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Siblings: The Pertwees
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Author:  Fiona Mc [ Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Siblings: The Pertwees
We first meet the Pertwee family in New Mistress of the Chalet School. They are the three daughters (Iseult, Veronique, and Valencia) of an artistic mother who writes lush novels. We mainly see Yseult as she is a member of Inter V, along with the triplets and has great difficulty in settling into the Chalet School. In fact she doesn’t seem to ever fit into the school being so much older than her form, not particularly academic and inclined to stand on her dignity. She has a high opinion of her ability with anything artistic such as drama and acting. Veronique and Valencia, however, fit in well with their respective forms and adjust more easily. Their forms rename them Ronny and Val. Both Ronny and Val are so much younger than Yseult, Ronny being a contemporary of Ailie, Janice and co and Val being in a form or two younger. The three don’t appear particularly close as it is said Ronny and Val can’t understand why Iseult doesn’t like the school and wants to leave. It is at the very end of Excitements, when Iseult has a run in with a goat, that she loses her dignity and giggles like a normal schoolgirl and Kathie Ferrars is determined to help her stay that way. The girls are only at the Chalet School for two terms before they are given the news their Mother is terminally ill while on her tour of America. The girls then move to Boston and live with Cornelia Van Alden (nee Flower). We do hear about the girls from time to time, and in Reunion Corney mentions Iseult is now married and expecting her first, has cut her hair and that her two younger sisters Val and Ronny think an awful lot of her. The School is now guardians of the two younger girls as Mrs Pertwee is now dead and are staying with Corney to meet their first niece or nephew. We also hear Iseult has gone off fancy names and will name her child something simple such as Mary or Arthur. It is not until Challenge where we see the girls mentioned again and Ronnie manages to give Tessa de Bersac a black eye, on the fateful day Margot loses her temper. We do see more of Val in Althea, when she is sheepdogging Althea and gets into trouble for the poor job she does thereby starts to hold a grudge towards Althea for her being in trouble with Flavia the dorm prefect and later Len Maynard the Head Girl. She later becomes jealous with Althea for her burgeoning friendship with Samaris Davies. In true EBD style this is resolved and we see a friendlier side to Val.

Each of the sisters appear to be quite different to the others, Yseult is inclined to stand on her dignity, has a high opinion of herself, isn’t particularly academic, but is interested in drama and acting, Ronny is the quietest of all three and rarely gets much air time, while Val is described as careless and headless, mischievous but very neat with her work and handwriting.

So what do people think of the Pertwee girls as characters? Are they well drawn, realistic, likeable characters? Or do you find them fairly boring or insignificant characters that didn’t particularly interest you?
How does their relationship compare with other sisterly relationships at the school?
Did you want to see more of Yseult’s reformation first hand? What did you think of her transformation? Was it realistic for her to change as much as she did?
What about the relationships between the three girls? At first it appears Yseult isn’t particularly close to the younger two, but in the end it appears they start to think a lot of their older sister? Is this change realistic? What do you think contributed the most to this change? Was it the death of Mrs Pertwee or Corney’s influence?
How did you like the idea of Corney caring for the three girls for as long as she did?

Please discuss this and any other points you may think of.
Author:  Nightwing [ Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
It's interesting to contrast the Pertwees with the Lintons, as both sets of sisters have ill mothers even if the Lintons don't lose theirs while they are still at school. Gillian is the 'good', CS girl, and Joyce relies on her (and probably has a certain amount of respect and admiration for her, even though she won't admit it).

Yseult, by contrast, is an older sister who lacks most of those traits that EBD seems to think older sisters should have - such as a strong sense of responsibility, almost motherliness, towards her younger sisters. Like Joyce, she seems to have been somewhat indulged by her mother, and doesn't seem to know how sick she really is.

Presumably, her mother dying caused Yseult to have to leave a lot of her hopes and daydreams behind and shoulder the responsibility of looking after her sisters. This shows her to be a very strong characters, and to be a lot more mature than anyone at the CS ever gave her credit for. I'm sad that we didn't get to see this process.

