REVIEW: Dimsie Goes To School
Mar. 8th, 2009 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllDimsie Goes to School: Dorita Fairlie Bruce. Oxford Univerity Press. Reprinted, 1949.
This is the first of three Dimsie books that I have to read...
And so, we begin at the beginning. I read my first Dimsie book after reading a couple of Springdale books, and my impression of the Jane Willard Foundation school was that it was always raining in comprison, and that they were always doing drills (which sounded beastly) and what kind of a name is the 'Jane Willard Foundation', wondered I. Ouf, typing it out, that opinion comes on a bit stronger than I expected. But rereading and reading more Dimsie books toned it down, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to get a fuller picture of Dimsie and 'Jane's.'. Another thing is that I was used to Dimsie as a Senior, so having her be in the Hilary Garth role is strange.
Seriously, the story is firmly rooted soon after the first world war, with both physical and emotional evidence, although the later affects the girls indirectly. The final high point happens upon Armstice Day. This givs it more rootedness than I'd supposed from reading a couple of the books out of order, ascribing the series to a hazy, unfixed period of time, when the girls' clock is that of the daily timetable of meals and lessons, prep and free time, the weekly timetable of sporting practice and exeats and the seasonal terms, with the year by year progression to majority. I've written about this before, it's a habit of careless childhood and of picking up books with no context.
Anyhow, the book which was originally titled The Senior Prefect, in reference to Dimsie's elder cousing Daphne, who is indeed the heroine of the book, but Dimsie became the heroine of a series, features a lot of staples. 10 year old Dimsie is The Remarkable New Girl (cheeky without meaning to be cheeky, affectionate, but quite willing to employ fisticuffs) who makes her mark on the school, despite being very small fry. As a bonus, she has an Unusual Name, well, nick name, based on her initials. Daphne is the Recluctant Head Girl. As senior prefect, she has to step up as acting head girl when her chum and the current holder of the office is kept away from school. Then there's The New Head Mistress, Miss Yorke coming to replace Miss Darrel, and annoying the sporty seniors by cutting down their hockey practice time, making them work harder, and not being quite as lax over disciplinary issues (although she is most definitely a paragon of a head mistress, understanding of our heroines' emotional states. And! A former international hockey player!!)
There'smore, Daphne makes an enemy, hockey captain Nita, who (of course) has Spanish blood running through her veins (mentioned about three times), who decides to get back at Daphne for making her look bad in her initial stunts as a response to the diktat about less time for hockey practice. She gets a hold of the slack seniors, but the juniors 'sturdily' stay loyal to the senior prefect even before all is revealed.
Now the Maitlands have a weakness, although Dimsie doesn't realise it, in her mother. This story is rather confusingly told, as Dimsie never gets to hear the gist of it, and it's as if DFB has decided to come up with an adultish plotline that she couldn't write out clearly in a school story of that time, featuring mental health issues (but she's 'nervous' not mad, and the focus is on honour). Dimsie's mother lost a baby boy after Dimsie was born and so, while the war was going on, she took up bridge with a fast set. There was an accusation of cheating - unfounded - but just as her husband was dashing to rescue her name, a bomb hit London. Mrs Maitland, shell shocked, according to her sympathetic nurse, started to believe that it was her fault and that Dimsie was hurt in the blast and ran away, communicating only with her husband through the lawyers!!! She is, of course, now hiding in a house at St Elstrith, the village next to Jane's.
So, although there's a running commentary that Dimsie is finding out that school is not like the school stories she devoured before arriving, of course, it is. Indeed, it is almost a school story par excellence: there's a mademoiselle who doesn't understand why the girls want to take such brisk walks, mention of a midnight feast, breaking bounds...and it went on to spawn a series! So, reading about the bossy Erica Innes, the weepy Rosamund Garth and the less defined Pamela and Jean is interesting. Actually, there's a hint of backstory with Jean, Nita and Sylvia - did DFB ever publish a book about them? I enjoyed it, DFB's books are very comforting.
edited for typos on 12.1.10
This is the first of three Dimsie books that I have to read...
