The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Perennial Classics) (original 1961; edition 1999)

The third book for the twenty-four hour readathon! I have a World Book Night copy, given to me by my mother. Otherwise, I doubt I'd have read this without someone giving me a push toward it.

I don't know what I think of it, though. The character of Miss Jean Brodie is sort of fascinating, the things she says and believes, and the psychology of it all is actually quite interesting, but... It didn't really catch fire for me. The introduction by Candia McWilliam suggests that for some people it does, when they're fairly young even in many cases, but not so for me. ( )

I'm glad I read this; I wish I'd read it right after I'd seen the movie though. There are some differences of course but both were quite wonderful (the movie was more dramatic; Maggie Smith was fantastic). It's really impressive the way Spark "gives away" the ending very early on, yet it's still a compelling read all the way through. ( )

I kind of liked the odd rhythm of the narration in this. I wonder is this the original "inspiring/dangerous teacher" book, or are there earlier ones? ( )

I need to mull this book over a bit, so my rating may change. Miss Brodie is a bit strange, especially towards the end. Sandie's internal imaginings were amusing, amusing but I didn't really understand her feelings about Miss Brodie at the end... ( )

Actually this is a DNF for me. I was intrigued by Miss Brodie and her students but was totally put off with the writing that jumped around so much.

For example, we are introduced to the "girls" as being famous for a variety of reasons, the mathematics girl, the one famous for sex, one for gymnastics, etc. The next description of them is as the one "who will be" famous for mathematics, sex, gymnastics. Then not a few pages later they are described as the one in 20, 30 40 years who *was famous* but is something else. To me I never managed to keep a name with a reason for being famous nor with what they become in the future.

Call me a linear thinker (others have) but all this bouncing about and jumping from time frame to time frame just confuses me. So, I gave up.

On to the next book. ( )