I also wonder why Yseult got written out after just two terms: I find her one of the most interesting characters, next to Francie and Joan, perhaps, in Inter V, and I wonder if EBD simply found her too difficult to accomodate for in terms of plot - she'd have to keep mentioning that Yseult didn't quite fit in, and she was already having to do that for Joan. Plus, if Yseult reformed while at school, she'd have to consider what to do about having such an older girl amongst such younger girls.

I never really got a 'sisterly' vibe from the three Pertwee girls. It didn't help, of course, that we seldom (never?) see them together, and at no point do any of them seem to think about the others when the narrative is focused on them.
Author:  Alison H [ Wed Dec 09, 2009 1:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
I think it was a great shame that Yseult was written out so soon: she was an interesting character. I also think it was a shame that in reforming, as well as the positive process of becoming mature and responsible and looking after her sisters, she seemed to lose all her individuality.

I find the Pertwees' story quite sad, actually, especially after reading the additional detail that's cut out of the pbs. None of the girls make much effort to be friendly towards Yseult, and the staff make fun of her in the staffroom. Mrs Pertwee is initially presented as someone rather vain and silly, whom no-one takes seriously, but we're later shown a different side to her when we're told that she didn't seek medical treatment sooner because she was so anxious to complete her tour to secure her daughters' financial future. They don't seem to have any relatives or family friends at all: the school is appointed guardian to the younger two and a bank is appointed to manage their finances.

Big gold star for Cornelia, though - it was very kind of her to let three girls whom she'd never even met before stay with her so that they can be near their mother whilst she's ill. It's one of the times that we see the CS international network come into play and help out some people who really needed it.

It's good to see the two younger girls settle back into school life, but I never get much of a sisterly vibe from them either, again because we never see them together.

This is probably slightly irrelevant, but it says somewhere that the Pertwee girls go to state schools whilst they're in Boston. EBD is always generally very snobby and IMHO really quite offensive when talking about state schools in Britain. Did she think that American state schools were very different to British ones, or was it meant to be a way of bringing Yseult down to earth, or was it something else, or am I just making a big deal of a casual remark?
Author:  mohini [ Wed Dec 09, 2009 6:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Maybe because I have read PBs, (are there cuts in PB?) ,I could not and still do not understand the connection between Corney and the girls.
Author:  JB [ Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
I don’t think the Pertwees are particularly well drawn, partly because we see so little of them, although Yseult is interesting.

I like Yseult as a member of Inter V and would have liked to see more of her. I don’t think that anyone at the CS thinks about how difficult it must be for her to be in a form with girls so much younger than she is (the Maynards are 12 when they start in Inter V). Socially, that would be very difficult and it’s unfair to blame Yseult for the failings of her previous school. Of course it would be harder for her to fit in somewhere new than it would for her younger sisters.

My main thought about Ronny and Val is that it’s confusing to have two careless pupils called Val! I don’t think we see enough of them for them to become real characters and I can’t think of an occasion when we see them together as sisters.

It is interesting to compare them to the Lintons but they’ve had very different lives. The Lintons are a family unit with the girls going to a day school whereas IIRC the Pertwees haven’t had this stability. Gillian has grown up looking after Joyce to spare her mother but it’s Mrs Pertwee who wants to protect all the girls.

Mohini – I don’t think there is any connection. It’s just that Mrs Pertwee is in hospital in Boston which is where Corney lives. I assume that the school contacted the one person they knew in Boston when they found out the girls would have to go there to be with their mother.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
I always imagined that there was a connection on her husband's side - in 'New Mistress' it talks about "distant cousins in the States", so I always assumed that that referred to Corney's husband.

I can sort of understand why Yseult was written out; she is a terribly difficult character to get to grips with, IMHO. She really wouldn't have fitted in at the CS and I think that it would have taken up too much narrative space to explain about how she never got on with the others and couldn't cope with work further up the school etc.