And so, we begin at the beginning. I read my first Dimsie book after reading a couple of Springdale books, and my impression of the Jane Willard Foundation school was that it was always raining in comprison, and that they were always doing drills (which sounded beastly) and what kind of a name is the 'Jane Willard Foundation', wondered I. Ouf, typing it out, that opinion comes on a bit stronger than I expected. But rereading and reading more Dimsie books toned it down, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to get a fuller picture of Dimsie and 'Jane's.'. Another thing is that I was used to Dimsie as a Senior, so having her be in the Hilary Garth role is strange.
Seriously, the story is firmly rooted soon after the first world war, with both physical and emotional evidence, although the later affects the girls indirectly. The final high point happens upon Armstice Day. This givs it more rootedness than I'd supposed from reading a couple of the books out of order, ascribing the series to a hazy, unfixed period of time, when the girls' clock is that of the daily timetable of meals and lessons, prep and free time, the weekly timetable of sporting practice and exeats and the seasonal terms, with the year by year progression to majority. I've written about this before, it's a habit of careless childhood and of picking up books with no context.
Anyhow, the book which was originally titled The Senior Prefect, in reference to Dimsie's elder cousing Daphne, who is indeed the heroine of the book, but Dimsie became the heroine of a series, features a lot of staples. 10 year old Dimsie is The Remarkable New Girl (cheeky without meaning to be cheeky, affectionate, but quite willing to employ fisticuffs) who makes her mark on the school, despite being very small fry. As a bonus, she has an Unusual Name, well, nick name, based on her initials. Daphne is the Recluctant Head Girl. As senior prefect, she has to step up as acting head girl when her chum and the current holder of the office is kept away from school. Then there's The New Head Mistress, Miss Yorke coming to replace Miss Darrel, and annoying the sporty seniors by cutting down their hockey practice time, making them work harder, and not being quite as lax over disciplinary issues (although she is most definitely a paragon of a head mistress, understanding of our heroines' emotional states. And! A former international hockey player!!)
There'smore, Daphne makes an enemy, hockey captain Nita, who (of course) has Spanish blood running through her veins (mentioned about three times), who decides to get back at Daphne for making her look bad in her initial stunts as a response to the diktat about less time for hockey practice. She gets a hold of the slack seniors, but the juniors 'sturdily' stay loyal to the senior prefect even before all is revealed.
Now the Maitlands have a weakness, although Dimsie doesn't realise it, in her mother. This story is rather confusingly told, as Dimsie never gets to hear the gist of it, and it's as if DFB has decided to come up with an adultish plotline that she couldn't write out clearly in a school story of that time, featuring mental health issues (but she's 'nervous' not mad, and the focus is on honour). Dimsie's mother lost a baby boy after Dimsie was born and so, while the war was going on, she took up bridge with a fast set. There was an accusation of cheating - unfounded - but just as her husband was dashing to rescue her name, a bomb hit London. Mrs Maitland, shell shocked, according to her sympathetic nurse, started to believe that it was her fault and that Dimsie was hurt in the blast and ran away, communicating only with her husband through the lawyers!!! She is, of course, now hiding in a house at St Elstrith, the village next to Jane's.
So, although there's a running commentary that Dimsie is finding out that school is not like the school stories she devoured before arriving, of course, it is. Indeed, it is almost a school story par excellence: there's a mademoiselle who doesn't understand why the girls want to take such brisk walks, mention of a midnight feast, breaking bounds...and it went on to spawn a series! So, reading about the bossy Erica Innes, the weepy Rosamund Garth and the less defined Pamela and Jean is interesting. Actually, there's a hint of backstory with Jean, Nita and Sylvia - did DFB ever publish a book about them? I enjoyed it, DFB's books are very comforting.
edited for typos on 12.1.10
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