REVIEW: The Chivalrous Fifth
Dec. 31st, 2025 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllWhat's this? A review of a proper Girls Own book? I admit they've been few and far between this year, but I haven't read many in 2025.
The Chivalrous Fifth: Christine Chaundler. Nelson.
I’m not entirely convinced that ‘chivalrous’ is the right adjective here, although I can’t suggest a better alternative. Anyway, Five B at St Cecilia’s is surprised when a new girl joins them two weeks into term, for the headmistress rarely allows a new girl to join the senior school, but here is Jane Smith. Class prefect Cicily is ordered to take care of her, but of course Jane faces a barrage of questions from her new classmates. When the girls learn that her father was a coal merchant and her mother owns a second hand shop, they have qualms. St Cecilia’s is a boarding school for gentlemen’s daughters, and Mona, the biggest snob in the class, wonders if the head has taken leave of her senses.
But Cicily and her best friend Betty decide to champion Jane, which means stopping further questions by tactfully changing the subject. Soon enough, they come to like Jane for herself, even if the younger girls find out that Jane’s mother sells rag and bone and try to ‘rag’ her. In fact, Jane turns out to be the stronger character, influencing even prim and proper Cicily.
When the trio get lost on a walk in the woods, looking for primroses, and come across a cottage with a mother and a sick baby, Jane – a Guide – realises that the baby is seriously ill and is determined to call the doctor. This turns out to be more complicated than a short walk in the wrong direction, but Jane is up to the challenge, and turns out to be able to commandeer the doctor’s second car to find him. (The book’s moral seems to be that breaking the law is all right if it’s a matter of life and death, and though the girls then decide to keep their adventures secret from their headmistress for fear of getting a row, they come out.)
Jane continues to worry about the woman and her child, for her husband is currently in jail for poaching, and she’s right to, Mrs Loveridge is facing having to go to ‘the Home’, which would mean separation from her child, something that Cicily and Betty would never have thought of. Jane has her own ideas about how to raise funds to support the family, and though they try to dismiss them and talk Jane out of her (rule-breaking) actions, Cicily and Betty are loyal to her, and she’s strong minded.
As the astute reader will have seen coming, Jane has not come to school from the Cockney slums, and her new schoolmates have their worldview shaken a little by her. Justice is done for the baby and ‘its’ mother (Chaundler kept using this pronoun, although the baby is a girl named Rosie), authority gets to have its say, and things are clearer for all the girls of Five B by the end. The ‘snobbery is bad’ message is confused by our heroines all being at boarding school, though, and most of them having no idea of what life was like for ‘panel’ patients. It’s an easy read, the slang is mild to moderate, and the plot is within the bounds of credibility, which feels about right for this author.
The Chivalrous Fifth: Christine Chaundler. Nelson.
I’m not entirely convinced that ‘chivalrous’ is the right adjective here, although I can’t suggest a better alternative. Anyway, Five B at St Cecilia’s is surprised when a new girl joins them two weeks into term, for the headmistress rarely allows a new girl to join the senior school, but here is Jane Smith. Class prefect Cicily is ordered to take care of her, but of course Jane faces a barrage of questions from her new classmates. When the girls learn that her father was a coal merchant and her mother owns a second hand shop, they have qualms. St Cecilia’s is a boarding school for gentlemen’s daughters, and Mona, the biggest snob in the class, wonders if the head has taken leave of her senses.
But Cicily and her best friend Betty decide to champion Jane, which means stopping further questions by tactfully changing the subject. Soon enough, they come to like Jane for herself, even if the younger girls find out that Jane’s mother sells rag and bone and try to ‘rag’ her. In fact, Jane turns out to be the stronger character, influencing even prim and proper Cicily.
When the trio get lost on a walk in the woods, looking for primroses, and come across a cottage with a mother and a sick baby, Jane – a Guide – realises that the baby is seriously ill and is determined to call the doctor. This turns out to be more complicated than a short walk in the wrong direction, but Jane is up to the challenge, and turns out to be able to commandeer the doctor’s second car to find him. (The book’s moral seems to be that breaking the law is all right if it’s a matter of life and death, and though the girls then decide to keep their adventures secret from their headmistress for fear of getting a row, they come out.)
Jane continues to worry about the woman and her child, for her husband is currently in jail for poaching, and she’s right to, Mrs Loveridge is facing having to go to ‘the Home’, which would mean separation from her child, something that Cicily and Betty would never have thought of. Jane has her own ideas about how to raise funds to support the family, and though they try to dismiss them and talk Jane out of her (rule-breaking) actions, Cicily and Betty are loyal to her, and she’s strong minded.
As the astute reader will have seen coming, Jane has not come to school from the Cockney slums, and her new schoolmates have their worldview shaken a little by her. Justice is done for the baby and ‘its’ mother (Chaundler kept using this pronoun, although the baby is a girl named Rosie), authority gets to have its say, and things are clearer for all the girls of Five B by the end. The ‘snobbery is bad’ message is confused by our heroines all being at boarding school, though, and most of them having no idea of what life was like for ‘panel’ patients. It’s an easy read, the slang is mild to moderate, and the plot is within the bounds of credibility, which feels about right for this author.