Perhaps it speaks volumes in itself, but I don't really have much to say about the other two. I think that I do see them as sisters, but I don't tend to assign them a character per se; though I've only read 'Althea' once, which could explain it!
Author:  CBW [ Wed Dec 09, 2009 6:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
I never felt any of the staff gave any real consideration to the social difficulties Yuslt would face being in a class of what were esentially little girls when she was 16+
Author:  LauraMcC [ Wed Dec 09, 2009 6:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
JB wrote:
My main thought about Ronny and Val is that it’s confusing to have two careless pupils called Val!


I must admit that I always get the two Vals mixed up, despite the fact that they are different ages, and especially when I was first reading the books, and reading them out of order. Ronny, I can never remember very much about (does she even say anything throughout the series?)

I never really get the impression that they are sisters, unlike other sister or cousin groupings - I suppose because during their first two terms, all the action is focused on Yseult, and then all the Pertwees go away for a few years, so it almost seems as if both Ronny and Val are different people when they return. However, I do feel very sorry for Yseult, being in a form with the Maynard triplets and others of their age. It's bad enough being less intelligent or less well-educated than others of the same age, but to be near the bottom of a form, below girls who are four years younger than you, must have been awful!
Author:  Sunglass [ Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
I think we're supposed to see the lack of obvious 'sisterliness' in Yseult towards the younger two (compared, say, to Gillian Linton's worry about Joyce) as an aspect of her selfishness and non-CS-ness. I also don't think it's particularly fair, as it probably seemed to Yseult that the younger ones had a much easier time, being with girls of their own age - also, EBD mystifyingly likes Jack Lambert, who palpably thinks her own quiet elder sister Anne is completely pointless, but Jack is never blamed for lack of family feeling!

I feel for Yseult, and although it's not possible to 'like' her as she's written as a fairly one-dimensional result of a 'bad' artistic upbringing, I like the introduction of a plot EBD underuses compared to other GO books - the girl desperate for someone else's part and trying to engineer an 'accident'!

OK, the way she goes about trying to get the part of Herod after the casting is obnoxious and silly, but there's some substance in her case that she's had six years of verse-speaking training and acting experience - in fact, EBD herself seems to acknowledge she has some ability - and some of the responses she gets are equally silly. She's told that of course she doesn't deserve a big part because she's new, but Mary-Lou has a right to a big part, as she's 'been here simply ages'. Mary-Lou fumes that Yseult hasn't actually seen her act, so doesn't know how good she is as Herod, but then Miss Derwent, while saying tartly that the CS doesn't have as high an opinion of Yseult's talents as she does, admits they haven't seen her act at all. (There's also quite a snide little remark about her verse-speaking experience not being of 'the kind of verse the CS selectors liked'...) It seems to me to make a good case for open auditions for school plays!

The other thing that makes me thoroughly sorry for Yseult even during her first term is the frankly rather nasty attitude the entire staff adopt towards her mother. Even before Mrs Pertwee (who may have dodgy taste in clothes, OK, and be a bit of a bore, but is also an ill single mother battling to make a living for her daughters) shows up at the school to have her appearance and voice laughed at by the staff and girls at lunch, she's being mocked for being a 'very lush' novelist and for having been 'too busy' writing to educate her daughters at home. (Like Joey, only Joey isn't a widow fallen on hard times?) And the names of the girls aren't any more 'artistic' than lots of other CS names, surely? (Why is 'Samaris' charming and unusual, but Veronique 'artistic' and awful?)

It just seems like a bitchy, uncharitable, and very un-CS response. If Yseult was even slightly aware of the titters, no wonder she was sulky.
Author:  Alison H [ Thu Dec 10, 2009 1:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
I think Yseult is really interesting because the CS essentially fails her. The CS authorities even go some way towards admitting it, because they say that they're not going to take any new girls aged 16 or over "after Yseult Pertwee" (although they almost immediately make an exception for Naomi). The CS "fails" other people, such as Thekla, but that can usually be attributed to the bad behaviour of the people concerned. Yseult doesn't really do anything "bad". She doesn't even do anything mildly bad, like Joyce Linton being involved in a midnight feast or Emerence Hope using the wrong stairs: she just doesn't fit in and they don't know how to handle it. Usually, either Joey or Mary-Lou would butt in, but in Yseult's case neither of them do.

