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feather_ghyll) wrote2009-01-10 09:00 am
feather_ghyll) wrote2009-01-10 09:00 am
REVIEW: Just Four Girls
Just Four Girls: Charles Herbert. The Leisure Library.
I don't think I've ever read a school story like this. I suspect it comes from the same stable as girls' weekly or monthly story papers that are discussed in You're a Brick, Angela!, because it's pretty much wish fulfilment. Despite the allusion to four girls in the title, it's the last of the four to be introduced who is the definite heroine. Amelia ('Melie) Jenkins is a 21-year-old former shop girl who came into pots of money and decided to be educated. She rejected the suggestion of hiring a private governess and chose to come to school, where she will join the form of youngest girls (about 14 or so), on the condition that she tells everyone who she is and why she's there. She goes through a modified version of the usual rites of passage is available goes through in school stories, finding chums, shining at a sport and winning an unusual award at the end of the year. But the only examples I can think of such an older girl coming/returning to school are detectives or journalists pretending to be younger to investigate something, or Jen and co. returning to school for special (domestic science?) classes in the Abbey Girls series. (And the end of it is that she doesn't complete the four years, despite earning her position as school captain, but using the wider-than-book learning she has recieved by marrying a baronet, bringing her money to his ancient estate. It's a much more extreme form of wish fulfillment than is normal even in most school stories. Or maybe it's wish fulfllment for a slightly more targeted audience - the older working girl?).
The school itself is less unusual. Mordern College (obviously a play on Modern, although it's old enough for some of the present crop to be children of former students), has definite rules and they are the rules of the girls, and upheld by the girls, theough a self-elected prefect system, with the Senior of each year responsible to the senior of the next year, until they reach the Captain who is responsible to Madam Prin(cipal). They are, at the same time, regulated by tradition to a large extent, and the ethos is to work hard. The living arrangements seemed really liberal (in some respects, this reminded me more of the type of American school story that Coolidge or Jean Webster wrote), and the chief thing is to establish that most of these girls are very rich - two of our four girls (one of whom is fifteen!) runs a car, girls are expected to buy their own furniture. The ethos of the school is that every girl should find herself, and it is explicitly based upon university lines even though the average age of each of the students is between 14 and 18. I wonder whether that was the male author's way in to writing a girls' school story, even one aiming for the sensational - the features sport is rowing, the Oxbridge sport, after all!
Although 'Melie is remarkable, or a remarkable version of the Extraordinary New Girl (describing her adventures reminds me of several Brazil heroines), the other three girls are stereotypes. Like most of the other Mordern girls, their first names start with the same letter as their surnames, which is more likely to happen in stories for magazines than books. Phillippa is a wilful Canadian who didn't want to come to England to be educated and tries to be a Bad Girl at the off. 'Melie calmly spanks her (!!!) and very quickly the school softens her. Grace is a clingy weeper who recently lost her father, adores her aunt and whom 'Melie decides to mother, a feeling that also grows within her towards Ruby, an orphan who has gained the support of a titled trustee of her orphange. She is a brilliant over-worker who is Too Good To Be Long For This World, and does indeed die before being able to take up a scholarship to Oxford.
The other big thing that adds to the distinctiveness of this book is its 'rags', which get more mention than sports or group activities or the quartette's holidays or work. Again, this is Extreme Practical Joking, 'Melie, who is behind academically, proving to be a genius at this and thwarting the traditional ragging of new girls by their seniors from the beginning. There's a lot of furniture removal, then, at one point, 'Melie starts a (small) fire (to get the older girls to remove a barricade of the new girls' floor that they set up in response to another 'rag'). The most tasteless is at the start of a term when 'Melie talks Phillippa and Grace into dressing in mourning and arriving without their companion Ruby, letting their seniors draw the conclusion that she's dead 'Melie doesn't lie, she's just selective with the truth when asked questions. The Doctor is an incredibly sympathetic figure in all this, but then Our 'Melie is irresistible. Actually, this rag leads to a funny mock trial involving the whole school, where 'Melie puts on a performance worthy of any barrister.
One of the more interesting relationships in the book is between 'Melie and Bennett, the Senior in the year above. It's a sort of rivalry over rags, that sometimes gets pretty vindictive, though they seem to understand and respect each other. She's not quite the traditional rival, and perhaps her ambiguity is down to inconsistent characterisation.
I don't know the date of publication, but the story's set during George the fifth's reign (1910-1936, thanks Wikipedia) and in the latter end, I suspect, given the reference to cinemas and cars. I've manged to further damage the slightly damage spine (oops), but the illustrations on the cover are rather nice (signed by Michle (sic) Wright). I couldn't find anything much out about Charles Herbert (I wondered if he was on of Charles Hamilton/Frank Richards/Hilda Richards' pseuds. All I could find was his name as the author of 'The Miracle' in this list of books for adults by the same publishers. One of his (annoying) tics as an author is to break in to the narrative with an 'Ah,...'. Typically, I can't find any examples as I flick through the book.
