The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is an interesting fictional study on the power certain figures can have on young minds that are in the process of being shaped. The story, set in the 1930s, centers on an unconventional schoolteacher in a traditional and conservative Edinburgh girls' school. When they were 10 years old, Miss Brodie chose six girls that would become known as the "Brodie set," each hand-chosen for a certain attribute they possessed, or the promise of something she believed they held. By the time they reach age 16, each of the six girls are recognized as one of Miss Brodie's girls, each famous in the school for something - mathematics, stupidity, gymnastics and swimming, sex, beauty, vowel sounds. The group is "held in suspicion and not much liking" by those at the school, and are "vastly informed on a lot of subjects irrelevant to the authorized curriculum." Throughout the book, which goes back and forth between the girls at various ages from 10 through adulthood, we learn how they came to become Miss Brodie's "creme de la creme" and how they grew, first together and then apart.

Early on, the narration reveals that Miss Brodie will be betrayed by one of the set and forced to resign from the school "before her prime." We learn which of the girls ends up the betrayer long before the book ends, but the main chronology of the book leads up to the moment of this betrayal as the girls come to realize the influence, manipulative to an extent and not necessarily in their best interests, that Miss Brodie has had on them throughout their development. The one who betrays her, in particular, eventually realizes how silly and misguided Miss Brodie is, whether because of her admiration of fascism, Mussolini, and Hitler, her obsession with a married teacher at the school which drives her to enter into an affair with an unmarried teacher, or her desire to be European.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a fairly quick read, not very long, and the story, for the most part, moves along at a good pace. There is a lot of repetition of certain facts throughout the novel - for example, mentioning what any particular girl is famous for, or what happened to each after leaving the school - which I found helpful in some cases and tiring in others. I didn't particularly enjoy the story because I found none of the characters very likable, and didn't really care what happened to any of them. The writing style was interesting, though, because the narration did not favor one person over another - it took a very objective and matter-of-fact view on the events of the book, which I liked. As a look into how one person can exert such control over someone's life, this book is intriguing, and if you're looking for something quick and easy, it's worth a read.