The Chalet School

[ShellacB]

There seem to be plenty of old Chalet School Threads, but I can't find a current one.

In the middle of a re read. I have just finished the Tyrolean and Herefordshire ones. I loved them!

I do remember the Swiss books not being quite of the same quality, so not sure whether to read them all.

Could anyone recommend the best Swiss books if I was to skim through?

In the Swiss books one has to contend with the specialness of Mary Lou. Joey becomes increaingly annoying. There's the obnoxious Jack Lambert. Plus EBD had never been to Switzerland, so she does't bring that personal knowledge that she did to the Tyrol and Herefs. books. And the quality does dip in the last few books.

I'd read Barbara, because it's the first in that sequence. I think my favourites would be Kenya, Genius, Problem, New Mistress, Excitements, (and I suppose Coming of Age), Theodora, Reunion - which is remarkably adult in its depiction of Grizel's state of mind at the beginning, given the books were written for young girls. Of the later ones, I like Two Sams, because I like the characters.

Most disliked - Future and Adrienne, although there are bits of each that I do like. And Prefects.

Will be interested to see what others think!

Definitely Problem and New Mistress; Problem is up in my all time top ten, if not top five. I am horribly afraid I've grown up to be Joan Baker. I'd also agree that Barbara and Mary Lou are both decent yarns, as Jo might say. I also like Oberland, even though it's based at St Mildred's, as it gives a new angle and has some lovely descriptions - as you say, probably drawn directly from guidebooks! I really like Coming of Age for the nostalgia but it doesn't spend nearly enough time at the Tiernsee.

Reunion frustrates me as it feels like a wasted opportunity. So many possible characters and conversations and instead we get lots of triplet stuff. But I do agree that the Grizel storyline is excellent.

I find a lot of the Swiss books end up feeling very repetitive with the new girl who does xyz and then settles in, helped by Jo, Mary Lou and Len. And I detest the character of Jack Lambert, and am not wholly keen on Margot, so books featuring them feel hard work.

The last two or three are of course utterly batshit - Miss Annersley in a speedboat IIRC from my only reading - and worth reading if only for a laugh if you can get them easily.

Some of the earlier Swiss ones are ok, though it does depend a little on how much you can stand Mary-Lou. I like Barbara, which is the first one where the proper school moves to Switzerland. Problem is also good, though make sure you get the hardback/GGBP version as the Armada paperback misses a lot. Quite like Coming of Age and Genius. New Mistress is good in places but significant Mary-Lou annoyance.

The later ones definitely get weaker and more formulaic.

Mary Lou is, I think, the last book before Mary Lou gets unbearable as a character.

New Mistress is interesting as it's the PoV of a mistress throughout but simultaneously refreshing and frustrating that she both reflects the view that Mary Lou is basically quite unbearable at this point but is then made to see that this is Wrong Think (sorry for the spoiler but the journey to her conversion is worth reading nonetheless).

The Swiss books are also the ones where it becomes fun to keep a record of what people are eating through the day. I wonder if it was like Blyton and they become rationing-era fantasies. But the level of cream consumption starts to become problematic and those trim mistresses (barring the divine Miss Nancy W) obviously put the hours in walking up mountains.

Yes to Barbara and Problem as among the best Swiss books, though I think Barbara herself is incredibly wet as a character (from memory, she’s fourteen and can’t brush her own hair because her mother always did it for her) , and I’m totally on Joan Baker’s side. I’d have been sweary too if confronted with cold baths and thinking up rivers beginning with D for my Saturday night ‘fun’.

I prefer the part of New Mistress where Kathie thinks Mary-Lou is a bumptious pain than after she recognises her as some kind of goddess.

I quite like the one (Oberland?) about the finishing branch, though mostly because of its enjoyably batshit ideas about young ladyhood (no cards on Sundays, no going to roadhouses with young men in the vac, and you have to wear light makeup because otherwise it’s selfish to make peiole look at you when you haven’t made an effort).

And I’ve always thought Malvina Russell was a perfectly nice name! Definitely better than Loveday Perowne or poor Primrose Trevoase!😀

I think we're all Joan Baker in many ways, although I think Rosamund is a nice little character and the bullying of her isn't on.

Barbara makes a lot more sense I think if you've read the La Rochelle books. Most modern readers will never have heard of them, but they are the back story of the Guernsey characters. I have to say I've never read them myself as I'm too old to be reading any of this stuff for the first time but I do know vaguely that they explain how Barbara comes to be so feeble.

I find the later books quite tedious - EMBD doesn't even try to pretend she's writing something new. She just adds a footnote saying which earlier book had precisely the same thing happen in.

And I always found Joey irritating. Although not as irritating as the Robin.

