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?

I don't know if Ju Gosling's work is still available on the 'net, but she wrote about girls' school stories from an academic perspective.

There’s also Rosemary Auchmuty’s A World of Girls, which looks at the Chalet School, Abbey, Dimsie & Blyton’s school stories.

I have just finished reading Joey and Co in Tirol.

In many ways it felt like a bit of a wasted opportunity. A lot of focus on the triplets rather than the Tiernsee.

I don’t know why the Richardsons couldn’t just have been introduced in any another book. I would have preferred if they had encountered Austrians with some connection to the early books.

It does strike me that from the point the school leaves Tirol it all becomes centred around British characters and loses the European focus of the early books. Obviously I understand that when they are located in England and Wales in the war, but even when they move to Switzerland nearly every head girl is British and a trip to Tirol revolves around new British characters rather than new Austrians….

Also, whilst that book was published in 1960 in some ways I found it more dated than some the earlier books. Joey was so rude to Madge about her weight! I think we were meant to find it funny but it was awful. That wouldn’t be published now in a children’s series. Also Prof Richardson being scoffed at regarding believing in spaceships when Neil Armstrong made it to the moon only a few short years later…

I thought I had finished all of the Armiford/St. Briavel's Island books. But after a brief visit to the finishing school in Switzerland ('Chalet School in the Oberland'), I ended up back on St. Briavel's Island for another two or three books.

'CS in the Oberland' was a little different, because it was a more grown up setting, albeit still a school. The pupils didn't have lessons, they had lectures. There were no prefects. One of the pupils ended up in big trouble for writing to a boy. And the same pupil got into trouble for smoking and playing cards on a Sunday.

I was a bit taken aback by a reference to Peggy having been taught to put on make up by her mother, "who had vowed she wasn’t going to have any of her girls going round looking like trollops" . I'm guessing that didn't make it into the Armada paperbacks.

Afair, this was the only book which was set in Welsen (the finishing school). I'm guessing EBD didn't have enough material to write any more books there. There would have been no troublesome middles to play pranks or get into trouble, and no prefects to tackle them. Also, the pupils only stayed for a year, so she wasn't able to build on their stories.

There was an interesting reference to some pupils who have joined from a different boarding school - "Anthea laughed. “My dear girl, that has nothing to do with it. Besides, girls who go to that sort of school don’t want the things that those of us who expect to have a job and keep ourselves later on need. When they leave school, the majority of them go home to live. Oh, they’ll take on voluntary things, like helping with the Red Cross, or the W.I., but you don’t need yards of maths and science for that sort of thing; or even reams of information about Shakespeare and dates for history and so on. I rather like those two, by the way. Pat Binney says she means to take a secretarial course later on as she wants to act as secretary to her father; but it isn’t a case of have to. As for June Amery, she is to go home and help her mother who seems to be one of the folk who go in heavily for philanthropy of various kinds. June will be fairly busy, I imagine, but she won’t need a degree for that sort of thing.” Elma nodded. “And she’s awfully pretty if you like that type. She’ll probably marry before she’s twenty-one.”

I guess that answers my earlier question about women getting bored when they left school and married/had children young, especially those wealthy enough to have servants to do the cooking and cleaning.

I never noticed before, but Diana Skelton was the original Joan Baker. Her father was nouveau riche. She had a high pitched voice and she spoke with a cockney accent.

The girls (and even some mistresses) are expected to drop everything and head home, if there's an ill parent or younger siblings who need care. Peggy was expected to forfeit part of her final year in the Oberland, to care for Mollie and her younger siblings. There was no suggestion that her twin Rix would do the same. Tbh that's probably still true, to some extent. It's usually females who are expected to provide care. Except a lot of women pursue careers now, so it's not a given that they'll be available to do that. And it's a much bigger sacrifice, if they do.

Incidentally, Mollie was at death's door in 'CS in the Oberland' but is now pregnant again ('A Chalet Girl from Kenya'). I would have thought that Mollie would have been advised not to have any more children, given that Phoebe Wychote was advised not to start a family. Which got me thinking about contraception. I don't imagine it was widely available back then (this book was published in 1955), but Jem and Jack are doctors, although their specialty would appear to be TB. I was wondering if they would have been able to get their hands on a supply, via a medical contact. It's probably not something EMBD gave a lot of thought to.