Inter V was crying out for a leader - Len, at only 12, couldn't be expected to "lead" a form which included girls of 16 - and Jo Scott was the obvious person to be that, but it never happened. "Misfits" are rare in the CS - although sadly not in real schools - but we get Yseult, Odette and Joan all in the same form. Yseult's the only one of the three whom no-one ever even tries to help settle in, though. & when she comes up with the idea of putting on a play, the others hijack her idea and turn it into something completely different: maybe her idea wasn't workable, but it can be very annoying when people do that (or am I just a nasty person lacking in team spirit?)!
Author:  Miss Di [ Thu Dec 10, 2009 3:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Sunglass wrote:
. Mary-Lou fumes that Yseult hasn't actually seen her act, so doesn't know how good she is as Herod, but then Miss Derwent, while saying tartly that the CS doesn't have as high an opinion of Yseult's talents as she does, admits they haven't seen her act at all. (There's also quite a snide little remark about her verse-speaking experience not being of 'the kind of verse the CS selectors liked'...) It seems to me to make a good case for open auditions for school plays!


What an interesting point Sunglass. And what a remarkable parallel to Kingscote's method of chosing actors for their Christmas play "Good character = angel. Bad character = sheep noises off" (paraphasing here) Of course in Antonia Forest's work this is seen as a Bad Thing.
Author:  Nightwing [ Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
I think perhaps Yseult was meant to be almost a comic character, with her love of all things picturesque, her posturing and her (rightly or wrongly) inflated sense of self - at least, in Enid Blyton you'd expect someone like her to be comic, and as Alison points out she's not actually a Bad Girl that can be fixed and made right. Unfortunately, she's a very well-drawn character, which I think makes her interesting to readers beyond a "point and laugh" sort of way.

I didn't have New Mistress when I was younger, but Excitements was a regular read for me, and I always felt like Yseult was a little hard-done-by, particularly in the scene where she idly remarks that it's a pity the paintings inside a religious building (chapel? church? cathedral? I've forgotten!) aren't inside a gallery and she gets absolutely pounced on. There's also a moment where she hopes the prefects will join up with her, and they don't. I remember always being really happy at the end when she finally lets her guard down - and really disappointed when she just disappears after that.
Author:  mohini [ Thu Dec 10, 2009 5:58 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
But I can understand Yseult feelings regarding the paintings in the church. I imagine them to be hung high above eye level and in dark areas. So it must be difficult to appreciate their beauty.
I agree what belong to God should be with Him.
But didn't EJO display all the treasures and the holy books in the ABbey for the public?
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Thu Dec 10, 2009 7:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Nightwing wrote:
I think perhaps Yseult was meant to be almost a comic character, with her love of all things picturesque, her posturing and her (rightly or wrongly) inflated sense of self .


She reminds me strongly of Pomona Todd in AF's Autumn Term - we get to meet the oddly-dressed 'artistic' mother, Pomona shows up wearing an artistic jibbah with loose hair and has to be bullied into uniform and plaits, she doesn't see why she shouldn't ask for something she wants that isn't given to her first, she prides herself on her acting ability in her mother's pageants and is generally laughed at for showing off and for her name. She's another 'cartoon artistic' new girl with all the wrong ideas.

But the interesting thing is that a mistress intervenes, accuses her form of bullying her, and demands that she be given a decent part in their form play - Tim Keith 'cleverly' casts her as Henry VIII, which sounds like a big part, but isn't. However, she turns out to be extremely good even at the first rehearsal, as everyone acknowledges, so they expand her part and it acts as a catalyst to her being more or less accepted and integrating.