I don't think I've ever read a school story like this. I suspect it comes from the same stable as girls' weekly or monthly story papers that are discussed in You're a Brick, Angela!, because it's pretty much wish fulfilment. Despite the allusion to four girls in the title, it's the last of the four to be introduced who is the definite heroine. Amelia ('Melie) Jenkins is a 21-year-old former shop girl who came into pots of money and decided to be educated. She rejected the suggestion of hiring a private governess and chose to come to school, where she will join the form of youngest girls (about 14 or so), on the condition that she tells everyone who she is and why she's there. She goes through a modified version of the usual rites of passage is available goes through in school stories, finding chums, shining at a sport and winning an unusual award at the end of the year. But the only examples I can think of such an older girl coming/returning to school are detectives or journalists pretending to be younger to investigate something, or Jen and co. returning to school for special (domestic science?) classes in the Abbey Girls series. (And the end of it is that she doesn't complete the four years, despite earning her position as school captain, but using the wider-than-book learning she has recieved by marrying a baronet, bringing her money to his ancient estate. It's a much more extreme form of wish fulfillment than is normal even in most school stories. Or maybe it's wish fulfllment for a slightly more targeted audience - the older working girl?).
The school itself is less unusual. Mordern College (obviously a play on Modern, although it's old enough for some of the present crop to be children of former students), has definite rules and they are the rules of the girls, and upheld by the girls, theough a self-elected prefect system, with the Senior of each year responsible to the senior of the next year, until they reach the Captain who is responsible to Madam Prin(cipal). They are, at the same time, regulated by tradition to a large extent, and the ethos is to work hard. The living arrangements seemed really liberal (in some respects, this reminded me more of the type of American school story that Coolidge or Jean Webster wrote), and the chief thing is to establish that most of these girls are very rich - two of our four girls (one of whom is fifteen!) runs a car, girls are expected to buy their own furniture. The ethos of the school is that every girl should find herself, and it is explicitly based upon university lines even though the average age of each of the students is between 14 and 18. I wonder whether that was the male author's way in to writing a girls' school story, even one aiming for the sensational - the features sport is rowing, the Oxbridge sport, after all!
Although 'Melie is remarkable, or a remarkable version of the Extraordinary New Girl (describing her adventures reminds me of several Brazil heroines), the other three girls are stereotypes. Like most of the other Mordern girls, their first names start with the same letter as their surnames, which is more likely to happen in stories for magazines than books. Phillippa is a wilful Canadian who didn't want to come to England to be educated and tries to be a Bad Girl at the off. 'Melie calmly spanks her (!!!) and very quickly the school softens her. Grace is a clingy weeper who recently lost her father, adores her aunt and whom 'Melie decides to mother, a feeling that also grows within her towards Ruby, an orphan who has gained the support of a titled trustee of her orphange. She is a brilliant over-worker who is Too Good To Be Long For This World, and does indeed die before being able to take up a scholarship to Oxford.
The other big thing that adds to the distinctiveness of this book is its 'rags', which get more mention than sports or group activities or the quartette's holidays or work. Again, this is Extreme Practical Joking, 'Melie, who is behind academically, proving to be a genius at this and thwarting the traditional ragging of new girls by their seniors from the beginning. There's a lot of furniture removal, then, at one point, 'Melie starts a (small) fire (to get the older girls to remove a barricade of the new girls' floor that they set up in response to another 'rag'). The most tasteless is at the start of a term when 'Melie talks Phillippa and Grace into dressing in mourning and arriving without their companion Ruby, letting their seniors draw the conclusion that she's dead 'Melie doesn't lie, she's just selective with the truth when asked questions. The Doctor is an incredibly sympathetic figure in all this, but then Our 'Melie is irresistible. Actually, this rag leads to a funny mock trial involving the whole school, where 'Melie puts on a performance worthy of any barrister.
One of the more interesting relationships in the book is between 'Melie and Bennett, the Senior in the year above. It's a sort of rivalry over rags, that sometimes gets pretty vindictive, though they seem to understand and respect each other. She's not quite the traditional rival, and perhaps her ambiguity is down to inconsistent characterisation.
I don't know the date of publication, but the story's set during George the fifth's reign (1910-1936, thanks Wikipedia) and in the latter end, I suspect, given the reference to cinemas and cars. I've manged to further damage the slightly damage spine (oops), but the illustrations on the cover are rather nice (signed by Michle (sic) Wright). I couldn't find anything much out about Charles Herbert (I wondered if he was on of Charles Hamilton/Frank Richards/Hilda Richards' pseuds. All I could find was his name as the author of 'The Miracle' in this list of books for adults by the same publishers. One of his (annoying) tics as an author is to break in to the narrative with an 'Ah,...'. Typically, I can't find any examples as I flick through the book.
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