Also, I was wondering how feasible the language days would have been? Intensive language classes would have made sense, but I'm not sure how it would have worked teaching all of the classes in French or German (history, geography, science, maths etc.). There were so many new pupils each term. Imagine being a new pupil and sitting through a history class (in German) for your first lesson. You wouldn't be able to follow any of it. How would you do any written prep when you don't know a word of the language? Even after a few weeks, you'd only catch the odd word or phrase. It would hold everyone else back. Not to mention the difficulty of recruiting trilingual teachers. In fact, I wonder just how much learning took place at all - Matron seems to whisk the pupils off to the san at the slightest hint of a cold or illness. And pupils are frequently sent to bed as punishment.

Peggy was expected to forfeit part of her final year in the Oberland, to care for Mollie and her younger siblings. There was no suggestion that her twin Rix would do the same.

She was providing personal care for Mollie, I think; Rix couldn't have done that. The two youngest children were at school, so no childcare needed.

I think the equivalent for sons was giving up career plans to come home and run the family estate or business when father or elder brother died or was incapacitated. Adam Deveril in Georgette Heyer's A Civil Contract is one fictional example. I expect there are others. And in real life of course Prince Philip gave up his Naval career when the King died.

Imagine being a new pupil and sitting through a history class (in German) for your first lesson. You wouldn't be able to follow any of it.

That's what happened to Carola.

The trilingualism is a nice idea in theory. It does make the CS different from other fictional schools. It probably worked better when they were in Austria and Switzerland and had a number of native French and German speakers among the pupils. When you look closely, you can see the difficulties, but I didn't stop to think about it when reading the books as a child.

I think you could buy contraceptives from the chemist, and I think men could get them from the barbers. But Jack was a Catholic, so.... And I don't know whether EBD would have known that such things existed.

I'm a little further on in 'A Chalet Girl from Kenya'. Joey has a new radio and holds fortnightly radio parties. Ah, innocent times .

I've always found those difficult to imagine, because presumably Joey would have had to keep schtum for everyone to listen to the programme. Or maybe she kept interrupting with witticisms and reminiscences about the Tyrol and everyone wanted to whack her over the head with their cups of milky coffee.😀

Kenya is one of the Swiss books where you get an unusually explicit summer school timetable: morning lessons start at 8.30, there's a morning break at some point, Mittagessen is at 12.30, after which they rest until three because it's 'too hot for anything but a siesta', after which they have Kaffee und Kuchen, and then lessons again till 6. The lengthy siesta never makes much sense to me -- aren't they supposed to be at quite a high altitude, chosen for the San because of the supposed curative powers of high Alpine air? So how disablingly hot can it be?

For once, we do see a new girl who doesn't speak any German in a class given in the language she doesn't speak, but EBD can't possibly have thought this through.

But history was the last lesson before Break and Jo decided dolefully that no one would keep her in any division of Upper IV for more than two days. Miss O’Ryan spoke slowly and clearly and she was always ready to translate if necessary. Even so, it was a struggle to follow her account of the middle part of the Hundred Years’ War. It was a surprise, therefore, to Jo when the mistress, as she went out, paused to say, “Not a bad beginning, Jo. Work hard and you’ll soon find it easy.”

I mean, it's completely irrelevant how slowly and clearly someone speaks a language if it's completely unfamiliar to you! Biddy would have had to translate literally every word for Jo, while the girls in the class who spoke German went mad from boredom. I speak basic German and there's no way I'd be able to follow an account of the Hundred Years War!

And it cracks me up every time that EBD depicts Jo undressing Felicity, a baby of nineteen months, and putting a nightdress and dressing gown on her to carry her down the hall to the bathroom.

Insofar as not having babies is concerned, the advice seems to be not getting married. Phoebe and Robin were both advised to avoid the whole area, I think. EBD seems to have seen babies as an occupational hazard of marriage with the largest bounty bestowed upon her most deserving characters.

She would definitely have heard of contraception - it’s been advertised, however discreetly, since the Victorian period, and she was a teacher in South Shields where I can guarantee not every man would have watched his words around her all the time. But it would likely have been a very fuzzy idea tied in with immorality. She does make her characters quite incredibly religious, which means repressed outside marriage.

Wikipedia says condoms were handed out to soldiers for disease control during both wars and in South Shields, if she’d heard of them, it would probably have been in that context. Boots refused to sell them til the 60s, just as a reference point for how socially acceptable they weren’t.

It's not even just religion, it's also that she depicts women as totally unaware of male sexual interest being directed at them, far less taking any interest in a man themselves, which is clearly not something EBD thinks would be at all nice.

I mean, I get this is a children's series, but her pattern for relationships is always the same. Jolly, schoolgirlish young woman is glimpsed by an older, masterful man who immediately 'knows what he wants', and proposes, to her total astonishment. Given that it's a female-centred series, we invariably bob briefly into the male point of view for anything pre-marital, because the woman is totally unaware to the point of being childlike.