It seems to me that Yseult, if someone like Mary-Lou or Jo Scott had butted in, might have benefited from being allowed to show what she could do, acting-wise, like Pomona. Lots of authority figures have pointed out (about other girls) how humiliating it is to be with much younger girls in form - and Mary-Lou praises Joan Baker's one slight talent for tennis as a way of trying to make her feel less of an outsider. Why does Yseult not deserve the same consideration?
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Nightwing wrote:
...with her love of all things picturesque, her posturing and her (rightly or wrongly) inflated sense of self...


It could just be that first bit, but that sounds to me a lot like the EBD we see from her writing! The way that all the CS girls and mistresses look so beautiful, Joey always being in the right and showing off her children, things like that.

I agree that Yseult should have been given more of a chance; if they'd just knocked the corners off of her a bit, I think they would have found a genuinely nice person underneath.
Author:  GotNerd [ Fri Dec 11, 2009 2:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
ChubbyMonkey wrote:
Nightwing wrote:
...with her love of all things picturesque, her posturing and her (rightly or wrongly) inflated sense of self...


It could just be that first bit, but that sounds to me a lot like the EBD we see from her writing! The way that all the CS girls and mistresses look so beautiful, Joey always being in the right and showing off her children, things like that.


I admit, I also thought this when I first read New Mistress (last week!)
Author:  mohini [ Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
But being beautiful or Joey being proud of her children is allowed by EDB because they are her favorite characters. But it is not allowed for others Sybil for example.
Sybil , we are told is beautiful. But she is never considered for roles of beautiful girls in Plays.OR to play princess.
As George Orwell said " All animals are equal, but some ar emore equal than others."

Am I making any sense?
Author:  JB [ Fri Dec 11, 2009 12:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
I think you make perfect sense, Mohini.

One thing that struck me is how EBD describes Sybil as a "small beauty" whilst at the same time criticising her for being aware of her looks. :banghead:
Author:  2nd Gen Fan [ Fri Dec 11, 2009 7:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
I'm with you there JB, I always felt that Sybil had a raw deal in the books - especially when by the later ones she was such a pleasant character! But Joey's children are always allowed to be admired for their looks. :banghead:
Author:  Sunglass [ Fri Dec 11, 2009 8:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
ChubbyMonkey wrote:
It could just be that first bit, but that sounds to me a lot like the EBD we see from her writing! The way that all the CS girls and mistresses look so beautiful, Joey always being in the right and showing off her children, things like that.


It's in relation to Mrs Pertwee that I find myself thinking of Joey. In some ways, they have a lot in common - both women writers with children they talk endlessly about, both extremely talkative with a tendency to dominate conversations, and both could be seen as somewhat eccentric in their different ways.

But whereas Joey is universally beloved, Mrs Pertwee is regarded as fair game for mockery by the entire staff and girls, even though there's actually not that much in her talk or behaviour to merit it. OK, EBD clearly doesn't approve of her bright and flowy dress sense, but Sharlie Andrews remarking on her hair having escaped its pins seems a bit petty, given younger Joey's famously untidy hair, and it's not her fault, surely, that her face is pink or that she's short and squarish.

And her conversational doesn't seem all that awful to me, to be honest - she admires the Swiss food, she only brings up her writing when she's asked about it, doesn't make any pretensions that it's wonderful, and while her response to Biddy is silly, surely Biddy is being more than a little condescending in her remark about modern historical theories about King Arthur, if Mrs Pertwee, as we assume, writes popular Arthurian romances which depend for their premise on traditional legends rather than historical fact? I'm fairly sure Joey refers to the triplets as 'my girlies' at some point, without being laughed at, and even if her manner of expressing herself is unfortunate, Mrs Pertwee isn't wrong to suggest that there's a difference between being even the most concerned and committed of schoolteachers and being a single mother of three girls. And why on earth does Miss Dene seem to blame her for not educating her girls herself, because she's 'too busy' writing? The CS wouldn't have any pupils if everyone educated their daughters at home!

