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Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7762 |
Author: | Lottie [ Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:54 pm ] |
Post subject: | Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Sorry this is late! Quote: Katharine stood on the platform at Paddington, looking round anxiously. This book starts with a train journey. For Katharine, it is the last stage of a journey which began less than a week previously when her somewhat scatter-brained aunt realised that it was nearly time for the beginning of term. When her parents travelled to the far east as medical missionaries, she was left in the care of her grandmother and aunt so that she could go to school in England. Aunt Luce is an artist and takes off at a moment’s notice to paint something that takes her fancy. Following the death of her grandmother, Katharine has spent her holidays wherever her aunt has been sketching. It is in this book that the Maynard family and Sybil Russell travel to Canada to stay with Madge and Jem. Joey sends a long letter with a description of the voyage across the Atlantic, including the information that the journey was completed by flying to Toronto because everybody flies in North America. They will be staying for a year instead of a few months and Jack and Jem will fly back to the Sanatorium in Wales as necessary. Robin travels out to join them later in the term. Joey hints at Robin’s plans for the rest of her life. The book finishes with Katharine’s mother travelling back to England, and the news that her father will be following soon. Aunt Luce decides to travel to the wilds of Ireland. Do you think this is a book about journeys? Does EBD through Joey’s letter give a good description of an Atlantic crossing? Are the Americans and Canadians really more air-minded than the British? Do Blossom, Jennifer or Katharine travel to a different place mentally as a result of the tennis match? (I’m sorry – I can’t seem to find the right words to express what I mean there!) What do you think of the journey to the Guide camp? Discuss these points and anything else about the book below. Next week’s discussion will be on Princess of the Chalet School which will be considered in relation to the theme of Danger. |
Author: | Alison H [ Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:29 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I wouldn't say that the book was about travel, but Joey's absence is an important feature of it - and I think that they manage quite well without her! It's got the silliest start of any CS book other than Summer Term - two Katharine Gordons, whose parents have similar jobs, two Chalet Schools (why would another school in South Wales be called The Chalet School?!) and two headmistresses called Miss Wilson - but, weirdly, after that I think it's the most "normal" book in the series ... not really very CS-like at all . Katharine settles in well, and doesn't need "reforming". There are no major accidents or disasters. & the descriptions of the tennis matches, whilst some school stories go on about sports matches ad nauseam, make a nice change for the CS. I accept that EBD was waiting to see how things went in Austria before making a decision about a return to the Continent, but this book's very Malory Towers-ish in some ways, and I wonder if she and or her publishers felt that the CS was starting to lose some of its "difference" at this point. The episode that stands out for me isn't the Guide camp or the getting locked in the shed, or Katharine's conversation with Hilda in which she says that her parents will be fine so long as she prays (I find her apparently total belief in that rather worrying), as the banned book affair! Is that just me? I always find that quite interesting! |
Author: | JS [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:23 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Has much been cut in the paperback, does anyone know?? |
Author: | Lottie [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 5:06 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
According to the FOCS ticklist, the PB's uncut. |
Author: | JS [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 5:13 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Thanks Lottie - that means I have no excuse for not remembering the journey to the guide camp one little bit |
Author: | Lottie [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 5:18 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
There's not a lot to remember, but Guide Camp is seen as being quite different from School, although near enough to go back when Matron's attention is required. |
Author: | Jenefer [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 5:26 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
What always puzzles me when I read this book is how Katherine and her aunt knew what date term started, the travel arrangements and the uniform requirements if they did not have a place at the school. This sort of information would only be sent to those girls who were due to start that term. Apart from that, I like this book. |
Author: | 2nd Gen Fan [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 7:03 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I find the start of the book completely barking, which is a shame, because other than that I think it is one of my favourites of the series! |
