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Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School
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Author:  JB [ Sun Jan 10, 2010 11:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

Three go to the Chalet School is the twentieth book in the Chalet School series. It was first published in 1949. The only other book EBD published in the same year was The Third Chalet Book for Girls. The Armada paperback of Three Go was heavily cut and the full text has been reprinted by GGB. Three Go is the first title after a gap of several years in the series and there is only more missing term between this and the end of the series

This is the book where we first meet Mary Lou and we see the triplets as Chalet School pupils for the first time. Other new pupils at the school are Clem Barrass and Verity Anne Carey. It’s also the last book to be set at Plas Howells. A full synopsis can be found here on the New Chalet Club site - http://www.newchaletclub.co.uk/ncc_library/synopses/synop_three_go.htm.

Mary Lou’s form mistress is old girl Gillian Linton. Joyce Linton and her husband are “inclined to prefer their own company to that of anyone else” and Gillian feels she “a little more than a welcome visitor” in their home. However, we’re told that Joyce is still selfish and thinks that Gillian should give her “first attention” when she wants it. When one of Joyce’s children is sick, Gillian takes time off school to travel to Exeter and help out. EBD tells us that “Gillian is much too dear and sweet to spend her life teaching” and Joey hopes that Gillian will marry and be less available to Joyce.

Peter Young, an artist and Clem’s god-father, comes to Armiford to meet his god-daughter. He meets Gillian and falls for her at first sight. Encouraged by the match-making of Janie Lucy, the two begin to spend time together and announce their engagement at the end of the book. Gillian, and some of the pupils, are also the subject of one of Peter’s portraits.

If you’ve only read the Armada edition, this will be new to you as this storyline was completely cut from this edition!

This week’s discussion will focus on the theme of “romance” in this book but please do comment on any other aspects of the book too. Here are a few questions to start things off:

• As a child, did you enjoy this romantic aspect of the book or would you have preferred to concentrate on the school?

• How does the portrayal of this romance compare to others within the series and elsewhere in EBD’s writing?

• Do you feel that Joyce’s demands and Gillian’s acceptance of these are reasonable?

• Clem and Mary Lou talk between themselves about the relationship between Gillian and Peter. Do you find this realistic given the attitude to romantic relationships shown in the rest of the series?

• Peter Young is a rare example of someone who is not a doctor being allowed to marry one of the series’ popular characters and his courtship of Gillian was conducted without any dangerous accidents. Do you approve?

Author:  mohini [ Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I read this book about 2 years back and that too a cut version.
I was very keen to read this book as all subsequent books refer tot his many times.
I was surprised when I read the book for I always imagined that the Three mentioned were the Triplets.
I liked the book and also liked Mary Lou and Clem.
Though I wished there was more about the girls not only Mary Lou and Trips but also Peggy,Bride Sybil and how they reacted to this new girl.
I never realized that a whole chapter was missing until I came across discussion on CBB. I could never understand when and how Gillian and Peter met.
When I read the chapter, I thought it was lovely. more apt specially for Gillian then the Solid Lump of Comfort of Joey.
The only other romantic scenes I can recall are those of Grizel and her Doctor which are sweet. I did not like those between Phoebe and Dr Peters. Daisy and Laurie's relationship is also lovely
Reg and Len I will not comment because I did not approve their engagement. I do not understand why Joey was so keen on Len getting engaged even before she finished her studies.

Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I only read the unabridged version as an adult, so no idea how the romance would have struck me as a child. As an adult, I like that we actually see a bit of the progress of a romance, at the pre-engagement stage, and see a mistress agreeing to a date on her afternoon off, which is quite racy in CS terms! :shock:

But there are lots of things about it that just make me smile, they are so thoroughly EBD. Like it can't be coincidence that virtually the only CS romance we see from the male point of view that's actually shown to be in terms of straightforward sexual attraction before all else - Peter Young is gobsmacked by Gillian's looks and can't stop staring at her - is not about a doctor, because it seemingly has to be 'justified' in part because he's a portrait painter who takes a professional interest in female beauty! (Which removes it slightly from the realm of him just going 'Phwoar! She's gorgeous! I'm moving to Howells village!' and takes it into the realm of Art and the Higher Mind... :D) And it cracks me up that Gillian, an intelligent adult woman is presented as being completely baffled as to why he keeps staring at her, and why she agrees to go out with him, even though everyone around them is matchmaking like mad!

