The CBB :: View topic - The Head Girl of the Chalet School

#1: The Head Girl of the Chalet School Author: Josie, Location: London

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:26 am

Time to discuss 'Head Girl'. For anyone who's not read the book or needs a memory refresher, there's a synopsis here on NCC: http://www.newchaletclub.co.uk/ncc_library/synopses/synop_headgirl.htm

What do you think of the decision to make Grizel head girl? Was Madge mad or giving her a chance? Should she have been demoted after running off to Schaffhausen and if so, who would you have put in her place? Did she bring on the problems with Diera herself? Should Diera have been more severely punished for burning Granny's letter and almost killing Grizel during the snowfight? What about the half-term trip to Salzburg and the encounter with Frau Berlin during the fire? Did Madge's words about death (Falling asleep to wake with God etc) stay with you after reading them? Is the whole Herr Arnolfi/salt caves story exciting or over-the-top? What do you think of Jo and Grizel's rescue of Robin? Just how nasty is Cornelia? Do you find her transformation too sudden or understandable considering she's been carried off by a madman and thought she was going to die? Are there any early signs of her special relationship forming with M'lle? Any comments on David's birth or the marriages/engagements of the old girls? Did Matey make any impression on you in her first term at the school? Anything else?

#2: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:13 am

I thought that the salt caves story was silly, personally - patronising towards the local "peasants" who were afraid to go near the caves and patronising about people with mental illness, and surely Cornelia and probably Robin too should have had more sense than to go off like that. & what possessed Friedel to take 2 young girls with him on a rescue mission when he knew that a potentially dangerous man would be there? & both Grizel and Deira, at 17/18, should have had more sense than to behave as they did. Sorry, that sounds like I'm ripping the book to shreds: I like it really!! I can imagine Gisela, who seems to've been a very "homey" sort of person, and Wanda, whose main interest seems to have been painting on china, getting married very young, and it's nice that they're happy, but it's a shame that some of the girls in the later books don't do more before settling down. & I really like it when David's born and Joey gets emotional for once!

#3: Author: kateeee,

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:58 am

This is one of my least favourite books. I read it first a long time after the later ones and found the change in Cornelia unbelievable.

#4: Author: Katie, MA, Location: A Yorkshire lass in London

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:38 pm

I'd forgotten just how awful Corney actually was when she first appeared. I read it about 6 months ago for the first time in years and was quite shocked - she was truley horrible!

#5: Author: Donna, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 5:02 pm

I always really disliked this book (apart from anything else, I bought it with birthday money thinking I hadn't read it, and then found that I had and hadn't liked it. I was most upset!). However, after finally reading it in HB, I found that it really did make a difference, and it was actually a much better book than I originally thought. It can be hard to shake first impressions that have lasted 10 years though, so it's not one I'd think of reading out of order.

I think for that year it was difficult to pick anyone who would have made a better head girl. The rest of the group were pretty non-descript, and Grizel had always been able to lead. She had also been an efficient prefect for the last year, so I don't think Madge was mad in giving her her chance in the first place. After running away however...I don't think it was too realistic that Madge and Mademoiselle gave Grizel another chance - but again we're back to the idea of there being little alternative. It was certainly nice of the two heads to keep her as HG, and in the long run I think it was a good idea - her madness before term started helped to settle her down, reducing the risk of anything else happening.

Did she bring on the problems with Deira herself? I don't think so - she could have been a bit more tactful of course, but Deira over-reacted - badly - and I don't think Grizel did anything to further inflame her. Even when she discovers what happened to her Harmony book she's really quite restrained for Grizel! There should have been more punishment for Deira over that, but I always felt sorry for her that she had to carry so much of the blame for the snowfight incident. The way it's written, I can't see it as anything more than an accident - Deira didn't deliberately throw a stone, it was scooped up in her snowball and she didn't quite realise what she was doing. Yes, she should have been more careful, and taken more notice of what she was doing but it's not like she set out to hurt Grizel.