I don't know, it just seems rather cruel and un-CS to me, to set up for laughs a woman who knows she's ill but is preparing to undertake a US tour to support her daughters, and has come to say goodbye to them before leaving? It seems a lot more natural and loving to me than lots of the CS parents who spend years abroad without anyone appearing to think it odd?
Author:  Fiona Mc [ Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Maybe the school itself can't bear to have parents involved except Joey who is considered part of the school. we never see biddy or Hilary visiting at all once they've left the school. It's almost like the school wants to be the full parents and resents anyone who insists that's there role and the school will always be second to them thank you very much.

Put it this way no one will be as upset about mistresses of the school not caring about them, the way they would be, if their parents didn't love of become involve in their lives. The words mother and father always evoke more emotions than a mistress of the school however much they are in charge of their well being, while the pupil is attending the said school.
Author:  Sunglass [ Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:43 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Fiona Mc wrote:
Maybe the school itself can't bear to have parents involved except Joey who is considered part of the school... It's almost like the school wants to be the full parents and resents anyone who insists that's there role and the school will always be second to them thank you very much.


I suppose that's right - it's like the discussion on the Death and Dying thread about EBD's tendency to write so often about orphans and people who have the CS as their only family. Plus the distance of the CS from the homes of most of its students means you don't often get parental visits to take someone out for halfterm, or parental attendance at school events, the way you do at, say, Enid Blyton's schools.

Which is a pity in some ways, because brief appearances from parents give EB some interesting plots, like a poor girl being ashamed of her mother's down at heel appearance and deliberately misleading her about half term (possibly St Clare's?), or that plot involving Clarissa in Malory Towers where snobbish Gwen jeers at the dowdiness of the woman she assumes is Clarissa's mother at halfterm (but who is actually an old governess, meaning Gwen misses out at the end of term when the blindingly rich and beautiful aristo parents finally show up) etc. Or the excruciating Malory Towers halfterm scenes where Jo's nouveau riche 'road hog' father comes into contact with Miss Grayling and the board of governors, and embarasses Jo.

Joey, the only regular CS parental presence, is universally beloved, so there's no chance to explore that kind of ambivalence.

Back to the Pertwees, though - is it just me, or is it quite odd for EBD to have brought Mrs Pertwee to the CS (a very unusual midterm visit from the parent of a problem new girl, which is given quite a lot of prominence) but then, not only not show her to us together with her daughters even briefly, but not to even show Yseult thinking about her mother? Why does she choose to show us Mrs Pertwee having Mittagessen with the staff instead? Wouldn't it have been a good opportunity for a different way of tackling a problem new girl? What about if Joan Baker or Odette Mercier's mothers had happened to pay a visit in their first terms?
Author:  Alison H [ Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
The way that the involvement of parents changes over the years says a lot about how the school and the San change, from being part of a community in Tyrol to the very isolated "complete unto itself" world of the Gornetz Platz. In the early days, the Mensches and the Maranis in particular are very involved: Frau Mensch and Frau Marani come to help Madge when Joey is ill, Grossmutter sends cakes for Madge's birthday, Herr Mensch and Herr Marani help to rescue people (although they get supplanted by the doctors once the San opened!), and Madge, Joey and Robin spend Christmas at the Mensches' home.

That wouldn't work in Switzerland because hardly any of the girls are locals, other than the daughters of the Maynards and the other San doctors, and in Britain the school moves to a small island in the second book after the end of the war, but that again says a lot about how isolated the school's become. We do see Gwensi's brother and the Christys' father sometimes, but they aren't that involved, and Doris Trelawney never gets very involved even though she lives close to the school's home in Armishire. It does make me laugh when Carola Johnstone's dad turns up and just happens to be a long-lost mate of Jack's, though!
Author:  Mel [ Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Yes, in Switzerland the school is cut off more and more from any reality, its only other connection being the San and there is no friendship ever with the nurses at the San, is there? Do they ever play tennis with the girls? In earlier books, Guernsey and Armishire, there is more parental involvement e.g. the Lucys, Ozannes and Chesters. Janie becomes Jo's new best friend, Madge names Ailie after Elizabeth Ozanne (Aline Elizabeth) and Peter Chester delivers the triplets. Also Dr Marilliar is connected later.
Author:  Kathy_S [ Sun Dec 13, 2009 4:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Sunglass wrote:
Why does she choose to show us Mrs Pertwee having Mittagessen with the staff instead?

