The CBB :: View topic - Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School

#1: Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School Author: Josie, Location: London

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:25 am

Don't get too excited, but we actually have a synopsis on the Chaletian for this one! Laughing

http://www.chaletian.com/books/eustacia.html

Okay, Eustacia - do you dislike her or feel sorry for her? What do you think of the reaction of the other middles to her? Is it understandable that she rubs them up the wrong way? What about her relationship with Joey? Is Joey unfair to her, or does is it understandable that her back was put up by Eustacia's first day comments about unsanitary beds and vulgar schoolgirls? Was it right to ban her from the library? Was the blame she was given over Bill's accident fair? Was the Robin getting so ill a bit OTT? What about her accident? And is the transformation to Stacie understandable, or another one of EBD's sudden character transplants? Anything else?

ETA: I can't spell!

Last edited by Josie on Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

#2: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 10:17 am

I am going to go away to think about this one. I have a feeling the answers I may have given two weeks ago are not the same as the answers I may give since reading Pat's most-excellent drabble.

Liz

#3: Author: Emma A, Location: The Soke of Peterborough

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:15 pm

Wow, a lot of questions there! I have become more and more sorry for Eustacia every time I read the book, particularly in its unabridged form. The authorial voice is only very occasionally sympathetic to her, but more stating that she's miserable because she isn't adapting herself to EBD's (and thus the CS's) view of what a schoolgirl should be.

She's evidently an intelligent girl, and I think her behaviour is quite consistent with her upbringing. It's just that no-one is prepared to make allowances for her being so suddenly bereaved. Admittedly, her behaviour is never explained that way. I think the way the other middles react to her is quite believable, because according to their lights she does behave dishonourably. What is less excusable is the prefects' treatment of her, and the way they allow her to lose her temper - it would have been much more tactful if Mary had been allowed to deal with the situation regarding the library, for example, by herself, rather than bringing in all the prefects. They were older, and should have made allowances that her younger peers did not. I certainly think that her ban from the library was draconian in the extreme. The CS are very keen on making the punishment fit the crime, but I'm sure that in Eustacia's case it was an unfair punishment.

Her remarks about insanitary conditions and vulgar schoolgirls would rankle, I'm sure, particularly as Joey is very proud of the school - any criticism of the school she sees as criticism of Madge. I think that no-one ever made any attempt to explain anything properly to Eustacia, and she's the kind of person who must know the reasons for any order before she could obey (for example, Joey tells her to tie her hair up when they go for their hike, but doesn't explain why she should do this).

Robin's reaction to the accident is probably quite likely, but I don't see how that could have been Stacie's fault. In that situation, given the possibility of bad weather stranding the party on the mountain, should Robin have even been allowed to go along?

I like reading about the accident - it seems a realistic one, and at the time, Eustacia was not thinking straight at all. Her transformation does seem rather sudden, but I think a lot has to do with adults (the Russells) actually treating her with some kindness and understanding for the first time, which enabled her to continue the "reformation".

I like the book as a whole, particularly as it's one of the Tyrol-set stories, and contains stories about most of the characters I like best. It's also one where Joey starts to grow up a little, though she isn't very pleasant in most of it.

#4: Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:59 pm

This has never been one of my favourite books. Eustacia has a lot of problems but whilst Jo Mary and the other don't make much of an attempt to help her she doesn't show signs of wanting to change. It must have been hard for her to be pitchforked into school life after her parents died and she would still be grieving for them. When I read this when I was younger I didn't like Eustacia at all but now I can see things from her point of view a lttle more I have more sympathy for her.

I think the library punishment was fair. She had to learn that as part of a community she had to live by their rules and she shouldn't have taken a key that didn't belong to her. Jo should have been more careful about taking Eustacia there to discuss the magazine though.

The accident on the mountain was realistic and could have happened to anyone. Given the way they wrapped Robin in cotton wool I am surprised she was allowed to go but even at her young age life in the alps should have taught her that storms blow up really quickly and they would have a good chance of getting to safety and that it could take over 24 hours for them to get back.

Whilst Eustacia's reformation seems quick we have no idea what went through her mind while stuck out on the mountain. We are given no idea of how long before she went unconscious and maybe she lay there for a long time with things going through her mind and she did that bargaining thing that is easy when we are in trouble 'Just let me get out of this and I'll be as good as gold!' also Madge being the sweet woman she was would probably have a good effect and Die Rosen would be a different environment to the one she had known.

#5: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 8:27 am

This was the first Chalet School book I ever read and at the time I didn't like Eustacia, but now I feel sorry for her - I know she was rude to her aunt's maid and didn't get on with her cousins, but she had only just lost her parents and I think it was pretty mean of her aunt and uncle just to pack their recently orphaned niece off to a school in another country. & this is one of the books in which EBD's obsession with Joey gets on my nerves - why would Eustacia have been so obsessed with Joey, and did Joey really have that much influence over the other girls? & would Robin really have been "set back by a year" because she was worried about the others being late back. I really like the bit about Bernhilda and Kurt's wedding though, even though Grossmutter dies.

#6: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 6:53 am

"There is no mistaking that Eustacia Benson was the most arrant little prig..."

Opening with this sentence, I think the book immediately establishes prejudices against Stacie, even though it goes on to explain it's because of her upbrining. How many other girls are introduced so negatively?

Liz

#7: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 11:57 am

Well, one immediately gets negative impressions of Thekla (Exploits) and Diana (Bride).

#8: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:55 pm

I agree with KB - and the first impression of Grizel with her 'warped already difficult character' is another.

#9: Author: Catrin, Location: Wirral (holidays), Oxford (term)

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 2:20 pm

And there's also our wonderful introduction to Emerence:

Quote:

Emerence thirteen years and eleven months needs discipline and has no manners Stop Please correct faults and help

#10: Author: Róisín, Location: Galway, Eire

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 10:51 am

Eustacia isn't my favourite book because I agree with ye that she is treated so unfairly. She's very introverted and really doesn't see the general atmosphere of the school and what is expected of her. She reminds me of myself when I was twelve and began secondary school, and like her, I got a hard time for being introverted, having my head stuck in a schoolbook all the time, being a know-it-all in lessons, and really, just not understanding why this was so wrong in the eyes of my schoolmates. I think a quiet compassionate word from a teacher would have helped Eustacia immeasurably, but this is something she never receives. Mlle's impotence in this area annoys me.

#11: Author: Joey, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:21 pm

Yes, I agree with you, Róisín. I have never liked Eustacia because it shows the school in a bad light - with the upbringing she has had, how can Eustacia be expected to know how to behave? I do think that Madge or Hilda would have realised what was going on and looked after Eustacia better and sooner.

Someone says towards the end of the book (sorry I can't remember the exact quote, or who is speaking):

"I think none of us realised quite how badly her parents' death affected her."

Excuse me? The child is fourteen years old, hasn't really mixed with other kids, and has been brought up to think that servants are beneath her. And she doesn't seem to have read (m)any children's books. Whether or not you agree with such methods of upbringing, why are you surprised that a) she is devastated about losing her family, and b) she doesn't know by instinct how she is expected to behave in a community? Show some sensitivity!

Sorry about the rant, but this book annoys me whenever I re-read it.

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