. This book is very odd.

The 1930s set novel focusses on the Brodie set of 6 girls schooled from the ages of 10-12 by the eponymous teacher, who Spark quite bluntly describes as a modern sort, part of a growing class of independent (both in thinking and social standing) women, and unusual in choosing to spend her life in such a stuffy and hidebound girls school. Miss Brodie spends her lessons regaling the girls with tales of her private life, from holidays in Italy to her lost betrothal who died in The Great War, all coloured with a heavy streak of superiority, as well as a paranoid disdain for the other staff.

The girls, each quite different in temperament and intelligence, are bound together as Brodie's favourites, constantly being taken out on weekend trips by their fiercely proprietorial mentor, and taught to exhibit a certain snootiness over the other children. This training binds them together even through the junior school, where they are still summoned to report on their lives to Miss Brodie after hours and at weekends, and to listen to her latest escapades (and some of those same stories of her lost love, again and again and again).

 The book is told in a loopy, drifting style, with constant flashbacks and portents which skip the timeline back and forth between the girls 10th and 16th years, and beyond, and we quickly learn that our protagonist, Sandy, considered the most insightful and intelligent of the girls, becomes a nun in later life, and this contrasts with her playful, and at times wanton, girlish behavious. We also learn that Miss Brodie dies at a relatively early 58, sacked and alone, betrayed by one of 'her girls', and these asides lead to a general sussurration of doom which stalks the book, as well as, for me, being very challenging to follow. There are few things more unsettling as a relatively prudish young man, than to be hearing about the early sexual adventures of the 'beautiful one', Rose, with a timeline that skips between her as a blossoming 16 year old and an innocent 10 year old.

This discomfort is coupled with the odd character of Miss Brodie. The story focuses on her relationship with two of the male teachers at the school. It appears (skewed through Brodie's narcissistic stories, and the girls reading of these) that both are in love with her. The handsome and married art teacher, Mr Lloyd, is seen in passionate embrace with her, but otherwise their relationship is unconsummated, whilst the awkward bachelor Mr Lowther (singing master) carries off a long running relationship with Miss Brodie, causing much rumour and consternation amongst the highly conservative faculty. Miss Brodie grooms the young Rose to have the affair that she was denied with Mr Lloyd, whilst obsessively fattening up Mr Lowther in a bizarre display of uxorial prowess. This is coupled with Brodie's regular recounts to the young girls of the wonderful things being done on the continent by those nice Sir's Mussolini and Hitler.

The book does an interesting job of displaying the naivetés of both the children and their supposedly grown up teacher, and the gradual realisation of the girls that their idolised Miss Brodie is in many ways deluded and sad. However I found the self-referential prose very difficult to keep pace with, and the less interesting girls (the clumsy and stupid Mary McGregor, the beautiful Jenny and clever Monica) are very lightly drawn and almost incidental. The same follows for the bitter and scandal-seeking headteacher Miss Mackay, a comic stereotype of a character who lurks for 'dirt' on Miss Brodie, eventually provided by the betraying member of 'the set'. In many ways I think these issues with the book are a consequence of my ignorance and the book's age - the unusual style would clearly have been more groundbreaking at the time, and all new inventions begin to look tatty after many years. Similarly the slight and archetypal characters help focus the story on the all-consuming Miss Brodie, and the book's extensive cultural impact will be a contributing factor in why these seem tired and lazy. Above all else, I think my issue was one of missed expectations - what I had figured as a 'classic' is to all intents and purposes a gentle comedy on the lines of Allo Allo or Keeping Up Appearances, and if I had picked the book up expecting something as waggish I may have had a much better time.