The only time a girl expresses an interest in a boy, it's viewed as rather disgusting -- Joan Baker saying dancing on a Saturday night would be no fun without boys, Elma Whatsit and her correspondence with the unsavoury Stuart.

Marie knows about her aristocrat' s interest in her, since he speaks to her father while she's still at school. Being jolly and rollicking.

Jack Maynard offers a more balanced perspective, to Mary Lou, on Joan's general behaviour - that she would have been expected to grow up more quickly because girls of her background would normally be starting work at the age she was.

I think talking about sex or even being in love fell under the long list of things considered vulgar in CS manners, whatever your age or background!

Marie knows about her aristocrat' s interest in her, since he speaks to her father while she's still at school.

Marie had noticed Jack's interest in Jo, too, when they were still at school, even though Jo was oblivious.

I think it's implied that Eugen and Marie had fixed things between themselves before he spoke to Papa - which he had to, Marie being under age.

It's quite comforting that at least one of them wasn't completely unprepared for adulthood.

I am reading Reunion at the moment. Only on Chapter 2, but so far Grizel’s interaction with the man on the cargo boat may be the first time I have come across a female character in Chalet School land being fairly clear about a man’s interest in her!

Granted Grizel must be very close to 40 by this time so not really comparable with the younger girls in the other stories, but still.

Similarly to Jo to the Rescue this one really reads much more like an adult novel so far rather than a girl’s school story. In the first chapter Rosalie’s single status is discussed at length, as is the fact that her brother seeks her advice on his love interests.

Definitely more grown up themes than the majority of the other books. I am enjoying it so far after the disappointment of Joey and Co in Tirol.

Insofar as not having babies is concerned, the advice seems to be not getting married. Phoebe and Robin were both advised to avoid the whole area, I think.

But Phoebe did get married, to Dr. Peters.

Do they adopt? Or am I imagining that? I always assumed all that stuff about Dr Peters understanding her illness because his mother had had it was code for ‘understands that this must be a celibate marriage’.

I can't remember. Maybe someone else can help out there.

I think that they adopted a daughter.

AI tells me that we were told this in Joey Goes to the Oberland. It is so long since I read that one that I can’t remember the details.

Thank you. I just looked it up, and yes, Joey says they’ve adopted a baby called Lucy and are looking for a boy next — ‘since Phoebe won’t have any babies of her own’, and they’re ’making do with adoptees’.

(I mean, I get that ‘making do’ would not have been an unusual attitude to adoption as very much second best for the time period, but it reads a bit oddly from Joey, who has always regarded the Robin as her sister every bit as much as Madge, and who is continually taking non-blood-related children.)

Yes that is quite offensive.
Particularly, as you say, when she treats Robin as a sister and Daisy etc as nieces and the fact that they are not ‘blood’ related is of no consequence.
Although I have also noted that when Joey adopts baby Claire later on she is always distinguished as being adopted and rarely counted as one of the eleven….

And then seems to be forgotten about!

Yrs, it’s a weird (and by today’s standards deeply offensive) comment from a woman who’s always appeared to regard adoption/chosen family as fully as valid as blood ties. Clearly it really mattered to EBD that Joey had eleven biological children, not adoptees!

Beth Chester is another one who clearly has a man on the scene but it's all implied until she leaves to get married.

Is anyone else shocked at the amount of staff Joey needs to run her household? There's Anna who does the food and cares for the babies with the help of the "Co-adjutor" who is only named occasionally and then a governess/mother's help - Beth Chester who blushed when there was any talk of the future and who was replaced by Maria. There was even talk of Elisaveta moving in to help.

Reunion is a good book, as you say it’s more about the adults. Although the triplets still manage to get in my nerves! I enjoyed the back story of Grizel’s love life issues and depression before she arrives.

Beth’s life never makes any sense to me — an Oxford degree at a time when that was not to be sniffed at, and then she retreats to a godforsaken mountain shelf to wipe noses at Freudesheim.

And it’s clear that the nursery ‘governess’ thing actually is wiping noses and doing physical childcare, not just teaching, from stuff said between Jack and Joey in Oberland. Jack says Joey never has a chance to get up at her leisure because the ‘brats’ are always needing help with buttons and strings, and having their hair brushed and their ears and necks checked for cleanliness. And Joey says that Beth will take all that over for the ‘babes’ while the girls and Steve are away at school. So she’s doing hands on-childcare for the four younger children as well as presumably preparing Charles and Mike for school. (As well as looking after Barbara).

Maybe EBD thought Freudesheim was such a Shangri-la that Oxford graduates would be fighting for jobs there…?😃