I also think that it's a pity in some ways that Gillian is so lovely, because EBD allows that to 'explain' why Peter is immediately attracted to her. It would have been much more interesting to see the beginnings of an attraction that isn't so obviously about beauty, like Jack beginning to fall for teenage Joey, who isn't beautiful, but is clearly very attractive as a personality.

And I have to say I find the whole bit where Clem and Mary-Lou discuss male helplessness, and whether Miss Linton is holding out until her portrait is accepted to the Royal Academy, and when Mary-Lou asks her whether she's going to marry Peter completely incredible, given the series' usually very reserved attitude to romance! Also, even for Mary-Lou, this is way beyond cheeky! Gillian should have put her firmly in her place.

Author:  Alison H [ Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I like getting to see a fairly normal courtship, and am sorry it was cut out of the pb because that meant I didn't get to read it for years. I do however find Clem and Mary-Lou rather cheeky :lol: . It's also very EBD that Janie Lucy is practically rushing out to buy a new hat and a wedding present when she sees Peter looking admiringly at Gillian: it reminds me of the bit in Pride and Prejudice when Mr Darcy says that women's minds leap from admiration to love and love to marriage very quickly :lol: .

I find the comments about Gillian and Joyce very irritating. I understand that thay're saying that Gillian wouldn't be able to go off at a minute's notice if she had young children of her own, but the attitude seems to be that it's fine for Joyce to drag Gillian away to help her as long as Gillian isn't married, even though it inconveniences Gillian, the school in general, and whichever other mistresses have to cover for her. It's typical of the sort of people who think that a single person's life is less important than the life of someone who has a partner and children.

I don't think we need to see every single romance in detail in what's a series about the life of a school, but it's good to see one of them in detail - it makes a nice change. I like this book in general: I think EBD writes about the juniors well.

Author:  ammonite [ Mon Jan 11, 2010 2:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I am another who can't comment on this scene from childhood experience having only read the uncut version about a month ago. I don't think the book misses out from having this chapter cut although it does explain Gillian's marriage.

Maybe because he wasn't a doctor, this is why we don't get more of the characters later on? He could have come and stayed on the Platz to paint!

Reading Mary-Lou's reaction to the marriage - isn't it a bit early for the 'it's just Mary-Lou' reaction as she has only just joined the school, anyone else would have been instantly quelled. Unless of course EBD was setting up MAry-Lou's character this way from early on or Gillian sensed the best way to stop further rumours from flying about, which a telling off may have caused, was by being straight forward with her.

Author:  trig [ Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

This has to be one of my favourite books in the series. The whole business of Clem and MaryLou being taken out for a day - going to the cinema, eating out in a hotel etc - makes it seem much more realistic as that's what happened at the time. It's also nice to see a snapshot of the era in this way which is missing in the later Swiss books.

I'm another who only had the unabridged edition as an adult, but I expect it would have added to the story rather than bored me as I enjoyed the romance bits in Exile and and Jo as a child. Like above the romance of Gillian and Peter is down to earth and realistic, and as an adult I was quite shocked that nothing dramatic happened and it just followed the usual course. Gillian deserved her happy ending although she was always a bit wet for my liking as a girl. (Perhaps me being a younger, troublesome sister clouds my judgement :twisted: )

I've often wondered why EBD made such a gap here. Is it so she can EBD some of the ages of the girls? Or bring the triplets more to the fore (which she doesn't really at this stage)? I've always been a bit disappointed as I liked the set of girls around Gay and Jacynth and also Bride & co as younger girls, and would have liked to have seen more of both.

