REREADING: The Chalet School and Jo

[feather_ghyll]

I got hold of a Chambers hardback copy of this book (a reprint) - I wasn't struck by anything additional that wasn't in the paperback edition, but I haven't compared page by page or anything. (ETA: My Armada paperback is a 'revised edition' which was first published in 1970. Still couldn't tell you how revised it is, though.)

In this book, Joey is made head girl, because she is clearly the leader of the Sixth, and thus the school, even though she is rather hating growing up and the responsibility that comes along with it. She is very much the main character of the book, with some contrasting mischief from the Middles - the irrepressible Americans Corney and Evvy; Margia Stevens and Elsie Carr; with some back-up from Ilonka Barkocz and Maria Marani. In fairness, it is shown why they might be a tad mutinous about being lectured and scolded by Jo, who used to be one of them not so long ago and is shown as being far from perfect, occasionally thoughtless and slipping up in the matter of 'forbidden language'.

I always loved summer term Chalet School books when it was in the Tiern See. The flowers, the boating and the trips sounded lovely. In this book, the school is rapidly expanding - there is to be an annexe, higher up the mountain, on the Sonnalpe for more delicate children, and there is talk of a third chalet being built. This is also the term that Joey and her family worry over one of her adopted sisters, Robin, who has shown enough signs of illness to cause concern, as her mother died of tuberculosis. All is resolved well, there.

It is not so very long ago since the school started, however, and Joey is grumbling about time rushing forward and old girls' tendency to get married and have babies and move away to study or start lives other than school life. Another of Joey's adopted sisters, although she would get dropped far more than the Robin (and Grizel) did as the series went on, never mind how very sympathetic she is her, is Juliet, who has qualified as a teacher and will be taking up the headship of the annexe - did the more experienced mistresses down at the main Chalet School ever get to declare an interest in the job? Despite herself, Joey finds out about a thwarted romance of Juliet's, where she was dropped by a sister and, more painfully, a brother who had been kind to her in England, after they found out about Juliet's dreadful father, and defends Juliet's honour, meaning that she will eventually lose Juliet. (Although Donal is training to be a mere lawyer, not a doctor.)

This is also the term that the school adopts Biddy O'Ryan, another orphan who meets the Middles, who like many book schoolchildren - so EBD's claims about their originality may not be true although possibly this was an early example; I haven't paid enough attention to know - decide to adopt her. Fortunately before their idea of the care and feeding of a ten year old girl doesn't get more than a few days' test, Joey finds Biddy and hands her over to the school authorities. Although it is decided that the Guides will pay for Biddy's upbringing and that she is to be taught at the local school and perhaps trained to follow her morther into service, it didn't turn out like that.

There are plenty of inconsistencies - the spelling of names, the age of girls/what form or division they're in and how long mistresses have been at schools. There is mention of someone that the girls knew dying in the San, but we never read about their being told of it - Madge telling Joey that they're worried about the Robin's health overshadows that. It's a shame that there's no detailed descriptions of any of the weekend Guide camps with St Scholastika's.

The other big event in the book, which I presume came from the authoress's own experience, given the detail of the writing, is a half-term visit to Oberammegau to see the Passion Play being performed, which has a great impact on most of the girls. Even at this point in the series, it is clear that EBD was developing her ecumenical stance and preparing the ground for Joey to become a Catholic (although I don't think that serious doctrinal differences about the basis of faith should be categorised as some Protestants' 'prejudices' about attending Roman Catholic service).

Running through this book is a variant of the claim, it I may put it like this, 'Ask not what Joey will do for the Chalet School, but what the Chalet School will do for Joey.' The idea at this point was that the Chalet School was meant to train women who would be useful in the wider world (mainly by being good mothers and sisters, but also in developing their talents). As it turned out, EBD would find a way - suggested here with how Madge stays connected to her school after motherhood and old girls like Gisela, Juliet and Grizel return - for Joey to remain inextricably linked with the school for a series that wasn't far off lasting long enough for Joey to see grandchildren being born, as the girls joke about at one point in the book.

Edited on 17.1.14.