Muriel Spark

The prime of Miss Jean Brodie

At the staid Marcia Blaine School for Girls, in Edinburgh, Scotland, teacher extraordinaire Miss Jean Brodie is unmistakably, and outspokenly, in her prime. She is passionate in the application of her unorthodox teaching methods, in her attraction to the married art master, Teddy Lloyd, in her affair with the bachelor music master, Gordon Lowther, and—most important—in her dedication to "her girls," the students she selects to be her crème de la crème. Fanatically devoted, each member of the Brodie set—Eunice, Jenny, Mary, Monica, Rose, and Sandy—is "famous for something," and Miss Brodie strives to bring out the best in each one. Determined to instill in them independence, passion, and ambition, Miss Brodie advises her girls, "Safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth, and Beauty come first. Follow me." And they do. But one of them will betray her.

A Novel

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

cedar winslow

Therefore the sewing lessons were a great relaxation to all, and Miss Brodie in the time before Christmas used the sewing period cach week to read Jane Eyre to her class who, while they listened, pricked their thumbs as much as was bearable so that interesting little spots of blood might appear on the stuff they were sewing, and it was even possible to make blood-spot designs.

born in 1918 muriel spark gets it… this book felt like a trapse through girlhood and gentley reminds us that our perceptions change over time, super fun read

Christopher McCaffery

Romantic, heroic, comic and tragic, unconventional schoolmistress Jean Brodie has become and iconic figure in post-war fiction.

Alexia

She was a schoolmistress with a difference. Proud, cultured, romantic, her ideas were progressive, even shocking. And when she decided to transform a group of young girls under her tutelage into the creme de la creme of Marcia Blaine school, no one could have predicted the outcome.

Eugenia Andino

I'm not completely sure if I've liked this book or not. The story is fascinating, but I would have liked a bit more character development.

Akanksha Chattopadhyay

Immediately after finishing the book, I gave it three stars. A few hours on, I'm revising it to five.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is one of those books that offer a strong formal/linguistic resistance to the reader, in this case, the jerky, dialogue-ridden narration, but amply reward those that persevere. 
The novel fares bitter on the palate despite the smattering of beautiful passages here and there. It is the exquisite execution of its unsavoury flavourings that makes the book the classic that it is. The well-worn setting (of a school) and premise (of the teacher-student dynamic)-have been rendered striking through a clever blend of the familiar and shocking, while remaining very, very real all the time.
Miss Brodie and her créme de la créme, needless to say, are going to stay with me for a while now.

Cindy

This is the type of novel that would come alive in film (which surely means I should watch the movie). The betrayal! The manipulation! The subterfuge! Jean Brodie is all at once enigmatic and wicked. She's such a sour turn off the classic mentor/teacher trope that I nearly recoiled, because she reminded me so much of an old teacher of mine. What a sharp look at the dark side of the teacher/student dynamic.

Gabe Cortez

Niki Sotiropoulou-Nassika

'Muriel Spark's most celebrated novel . . . This ruthlessly and destructively romantic school ma'am is one of the giants of post-war fiction' Independent 'A brilliantly psychological fugue' Observer The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is Muriel Spark's most significant and celebrated novel, and remains as dazzling as when it was first published in 1961. Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher unlike any other, proud and cultured, enigmatic and freethinking; a romantic, with progressive, sometimes shocking ideas and aspirations for the girls in her charge. At the Marcia Blaine Academy she takes a select group of girls under her wing. Spellbound by Miss Brodie's unconventional teaching, these devoted pupils form the Brodie set. But as the girls enter their teenage years and they become increasingly drawn in by Miss Brodie's personal life, her ambitions for them take a startling and dark turn with devastating consequences.

The prime of Miss Jean Brodie

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