I always loved the Salzburg trip, and Grizel's hair being burnt off! As a child, I found the encounter with Frau Berlin funny but like Grizel herself, as an older reader it's more obvious how much danger the children were in and could be quite scary.

I have to say that I always enjoyed the salt caves - not particularly the Herr Arnolfi aspect - I think he rather scared me as a child - but the whole discovery part of it. I don't find the episode patronising at all - in fact I think it's very realistic for the attitude of that time. And in defence of Friedel - he had to take them or he had no chance of finding the cave entrance. He weighed up the pros and cons and knew that if he didn't take them Cornelia could be dead by the time he found her. Once they were there, he couldn't exactly leave them on their own, so they had to go into the caves as well. And as for rescuing Robin - I always liked the idea of being able to ride on a dog's back!

Cornelia's transformation is too sudden - as is usual with EBD. She really was a nasty character, and even an experience like that wouldn't have changed her so totally, so quickly. And I've never seen any evidence of a special relationship with Mlle - and I've looked!

I always found it hard to get excited about the marriages/engagements - I think I always found it fairly sad that they got married so young, even though that was the norm and they were very happy.

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

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 4:15 pm

I read a synopsis of what is missing out of the paperback and was shocked. The hardback sounds like a completely different book! But I thought on the whole that it's a pretty good adventure story and better than, say, Jane or Summer Term by a long way whatever its other failings.

#7: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 6:22 pm

The most annoying cut is the whole chapter on the train, when they meet Maria and the Stuffer. Those two characters are repeatedly mentioned in later paperbacks, but they cut the intitial meeting.

I think Grizel was an odd choice for Headgirl, given her hasty temper, sharp tongue and general prickliness. I think Gertrud was mentioned as an alternate choice, which would have left Grizel as Games Prefect, and probably much happier. I get the feeling EBD kept trying to redeem Grizel, but Grizel didn't want to be redeemed. Her running off occured before the term started, so that shouldn't have affected the appointment though - if she had done it on a school trip, they would pretty much have had to demote her.

Deira, on the other hand, should have at least been threatened with demotion. Grizel wasn't being as tactful as possible, but Deira was being pretty obnoxious for a new prefect at the meeting, and burning someone's property as revenge for a perceived insult is childish and destructive, particularly as she is completely unrepentant at first. That was worse than the snowball incident, which was in heat of the moment, and not intended to injure.

I sort of ignore the Cornelia shown in this book. She's pretty consistent in the other books, but here is just nasty and disobedient without any explanation or reason, and then suddenly turns into a mischevious but nice girl.

#8: Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 8:00 pm

Like some other folk, I don't read this out of order, though I always quite enjoy it when I do.

However, you drove me back to skim for bits and I realised that Joey, Grizel and Robin stayed at Pretty Maids at the beginning - Did Jack meet Jo there for the first time?

Also, Grizel's lack of enthusiasm for the HG job sounds very like Jo's!

Once I got old enough to think about such things, I thought Madge felt a responsibility for Grizel in a rather special way. Given that neither Jo nor Simone were paying fees, Grizel was the first paying pupil. In a way, the fact that she got one paying pupil made the whole project viable.

That responsibility could have extended to making every effort to make sure she turned out well. She says as much on p42 (HB) "It may make the difference to her in after life"

Somewhere, though I think it is much later, there is a comment that Madge would do everything she could to keep Grizel's relationship with the school because it was the only thing that she had to hold on to (that's a rough idea of what was said, not a quote Embarassed

)

Deira was written as a stereotypical Irish hot head - who had a Spanish Grandmother to boot! Now that did annoy me having one Irish and one Spanish grandmother myself! Consequently, I found the burning of the book and the snowball scene quite horrid and always skimmed over the book burning and felt she had just made a mistake with the snowball.

