The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

First, let me say I have long loved the movie adaptation of this book staring the magnificent Maggie Smith who won an Oscar for her performance. I had high hopes for this book. Maybe my expectations were placed too high for it. Set in Edinburgh in the 1930s at the Marcia Blaine School For Girls, this book follows one of its teachers, Miss Jean Brodie and her influence on a set of girls she taught when they were eleven and their minds were malleable and who had parents that wouldn't complain to the headmistress.  It mainly follows Sandy Stranger one of the girls who was closest to Miss Brodie.

Miss Brodie had radical ideas such as she supported Mussolini in Italy and the fascists in Spain during their civil war and later even Hitler.  She didn't believe in teaching things from the books such as math and science and their version of history.  She talked about her travels to different countries and the importance of art and dance. She would have them over to tea and take them on excursions to the movies or the opera or the ballet.

She believed she was in her prime and the world was open to her as well as all sorts of experiences. While in love with the art teacher who was married and therefore untenable, she began a love affair with the choirmaster who was also madly in love with her.  The headmistress would try to get her on a sex scandal to try to fire her. She would interrogate the girls and try to find some firable offense to get rid of her and her wild teaching ways.  One of her girls will betray her at some point and she will be forced to retire and die alone.

I'm not giving anything away here. You find that out early on in the book, including who the betrayer is. This is not a terribly long book, only 137 pages, but it feels much longer as you are plodding through so much boring junk. The book is also written in such a choppy style. The character Sandy isn't all that interesting and sure Miss Brodie is a bad teacher and you soon realize a bad person but she doesn't make it exciting enough to compel the story forward.  You will rarely hear me say this, but skip the book and watch the movie.   

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Prime-Miss-Jean-Brodie-Novel-ebook/dp/B007ELLDFO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527512266&sr=1-1&keywords=the+prime+of+miss+jean+brodie+by+muriel+spark