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?

Agree 100% with this. Grizel seems to have a few false redemptions throughout the series. Joey's attitude towards her seems to fluctuate too. In one book (maybe Princess?) they were too different to be close friends, in Head Girl they were "more than ordinary friends" or something like that.

I actually think both Mollies (weird to give Joey two sisters-in-law called Mollie really) have a fat redemption arc.

Yes, a 24 year old with no qualifications (did she even go to University?) deciding that the best thing to do to make money is start a school in another country?! Seems a bit rash these days!

I think sickly children really were more common back then, conditions like asthma which are easily treated now could easily leave them weak and vulnerable (though maybe not to nearly dying from standing in a draft!)

EBD lost a brother in childhood.

I think it was a common theme in fiction, then, children dying from colds. In one of the Shelf Animal books from the 1940s, there were the grave words “now, Timothy’s cold had become serious…”

Yes, I also recall in Princess Grizel and Joey are referred to as no longer being friends.
Then by Head Girl (the next book) they are closer than friends!

Grizel comes back in Rivals with her friend Gerry and still seems to be reformed and thoughtful and close to Joey. Then by Camp and from then on in the Tyrolean books she has the same hostile attitude as in the early books!

In fairness my son is 14 now and until he was about 10 every time he started getting cold symptoms I would make sure his hospital bag was packed because he so often got very ill from colds. He was in ICU as a toddler with RSV.

It was a pre-antibiotic era too so a chest infection could be very serious.

Madge charged £120 a year for boarders, which is about £10k today. It sounds like a pretty good deal but I’d be a bit worried about handing over my daughter to a twenty something unqualified head teacher who would whisk her off to Austria, even with the cream cakes and MFL provision.

I guess what made it more plausible was the first students being Joey, Simone (who was there with Mademoiselle) and Grizel (who was so unwanted at home), and then some local girls.
I'm trying to remember who joined next from England, but my memory is hazy! I clearly need to start my next read through soon

As I wrote that I was chuckling to myself at the thought of time travelling and trying to explain to EBD in the 1920s that her books would not only being read and discussed 100 years later but would be the source of chats between people spread out across the globe thanks the the internet .
Despite some of the flaws in the characters (and in the later stories) I think she did something pretty special. Those books had some lovely values running through them, and I blame my willingness to step in and help people (and get into all kinds of situations as a result!) on the books. And I am convinced they also helped inspire me to learn French to near fluency.

I know. The enduring appeal of these books is phenomenal really.

Life has changed a huge amount in those hundred years, but the appeal of them still remains.

Was it Margia & Amy Stevens? And one of the Americans, though I can’t remember if Evvy or Corney came first. Someone’s rich American father was ‘fired with enthusiasm over the school’ or something like that.

I think Evvy is the first American? The Stevens are definitely early and maybe Ilonka, but I might have that wrong!

Juliet is first term isn't she? And the first adoption.

I’ve just had a look. Margia & Amy, then Juliet, Rosalie Dene, Mary Burnett, Vanna di Ricci & Evadne.

Madge did seem to be constantly bumping into people with conveniently aged daughters who were in need of either healthy mountain air or a language course! I remember being horrified at Juliet’s parents abandoning her to either an orphanage or a life as a skivvy at Madge’s mercy, but I think EBD kills them
off about four chapters later and serve them jolly well right.

Juliet was a great character.

It was surprising with the back story built up that she was written out and only given a passing mention from Exile and really not even involved much when she headed the Annexe.

She had a lovely relationship with both Madge and Joey. She was as close as Robin at one point.

Margia and Amy’s Dad was a journalist, wasn’t he? I’m sure some pupils appeared via his recommendation to their parents.

I would really have adored Hilda Jukes to show up at the Reunion, slender as a wand, with newborn quadruplet girls and a stonkingly successful writing career as a writer of school stories featuring a plump schoolgirl heroine who always comes out on top.

And by Exile, there’s that scene I’ve always found rather painful.

Grizel is ‘punished’ for having said to Robin (after Joey’s engagement) that her nose would be out of joint now that Joey had someone else who would come first with her, by Joey asking her to be a bridesmaid, but immediately correcting Grizel’s excited assumption that she will be ‘chief bridesmaid by saying ‘No, only a sister could be that.’

Grizel is a bit like Joan Baker in that unlike other ‘problem girls’ who get a narrative arc redeeming them immediately, she gets redeemed and then is still depicted as cold/impatient/selfish/not quite a CS girl.

And if we’re going to do a comparative suffering competition, there’s at least an argument for Grizel having had a more miserable early life than the Robin’s, surely. Robin loses her mother and then later her father, but has been adored and petted by everyone around her all her life, and is already long settled in a loving adoptive family by the time Captain Humphries dies.

Whereas poor Grizel loses her mother, is neglected by her father, who remarries without telling his wife he has a daughter, and her stepmother treats her badly. I’ve always thought that scene where Mrs Cochrane meets Madge in a shop and casually says ‘Grizel has always been a nuisance’ is quietly brutal. Plus she has the worst name in a series with lots of terrible names.

If Joey is a bleeding heart of butting in and sensitivity, surely she could have had two chief bridesmaids?

I’ve always been amused that Joey is so outraged when Miss Browne of the Saints does exactly the same by trying to recruit her for St Scholastika’s when they run into her at the Tiernsee. I mean, Madge must have hustled, too!

A lady never hustles! Actively touting for pupils was probably terribly vulgar, so Madge has to rely on attracting the Right Sort by word of mouth and shining example. No wonder EBDs own school failed 😬

Though I quite like the idea of Madge chasing sickly-looking girls on the streets of Innsbruck crying ‘TB in the family? I know just the place for you!’ and thrusting a prospectus into their hands…

Or having well-born pupils like the Von Eschenaus and Elisaveta carry a stack of prospectuses when out socially. 😀

Yes, I found that so insensitive too.

Joey was basically saying to her how dare you even think you could be chief bridesmaid. Everyone knows I like the Robin more than you 🤣

Grizel’s relationship with the Robin seemed to fluctuate too. In some of the earlier books like Head Girl she dotes on her like Joey and Madge. Then in books like Exile treats her with contempt and a rival for Jo’s affections.