But I still read any Chalet School book. Particularly when I'm stressed. They are very reassuring.

Oh, I’ve read them. I just think she’s so wet she’s floating.

And yes, of course Joan is awful to Rosamund, but she’s never forgiven by EBD, as are other characters who are also bullies, some of whom do far worse things. Margot Maynard tries to blackmail Ted Grantley and nearly kills another girl by hurling a bookend at her head and giving her a serious head injury, but she’s Joey’s Magic Offspring, hence unimpeachable, whereas poor Joan behaves perfectly well for the rest of her schooldays, and is still ‘othered’ as prole-y and having bad heredity.

I always enjoyed New Mistress

Barbara makes a lot more sense I think if you've read the La Rochelle books.

Yes. Janie Steps In, which is available on FadedPage.com, gives the background. Barbara has always been babied, because of her delicacy, and it's to her credit that she is determined to stand on her own two feet at school.

I feel for Beth in this book. Oxford degree, could be earning good money and living independently. Instead she's been governess to Barbara and now is dogsbody to Joey just in case Barbara needs her.

Totally agree. That's why I find the later Margot books hard to read - compare Jo's treatment of poor Sybil after the accident with Josette to the endless excuses for Margot's appalling behaviour. And there's a huge amount of snobbishness in the way Joan is treated, despite the claims that the Chalet School is NOT like that - I just don't want to wholly endorse Joan as she is a bit of a meanie. I love the Armada cover that gives her an 80s mullet perm a la early Grange Hill.

I haven't read many CS books but I do really like Problem, and am probably secretly Team Joan, although she is a bit of a cow to Rosamond at first. Sad to see that she is tarred as Common for the rest of her schooldays.

Did we ever find out what the "smoking hot Leafy cake" was that Rosamond's annoying mother makes, which is clearly superior, morally and in flavour, to the Bakers' cheap cake from the corner shop?

....Although not as irritating as the Robin.

Child Robin is dreadful. A throwback to the worst kind of Victorian children's literature. But teenage Robin, in Exile and subsequently, acquires a mind of her own and is lovely.

I think I've come to the conclusion that it's lardy cake rather than leafy!

Yes, we are robbed of Robin, just as she becomes excellent.

Thanks very much. It is 30 years since I have read them so was wondering if the Swiss books were better than memory.

The quality of the Tyrolean and war books is very high in my opinion. Exile is a wonderful book even as a standalone. EBD was ahead of her time there.

I do think it's a shame that Madge fades out of the series so early and then particularly when it goes to Switzerland. She was a truly lovely character.

I noticed that in The New Chalet School there was a very quick move towards nearly all of the main characters being either English or American. Mademoiselle is written out as head at the same time. Does anyone know if this was related to the politics at the time in the lead up to World War 2 or coincidental?

I think the leafy cake was hash brownies.
which is the one where they find the mannequin in the lake, and Evadne falls down a hole?

Shame - had visions of a weed farm!

😂😂

That's Camp isn't it? Which I find generally quite dull. You make it sound better than I remember.

I agree with this. She is a lovely character in the post exile books in Armiford.
She is incredibly irritating in the Tyrolean books, but I have to say the irritation is more the blind adoration the other characters have for her and the constant babying rather than Robin herself.

I think in New Chalet School, EBD didn't really know what direction to take the series, or even whether she could continue it at all. It's my least favourite of the Tyrol books.

Jo had been such a central character, could the school series continue without her? Or should she follow her original characters into adulthood, as EJ Oxenham did with the Abbey books? She'd already dropped hints about Jo and Jack in earlier books.

I don't think Mademoiselle really worked as Head, she wasn't a strong enough character, so I think she'd have been gone anyway.

Exile is brilliant. I think it was published in 1939/1940? And EBD was prepared to make a clear distinction between Nazis and Germans. She had local boys lynching the completely innocent Jewish jeweller. I would actually go as far as to say it has importance as a historical document.

Mind you, choosing the Channel Islands to set up the new school in was... unfortunate.

Exactly. The Channel Islands were invaded just as the book was published I think.

I absolutely agree with you regarding Exile being an important historical document. It was very brave to write a children's book like that at that time.

I am slightly surprised that EBD didn't just return Jo to The Chalet School as a part time teacher who wrote books on the side. It would have made more sense than the increasingly far fetched ways of having her pop up every other day as an adult!

EBD wasn't alone in her peers though in having characters who married and had enormous families after leaving school, like EJO as @HonoriaBulstrode says. It's only more modern readers who are a bit perplexed! Jo not marrying would have been seen as a failure on her part.

I assume she picked Guernsey because of the La Rochelle series. Definitely bad planning on her behalf!