When I first read the Herr Arnolfi bit and the cave rescue, I didn't find it odd at all and found it very exciting. I don't think it was intended as patronising either of the local people or the mentally ill. It is how people were and, to some extent, are today.

How any of us will shy away from an obviously disturbed person muttering on a bus or have touched wood in the past week?

Leaving him to live his life in a cave may have seemed like heaven to the people shut up in mental hospitals in the same period.

Corney always gives me a shock when I read it again. I really like her in the later books (and am influenced now by Josies's Corney Wink

) but she was a right little horror when she arrived - probably as horrible stereotypically a brash American as Deira was hot headed Irish and Simone was a sentimentally French!

One thing I still enjoy in this book is Marie's wedding. It ranks with Christmas at the Mensches as being true to the locality.

Wow, for a book I don't read out of order, I have rattled on!

#9: Author: Joey, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:22 am

I got the HB of this last year, and it's completely changed my opinion of the book. I thought it was slightly incoherent, didn't flow and wasn't one of EBD's best: it has actually just been savagely chopped. It is now one I will read out of order.

I can even see how the nasty shock Cornelia has would be enough to make her pull herself together - although it does rub me up when I read in later books that Cornelia would never tell lies, and I remember Amy Stevens saying, "She tells lies," in Head Girl.

Otherwise, I agree with Jennifer and Patmac.

I often think of Grizel when Matey tells Joey, in Jo Returns, that she knows she'll be a real writer when her paper children come to life. (Sorry, can't remember the exact quote.) I think that Grizel is a "paper child" who really came to life for EBD, to the extent that she wouldn't do what EBD wanted her to. She tried to make her into a "real Chalet School girl", and thought she'd succeeded in Head Girl, but Grizel wouldn't be one. I do sympathise, cos I hate it when my characters do that!

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

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:36 pm

I love this book as it completely embodies the character of the early Tyrolean books and also because I really enjoyed EBD’s crossover into yet another different genre – this time gothic horror. Like Catrin says, it’s a really good adventure story. I would pick it up out of sequence.

Deira always annoyed me a little, in that she was so stubborn. But I can empathise with her easily now as I could see myself behaving like that sometimes when I was a stroppy teenager! The episode always reminds me of Amy burning Jo’s book in Little Women. I agree with Jennifer in that she should have been punished more for her initial impudence as a new prefect at the first meeting. Meeting Frau Berlin again was a tad too coincidental for me. She’s becoming a theme in herself like. Madge’s words do have resonance with me, yes, and they are very comforting. In fact, the books as a whole remind me of my religion and I feel very encouraged to believe. *goes off to start a thread on religion...*

Disagreeing with Alison H, I found Herr Arnolfi extremely scary and horrifying, but was absolutely delighted by the Tyrolean Pompeii – I wish EBD had made more of it. The only slightly unbelievable thing that I found was that Corney was able to find the cleft so easily, going only on hearsay, whereas Friedel had to take Jo and Grizel with him. Also, the nine year old soul inside of me is thrilled to bits by the engagements and weddings! Gisela, Bernhilda, Wanda, Marie....although it does annoy me a bit that the only person Marie falls in love with has to be Jem’s servant. It’s like EBD is cementing some kind of class/caste system. And the three families of the Maranis, Mensches and von Eschenaus! Don’t they meet any other people but they have to just marry each other! Still, it’s nice that they’re all so happy and beautiful!

When Jack comes down to Briesau to bring Jo up to the Sonnalpe when Madge is in danger, I absolutely don’t like his manner. He is curt and “brusque” – he’s a doctor for heavens sake; isn’t he practised at giving bad news in a gentle manner??

I absolutely agree with you on Grizel, Donna. She has always seemed a natural leader in the books before this, and EBD/ Madge was right! She did come good in the end! What you said Patmac about Madge’s feelings about her really rung true with me and it’s not something I ever noticed before. Joey, I love what you said about Grizel here:

Quote:

I think that Grizel is a "paper child" who really came to life for EBD, to the extent that she wouldn't do what EBD wanted her to. She tried to make her into a "real Chalet School girl", and thought she'd succeeded in Head Girl, but Grizel wouldn't be one.

