Novel
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark · 1961
Synopsis
Edinburgh, the thirties. At the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, Jean Brodie chooses six ten-year-old pupils whom she calls the crème de la crème. She talks to them about Mussolini, the Renaissance painters and her fiancé killed in the war, and keeps telling them that she is in her prime. The headmistress looks for a reason to dismiss her. The art teacher, who is married, and the singing teacher are in love with her, and the six girls know it.
Context
The novel appeared in 1961 in book form and in a New York weekly, which gave it most of an issue, a rare honour. The narrative announces from the first pages that one of the six girls will betray their teacher. The school described is the one its author attended, and the teacher who had noticed her there is the model: she hung reproductions of Botticelli and Giotto on her wall, and a picture of Mussolini's fascists, like the character.
Who it is for
A short novel, about one hundred and fifty pages; the narrative moves by anticipations and jumps in time.
Prizes and reception
Its best-known novel, popularised by its adaptations, on stage in London and then on film by Ronald Neame.
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