REVIEW: Dimsie Moves Up
Jul. 20th, 2019 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllDimsie Moves Up: Dorita Fairlie Bruce. Oxford, reprint 1935.
This is an important book in the canon of girls own books, as it features the inception of the Anti-Soppists.
The ‘moving up’ is from the Fourth Division of Jane Willard’s school to the Third (no other school went for the idea of ‘divisions’). But Dimsie, Erica, Jean, Pam and Mabs are dismayed that the other member of their gang, Rosamund, won’t be joining them. Still, even loyal Dimsie can’t dispute headmistress Miss Yorke’s contention that Rosamund hasn’t worked as hard as the rest of them.
In the Third Div. these fairly sensible and very honourable girls find a spirit of sentimentality thriving. Bossy Erica quickly establishes a society that bans any such soppy behaviour from its members. Establishing a secret society (that usually gets discovered) and one with this particular aim is, of course, not rare in boarding school stories, but the Anti-Soppists are surely the most famous iteration.
Another familiar trope, but one that’s less remarkable, is the rotten senior. Nita Tomlinson is games captain, but not a prefect. She makes Primrose Garth unhappy by having stolen her games-mad chum of many years’ standing Meg, then decides to fascinate Primrose’s younger sister Rosamund. Rosamund’s gang don’t like the latter act, the senior girls are puzzled, but it all rises from Nita’s mean and vengeful nature, which shows itself in many ways over the half term over which this book is set.
The five new Third Div members are also moved into a new dorm (without Rosamund). Mabs is the most excited about this because it gives her a new place to search for the rumoured entrances to secret tunnels leading to smugglers’ caves. Dimsie is central to the adventure of finding one – another trope.
In fact, Dimsie has achieved the distinction of being the most popular girl in the lower school. This is despite/because of her ‘cheek’, which is a mix of the sense to apply directly to authority; her code of honour, which she shares with her friends; and her loyalty, most apparent her in how she’ll go out to bat for Rosamund.
There’s a sense of a generational handover in the series, as head girl Sybil will be leading. But apart from their promising cricket play, the younger girls’ characters suggest Jane’s will be in safe hands.
There’s lightness too – Erica’s ‘Am I…or am I not?’ formulation is used by another character. I also saw a slight bird theme in how Fairlie Bruce described characters. There’s the sense of the school body mostly being too strong for the malign influence of Nita, who gets a redemptive chance as well as just punishments for her dishonesty and self-interest.
This is an important book in the canon of girls own books, as it features the inception of the Anti-Soppists.
The ‘moving up’ is from the Fourth Division of Jane Willard’s school to the Third (no other school went for the idea of ‘divisions’). But Dimsie, Erica, Jean, Pam and Mabs are dismayed that the other member of their gang, Rosamund, won’t be joining them. Still, even loyal Dimsie can’t dispute headmistress Miss Yorke’s contention that Rosamund hasn’t worked as hard as the rest of them.
In the Third Div. these fairly sensible and very honourable girls find a spirit of sentimentality thriving. Bossy Erica quickly establishes a society that bans any such soppy behaviour from its members. Establishing a secret society (that usually gets discovered) and one with this particular aim is, of course, not rare in boarding school stories, but the Anti-Soppists are surely the most famous iteration.
Another familiar trope, but one that’s less remarkable, is the rotten senior. Nita Tomlinson is games captain, but not a prefect. She makes Primrose Garth unhappy by having stolen her games-mad chum of many years’ standing Meg, then decides to fascinate Primrose’s younger sister Rosamund. Rosamund’s gang don’t like the latter act, the senior girls are puzzled, but it all rises from Nita’s mean and vengeful nature, which shows itself in many ways over the half term over which this book is set.
The five new Third Div members are also moved into a new dorm (without Rosamund). Mabs is the most excited about this because it gives her a new place to search for the rumoured entrances to secret tunnels leading to smugglers’ caves. Dimsie is central to the adventure of finding one – another trope.
In fact, Dimsie has achieved the distinction of being the most popular girl in the lower school. This is despite/because of her ‘cheek’, which is a mix of the sense to apply directly to authority; her code of honour, which she shares with her friends; and her loyalty, most apparent her in how she’ll go out to bat for Rosamund.
There’s a sense of a generational handover in the series, as head girl Sybil will be leading. But apart from their promising cricket play, the younger girls’ characters suggest Jane’s will be in safe hands.
There’s lightness too – Erica’s ‘Am I…or am I not?’ formulation is used by another character. I also saw a slight bird theme in how Fairlie Bruce described characters. There’s the sense of the school body mostly being too strong for the malign influence of Nita, who gets a redemptive chance as well as just punishments for her dishonesty and self-interest.