More psychological examination and analysis please!

Matey made no impression on me whatsoever and I wasn’t aware, or at least I don’t remember, anything special about her starting. I don’t think EBD had decided at that stage to make her permanent.

I kept expecting to meet Maria and the Stuffer again at some point towards the end of the book, but we don’t really, except for their attendance at the Sale of Work and even then, there’s no big storyline. She should have turned up as the granny of one of the girls or something!

About Cornelia – the biggest thing that struck me about her wasn’t her behaviour – it was that she was fat! But of course by the end of the book she is a true, well-behaved and THIN Chalet girl! LOL. The only evidence I can see of a relationship with Mlle is that Mlle is patient with her. Maybe she remembered and appreciated that.

#11: Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 11:47 pm

Yes this si one of the books that was really altered by the pb cuts. I, too, couldn't believe it when I read it in hb after many years of just the pb copy.

I think Madge and Mademoiselle gave Grizel a second chance as they knew how much of her character was formed and warped by her dealings with her father and stepmother. I think Madge would realise exactly how badly Grizel could have been affected by someone else being made head girl and also how that could have affected the school (go away bunny) imagine if she had taken a dislike to whoever it was and there had been a revolt in the school? I think it was from this point on that she did become a little bit more likeable.

I don't like Deira as a character here but she was put in as a foil for Grizel whom she obviously disliked though we have never seen it before.

Cornelia is an obnoxious little brat at first though it is possible her change of character could come from her experience in the caves especially as Daddy's spoilt little darling had probably never had anything so horrible happen to her before. I have never noticed any special relationship between her and Mademoiselle but it may have been behind the scenes after this experience.

I never noticed Matey as a special character in this book.

#12: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 11:56 pm

I have to admit I don't remember much about the book as I haven't read it in about 8 years. While I was reading through the above comments though, about Grizel's escapade, it did make me think that a lot of people have gone off on escapades and still remained prefects or Head Girl. Joey definitely had her share of escapades! No other person springs to mind but I'm sure there were others.

#13: Author: Amanda M, Location: Wakefield

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:46 am

I've always liked this book. There's a lot of action going on, in comparison to the later books. I did find Corney's transformation from a complete brat to just a naughty middle a bit sudden. I don't think the shock of what she went through would have had as big an impact as is suggested. I also can't see where the relationship between Corney and Mlle came from.

I like the salt mines bit, I always found it very atmospheric. I never found it particularly patronising or bad against people with mental health problems, or the local people. I did like the words Madge used about death ("Falling asleep..."), and could see how it would comfort Joey and Grizel.

I thought Grizel was a bit foolish at the beginning of the book, but I am glad that Madge gave her a second chance to redeem herself. I think if Grizel hadn't been given that chance she would have been forever embittered and hardened by it. I never liked Deira - I always thought that she was quite selfish and sullen. I thought Grizel behaved extremely well considering that Deira had burned her Grannie's letter.

I also never really noticed Matey as a character in this book.

Star Wars

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

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 1:42 pm

Not that I want to breed plot-bunnies (much!) but what would have happened if Grizel had been removed from the position of HG and Deira had been appointed instead?

#15: Author: joelle, Location: lancashire, england

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:54 pm

deira?would deira have been picked? she only seems a character because of her temper. gertrud seems more obvious. but as a drabble id be interested!

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

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:39 pm

KB wrote:

Not that I want to breed plot-bunnies (much!) but what would have happened if Grizel had been removed from the position of HG and Deira had been appointed instead?

I agree with Joelle that Deira wouldn't have been picked at all! But if she had then pictures of free for all fighting and wrestling come to mind... Laughing

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