I think the staff Mittagessen is largely because Kathie is the protagonist. Usually when a parent/guardian comes to visit, all we hear is that a girl has been called to Miss A's office and has gone out for an afternoon or is with the parent, unless of course said parent/guardian has potential as a love interest.

The treatment of Mrs. Pertwee is rather puzzling. We (and Kathie and Rosalie and Miss A) know from early on that it's her illness that's convinced Mrs. P. that the girls will be better off at school and not knowing. Also it's reasonably common for a parent to show up at school if about to take off on a long trip, and surely her illness would make a visit even more imperative. Yet the staff, instead of wondering why she would take off on a lecture tour under the circumstances (until the next book, when we hear that's it's financial worries on behalf of her offspring), is so flabbergasted by her self-importance and shocking make-up, that they seem to make no allowances?

As for Yseult, I feel a bit sorry for her at first, between being so far behind her classmates and the not-fitting-in-ness of ignoring the well-meaning attempts of the people in her dorm to explain the hair rule. Yes, giving her an extracurricular role to help her feel less out of it would have been nice, and more in keeping with the CS philosophy than the girl giving every single spare minute to extra coaching -- though how it could have been done when she's violating those unwritten rules about tooting one's own horn/new girls singing small might have proved difficult to write. (Also, since this again this is the one book told from a staff point of view, EBD may have prioritized showing the frustration of staff when it comes to pupils failing to appreciate all their extra efforts at extra help.)

However, plotting bodily harm in order to gain the Herod role? That puts Yseult in the category with the destined-to-be-expelled person in another series, whose efforts to get the Hamlet role involved pushing (the wrong person) down stairs and trapping (the actual leading lady) in an attic. Next thing you know she'll catch the building on fire with illicit smoking! Pretty remarkable that EBD reforms her after all.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Sun Dec 13, 2009 6:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Personally, I think that EBD forgot that Mrs Pertwee was supposed to be having an operation. If you took the book in two halfs, the first half would be about her illness, but in the second half there's no references to it all, just that she's going on tour. Surely if she was ill enough for the operation to be imminent she wouldn't be travelling around the globe?
Author:  Jennie [ Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
It's really EBD going against her own dictum of giving people another chance, instead, when she takes against someone, such as Joan Baker, it really is a case of give a dog a bad name and hang him.
Author:  Sunglass [ Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: The Pertwees
Jennie wrote:
It's really EBD going against her own dictum of giving people another chance, instead, when she takes against someone, such as Joan Baker, it really is a case of give a dog a bad name and hang him.


That's exactly what it is. You don't notice it so much in other GO books, because they either operate in terms of stereotypes anyway - plump jolly French mistress/thin, stern French mistress/wild circus girl/absent-minded musical genius - or because the underlying philosophy of other books isn't often so explicitly Christian and redemptive.

With the CS, we're so used to be given the 'key' to a problem character and finding them helped through CS-style understanding - Grizel, Eustacia, Verity, Tom, Jessica Wayne, Ted, Naomi etc etc - that when someone is just dismissed as an annoying stereotype (especially when we are also given to understand that person's circumstances are difficult for reasons of illness), it's quite jarring.

Even if EBD doesn;t write Mrs Pertwee as more than a smug, arty stereotype with too much jewellery and a loud voice, I suppose I would have expected her visit to be the catalyst to allow someone at the CS/Freudesheim to 'understand' and but in on Yseult, but that doesn't happen either... It feels lsightly as if EBD set it up that way, but then decided to go with the 'hoist with her own petard' accident route instead.
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