I found this very slight and disappointing by comparison with the CS series - and am I the only one who got myself mixed up and thought I was getting New Mistress at the CS when what I'd actually picked up was this one
| The CBB http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/ | |
| Books: The New House Mistress http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6514 |
|
| Author: | JB [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:56 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Books: The New House Mistress |
The New House Mistress was published by Thomas Nelson in 1928 and reprinted in the 1950s. In that same year The Head Girl of the Chalet School and Judy the Guide were published. New House Mistress is one of the most easily available (and cheapest) non-Chalets in hardback – the cheapest copy on Amazon is £5. This is the synopsis from the New Chalet Club site (there is also a version on the site which includes “spoilers”): Miss Lessing, the mistress in charge of Middle House at St. Helen's School, leaves at a fortnight's notice to be married when her fiancé has unexpected leave from New Zealand. The Middles are very upset, and determine to give her successor a difficult time. Unknown to them (and to be kept secret at her own request), the new Housemistress is an Old Girl of the School. She arrives over the half term weekend, to be greeted with indifference and even rudeness by several of her charges. The Middles take their cue from "The Octave", chief among whom is Barbara Allen. However, their campaign is shaken on the very first evening when one of their number, Mollie Robson, climbs an unsafe tree for a dare: the despised newcomer performs a nick-of-time rescue which compels the unwilling admiration of the watching girls. Despite this, Barbara and her fellow Middles pursue their efforts to make Miss Oswald realise that she is not wanted. In an attempt to enliven their free time and flout Miss Oswald's authority, the Middles decide to put on a play in one of the dormitories after lights out - complete with curtains, programmes, stage lighting - of sorts - and invitations to the audience. They write a stage version of the ballad "Barbara Allen", with their own Barbara as the heroine, and sundry additional characters thought up to provide enough parts for all those involved. The performance takes place without being discovered by anyone in authority, but shortly after the actresses are back in bed, fire sweeps through Middle House. The building is evacuated, but Barbara is the last to use the fire escape and is overcome by smoke before she can descend. Miss Oswald once again comes to the rescue, although she is quite seriously injured in the process. It is discovered that the fire was caused by a discarded candle from the Middles' "stage lighting". When Barbara is well enough for visitors, she hears how, and by whom, she was rescued from the burning dormitory. Unwilling to believe it, she asks to speak to Miss Blake, the Headmistress, and learns that other members of her family also owe their lives to Miss Oswald. The Head assures Barbara that "next term everything will be all right." This is a very thin book – less than 24,000 words. Here are a few questions to start us off but please do join in with any other thoughts. Did you enjoy the book? How well do you think it holds together as a story? Did you find it in any way far-fetched? Do you sympathise with the Middle School girls? Do you think that Miss Oswald and the Head, Miss Blake, handle the situation well? This school has a very different atmosphere to the Chalet School and the tone is unlike EBD’s other books with the girls openly adoring their house mistress. How well do you feel this works? A transcript is available - PM me if you’re having trouble finding it. It’s worth a read and it won’t take you long. I think it’s the only EBD with a guest appearance by a crocodile. |
|
| Author: | abbeybufo [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:31 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
I found this very slight and disappointing by comparison with the CS series - and am I the only one who got myself mixed up and thought I was getting New Mistress at the CS when what I'd actually picked up was this one
|
|
| Author: | Nightwing [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:34 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
I bought this book recently and really enjoyed it, but EBD definitely tries to cram too much plot into such a small book, with the result that character development really suffers. I didn't felt like I knew Barbara at all - first she's resenting a new teacher for no real reason, then she's dancing around a field at midnight, then she's being a loving big sister... Maybe if we'd got to "meet" her before she took against Miss Oswald it would have been different, but she just came across as a bit of a brat. I also felt sorry for the girl who gets the blame for starting the fire (whose name I've forgotten! Was it Joan?!) It seemed unfair that when everyone had torches and candles they somehow managed to trace it back to one headless girl. Oh, and I did think it was a little ridiculous how many lives Miss Oswald had to save! |
|
| Author: | ChubbyMonkey [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:54 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
Nightwing wrote: It seemed unfair that when everyone had torches and candles they somehow managed to trace it back to one headless girl. Especially as she seems to lack the required bodyparts to be considered alive and therefore able to help with the play... I've never read it, but if it really is that cheap I may have to add it to my "books as a treat" list, as I've banned myself from buying new books at the moment. |
|
| Author: | Emma A [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:01 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
I read this a few years ago and rather enjoyed it, though the life-saving Miss Oswald was involved in rather too many such incidents - one wondered if she went about engineering them  My copy's in storage, so can't refresh my memory of it now... |
|
| Author: | JB [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:08 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
Abbeybufo wrote: Quote: - and am I the only one who got myself mixed up and thought I was getting New Mistress at the CS when what I'd actually picked up was this one? This was the first non-Chalet EBD I owned. A local bookshop, which had my wants list, phoned to say they had this title if I wanted it. I'd never heard of it and assumed it was New Mistress. This was before the days of FOCS and the internet, so it wasn't so easy to get a full bibliography. BTW It was only the late 1980s - i'm not all that old. |
|
| Author: | Abi [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:49 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
Have just ordered this - I had no idea you could get it so cheap! From the synopsis and other people's comments it sounds unlike EBD's usual sort of book - maybe as it was written near the beginning of her career she felt that was the sort of thing that would sell? |
|
| Author: | Alison H [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:55 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
I read the transcript on my office computer on a very quiet day at work  . I wasn't overly impressed with it, but it was OK as a short-ish story.
