The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

I was so upset with my friends when I read this wonderful novel - why had they not forced it upon me years ago? Instead, it had been on my 'must get around to reading sometime' list for over twenty years, and it took me stumbling across this lovely little Penguin edition in the marvellous Ystwyth Books in Aberystwyth to finally get around to it. And what a joy. Spark is just so accurate, Brodie so sublimely drawn in her pretensions, in her apparently unshakeable belief of her position as mentor to her set. Her way, her word is the truth, and in her prime, Brodie is God, her girls followers.

And yet, while we love her, while we dream of how it would have been to have been taught by her, we see that she is also a ridiculous figure. So sure is she of her power, she is unable even to contemplate how she might fall, and we as reader want somehow to forewarn her. We want to tell her of the dangers ahead, but Spark is so good that we have no better idea then Miss Brodie what the future holds, and we read on in the hope that she can somehow be spared the humiliation of her seemingly inevitable downfall.

If, like me, you have been meaning to get around to reading this novel, get to it immediately. There really is no time to spare.

A word for the 1969 film version of the book starring Maggie Smith as Miss Brodie. She won an Oscar, it is not enough. Magnificent in every way. Read the book first, then treat yourself to the film too.