Author:  Alison H [ Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I think maybe she just wanted to get well away from the war years. By the late '40s there was apparently a feeling amongst publishers of children's books that people didn't want to read about the war - IIRC, one of Lorna Hill's books was refused publication because it was set during the war, although it was the next one in a series and it wouldn't've made sense had it not been set during the war - and it's possible that EBD just wanted to get the series into the late '40s, especially as at that point she was obviously hoping (as she says when reintroducing the trilingual system) to move the school back to Tyrol ASAP.

Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

It's been a while since I read this - originally I only had the Armada shiny cover version, after I'd developed my dislike of OOAO, so it didn't get read much! - and I only read the uncut parts as an adult, but I do like the Gillian storyline. (I don't have my copy, so please excuse me if I get details wrong!) I like that he did admire her for her beauty; it's an honest thing to like her for, as opposed to EBD saying how he found her a really charming woman or similar when the first thing most people usually notice is someone's attractiveness.

Plus it's nice to have a relatively normal engagement! And to meet in such a plausible way, as opposed to, say, a train crash and then happening to meet again later.

I might have taken some of the opening bits out, though - I know that Mary-Lou needs to know Clem before the school opens, but there seems to be a lot of focus away from the school in this book, and as a child I didn't really appreciate it!

Author:  JB [ Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I agree, Alison. It was Northern Lights by Lorna Hill that wasn't published until GGB found it some years ago. I think EBD amended characters' ages to give some continuity, ie keep Gay Lambert etc at the school and to make the triplets old enough for school.

I like Three Go but to me it feels a bit adrift in the series. It has that long gap in front of it but, to me, it has the same family feeling as the Plas Howells books eg Mary Lou and Clem's day out in Armiford and the visit to the Lucys. Once the series starts again on St Briavels, it feels different somehow.

I'm another one who assumed the "Three" were the triplets before I read the book.

Author:  emma t [ Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I first read the cut version of this; several years ago; and was pleasently pleased with the full version when GGB finally published it :wink:

Joyce's demands on her sister were always noted throughout the whole of the seriel whenever they are mentioned; but to be selfish once she is married and has children, is going a little too far. You would think having children would have changed her for the better in that repsect; look at Simone - she was always clingy to Jo; but in Jo to the rescue; Jo reflects the changes in Simone, how she is one of the least selfish people she knows. Maybe Joyce could not just alter; and after all, Gillian was the one to be there for her and in control when their mother was ill;and dying - Joyce knew that she would only need to ask and she would be her 'prop'.

She should never have asked Gillian to drop everything though when her child was sick - were was her husband when this was happening? Did he not say or do anything? (it's been a while since I have read this book).

For Gillian to fall in love in this book is lovely :P She was always too nice and sweet to be on her own and teach forever!

Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I agree the inclusion of the romance storyline strengthens the book a lot, both because it expands the focus from very young girls, and because it's a nice chance to get some CS girls outside of school for a change, on one of the very few occasions we get to see someone being taken out by a relative. (Of course, a lot of the time, the CS is in such remote locations, that taking a girl out for an afternoon or even a day would have been a bit of a schlep...)

What does make me laugh about the beginning of the Peter Young/Gillian Linton romance is that his eyes are clearly out on stalks, because everyone notices him staring at her, and he mortifies Gillian herself:

Quote:
His gaze at once fastened on the mistress, who was, as Jo Maynard had once said in Mary-Lou's hearing, the pick of the Staff for looks. [...] As Clem said later on, any artist would have been struck with her beauty; but it took a portrait-painter to lose all ideas of restraint, and stare at her till the pinks in her cheeks deepened


Quote:
Mrs. Lucy said no more, but she had not missed the light in his eyes as he looked at Miss Linton.... She saw how things were going with him, and, being an inveterate matchmaker, like her own great friend Jo Maynard, was already turning over sundry plans in her mind.... This was clearly a very nice man, and just as clearly very interested in the young mistress.