|
|
| Author: | Cosimo's Jackal [ Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:43 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
Emma A wrote: the life-saving Miss Oswald was involved in rather too many such incidents - one wondered if she went about engineering them Yes, it does get rather silly! Maybe it's because we never get to see her actually do anything else as a school mistress (we never even go inside a classroom when she's teaching) apart from introduce herself to the girls, break up a pillow fight and intervene in Barbara's moonlight dance. Otherwise, it looks like she only ever shows up to save someone from certain death, like a sort of superhero, even on her holidays! Or is a housemistress something different, and she doesn't actually teach at all? (She does get her own sitting room, unlike CS mistresses...) It's kind of interesting to see a very un-CS school where the girls are sentimental about a mistress, and plan a campaign against her 'plain' replacement - but what on earth is the point of holding an 'indignation meeting about the weather'?  Are we supposed to imagine they're so bored they develop crushes and vendettas?Some of it just funny - it makes me giggle that Miss Oswald, who is so modest she runs away from the crocodile incident without being thanked or telling people who she is, seems to wish some of the time she could make her life as a teacher easier by telling the girls about the croc rescue! How could that possibly work? 'Look girls, you hate me, and I'm having discipline difficulties, but, hey, I saved Barbara Allen's brother and sister from a killer croc! Do you love me now or what?' |
|
| Author: | JS [ Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:32 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
Quote: 'Look girls, you hate me, and I'm having discipline difficulties, but, hey, I saved Barbara Allen's brother and sister from a killer croc! Do you love me now or what?' I read this as a kid and remember being quite disappointed because it wasn't like the Chalet School - in fact, I think it put me off reading some other non-CS books (my local library had Heather Leaves School but I didn't read that until I bought an expensive hardback a few years back  )Having said that, I did re-read it a few years back and liked it a bit better, possibly because I was appreciating it as a curiosity rather than hoping to become immersed in a story about my favourite school! Agree that it's quite slight and that she saves an inordinate amount of people (without having to sing The Red Sarafan once  )
|
|
| Author: | JB [ Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:36 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
JS wrote: Quote: Agree that it's quite slight and that she saves an inordinate amount of people (without having to sing The Red Sarafan once ) It's a panacea for humans but less effective on crocodiles, I understand.
|
|
| Author: | Sunglass [ Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books: The New House Mistress |
JB wrote: JS wrote: Quote: Agree that it's quite slight and that she saves an inordinate amount of people (without having to sing The Red Sarafan once ) It's a panacea for humans but less effective on crocodiles, I understand. Vision of Robin standing on bank of Indian river belting out 'The Red Sarafan' in vain and then hissing 'My one superpower has FAILED!'  I only read this one once, but what I remember about it was thinking there were some wacky logical inconsistencies. Miss Oswald actually saves the life of one of the naughty Middles themselves, at risk of her own, on her very first day, in full view of everyone, and they still play her up afterwards. Isn't it mildly mad to think they will relant and co-operate if she discloses she's also saved the lives of two children most of them will have barely heard of on a different continent? Also, if I'm remembering rightly, isn't it the original girl she saves up the tree who ends up setting the school on fire, leading to her THIRD rescue, in which she's badly injured while rescuing the older sister of the Indian crocodile rescue children? It sounds like something from a conspiracy thriller... |
|
| All times are UTC [ DST ] | |
| Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group http://www.phpbb.com/ | |