Wouldn't good manners have dictated he not stare quite so obviously that the object of his gaze, a twelve year old schoolgirl and a total stranger all notice? :D I imagine it being like a cartoon, when someone's eyes literally come out on springs, and their tongue falls onto the ground and pink hearts start dancing around their head!

And are we really supposed to think Clem is already promoting the Gillian/Peter relationship just after they've first set eyes on one another - it sounds oddly like she's warning him off Peggy Burnett, when he's planning to visit the school:
Quote:
'We've got Miss Burnett for form-mistress. She's quite jolly, if plain. She's leaving at the end of the summer term to marry the doctor she's engaged to.'


I know Clem is supposed to be quite old for her age, but this sounds a bit Joan Baker-ish!

Also, I forgot the thing that drives me mad about this book (and lots of other CS books, it has to be said) - the 'spoilers' in particular chapter titles. OK, it's strongly hinted that Clem and Mary-Lou will meet again, but it's a shame to kill the suspense for young, first-time readers about who is the older girl with whom Mary-Lou will be reluctantly sharing a room, by heading that chapter 'Enter Clem!' Why not call it 'Enter the new girl!' or even 'A pleasant surprise!'?

Author:  MJKB [ Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I love this book, actually, I loved all the Plas Gywn books as much as the Tryol. The day out in Armiford was a real treat to read and I loved the romance.

Author:  Elbee [ Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I read the unabridged version as a teenager, borrowing it off a friend's mother, and loved the whole book but especially the romantic aspect. (Well I was a soppy teenager at the time!). I enjoyed the homely feel of the romance, with a visit to the cinema etc. In no other book do you really experience a member of staff "going out" with a man! It is also so refreshing to have a member of staff marry a non-doctor! The whole book has a very family-orientated feel to it.

It was through buying the Armada copy when it was published a few years later that I first realised the paperbacks were abridged, because I was sure I could remember reading about the romance but it wasn't in the Armada copy :? . This book was the start of my long quest to read the full versions, which I have almost achieved more than 30 years later!

Author:  MJKB [ Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I only got the unabridged copy recently and was charmed by it. I liked the easy relationship between Gillian and ML and Clem, it was really refreshing to see one of the mistresses unbend to students sufficiently to discuss her engagement. Most of the others would have ticked them off soundly for being 'vulgar'.

Author:  Meg14 [ Tue Jan 19, 2010 11:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I really liked this book (having only gotten to know if through the GGB version). I was glad that Gillian met someone who seemed such a good chap (and it was refreshing that he was not a doctor)

And I liked Mary-Lou in this particularly the scenes when she is at home, exploring the orchard etc. She just seems such a normal little girl and I can't understand how EBD managed to make her so unsympathetic later!

Author:  Tor [ Thu Jan 21, 2010 3:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Romance - Three go to the Chalet School

I only have the abridged version, and haven't had the pleasure of the Gillian-Pete romance :( :( But I'd be interested in hearing what people had to say about the contrast of this plot-line with the rest of the book portrayals of 'romantic' relationships. To me, the book reads as a fairly good advert for staying single:

we have Mary-Lou and Verity-Ann's dads who seem to have ditched their family responsibilities. I can't see much romance in Doris and Prof. Trelawney's relationship, for example.

And Clem's parents certainly seem to have a volatile relationship. You could read passion there, perhaps, but I got more a sense of resigned irritation from Mrs Barrass.

In fact, you could say EBD covers the full run of relationhip stages in this book: the beginnings (Gillian), the middle (the Barrasses) and the (long drawn out) end (Trelawneys).

Do you think Gillian was given the happy ending to soften the portrayal of long-term relationships (subconsciously on EBDs part, or otherwise)?

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