Author: | Abi [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 7:49 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I'm another who finds the start of the book a bit much - I think EBD just tried too hard to make the plot work. She should have just admitted it wasn't going to happen that way. Having said that, when I read it as a kid I found it completely hilarious and not at all unbelievable. But then, I was very naive. I think the 'journey' to the Guide camp actually works quite well, because it makes the camp feel so holiday-ish - you feel as though they travel much further than they actually do (a bit like the Swallows and Amazons sailing to Wild Cat Island!). |
Author: | Cosimo's Jackal [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:13 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
2nd Gen Fan wrote: I find the start of the book completely barking, which is a shame, because other than that I think it is one of my favourites of the series! It is absolutely mad on several levels - even apart from the coincidence of the 'other' Katherine Gordon and her trunk, and the fact that her mother turns out to be an old friend of Madge's whose husband is also missing in the East, like Katherine's parents - how on earth did Katherine's aunt Luce, despite losing the Head's letter and the prospectus, manage to know where and when the school train left from, when term started etc - for either of the Chalet Schools? Also, am I being a bit dense about what Aunt Luce actually intended? She doesn't know till much later that Katherine's mother's connection is with a retired Tanswick Head, so she decides arbitrarily on the school with the brown and orange uniform, which appears to be Tanswick, as the CS has brown and flame - and then we see the orange Tanswick tunic at Paddington. Yet Aunt Luce says she remembers that the school she chose had a brown tunic, so it seems she chose the CS, and that's supported by the fact that the letter she didn't send seems to have been to 'our' CS, not Tanswick, yes? Yet when she visits the CS to explain what happened, and produces the unsent letter she says ' I knew something must have happened when I compared the addresses' - what does she mean? What addresses is she comparing? The Tanswick one and 'our' CS? The trunks aren't without ambiguity either - if we assume that the 'other' Katherine Gordon, who was definitely put down for the CS, is the owner of the correctly-addressed trunk, Katherine's own trunk only says 'CS, South Wales', which could be either school! |
Author: | Pado [ Thu Apr 29, 2010 3:51 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
The orange tunics never seemed realistic to me. I could see confusing brown tunics with "flame" and brown tunics with "orange" with no problem. HOWEVER...I must admit that I can completely relate to Aunt Luce's having written down details of when and where to meet the train but misplacing ALL OTHER materials about the school. |
Author: | Mel [ Thu Apr 29, 2010 12:03 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I always wonder why Matey decided to 'believe' Katherine knew nothing about the second trunk. Why on earth would she pretend that the other trunk wasn't hers? |
Author: | Cosimo's Jackal [ Sat May 01, 2010 8:54 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Can I ask again, though, whether other people think it's obvious Aunt Luce had definitely intended to send Katherine to the St Briavel's CS rather than the Tanswick one? Maybe I'm over-reading this, but it seemed to me that some of the 'clues' - like her choice of 'brown and orange' rather than 'brown and flame uniforms', the vague address on Katherine's own trunk, and the issue about comparing the addresses (of where Aunt Luce thought she had sent Katherine to school, and the address from which Miss Annersley actually wrote to her?) - seem to contradict others, which do suggest Katherine was 'meant' to attend 'our' CS all along - the fact that Aunt Luce finds the St Briavel's CS prospectus with the unsent letter, the brown tunic etc. And yes, I could never figure out why Matey has to 'believe' Katherine and check her expression etc about the 'other' trunk - it seems hard to imagine she would have connived in sending herself a trunk full of shoes that don't fit and an ancient teddy bear! But what always also intrigues me about this book is how one of Madge's old schoolfriends has become a musical comedy actress, which I tend to imagine wasn't an entirely socially-OK thing to be for a presumably middle-class woman in the early 50s... |
Author: | Mel [ Sat May 01, 2010 1:04 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I get totally confused by the end, especially the music hall star and wondering which Miss Wilson knew Katt's mother. The other thing I noticed in this one is the amount of free time they seem to have in the evenings, enough for tennis, gardening etc. In other books they seem to have a scant half hour to themselves with tea - change - prep - supper - prayers - free time - bed? |
Author: | sealpuppy [ Tue May 04, 2010 1:07 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I also always assumed Aunt Luce meant Katherine to go to the Tanswick school but somehow got the travel arrangements to the CS lodged in her arty brain. As for musical comedy actresses - I think Moira Lister was a light comedy sort of actress in the 50s, and she ended up marrying a French vicomte! So, if Madge's friend's husband had an aristocratic/gentry background, even if he had no title, I expect the actress would have passed muster! (But not music hall, it would have had to be drawing room comedy!) |
Author: | judithR [ Tue May 04, 2010 2:36 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
sealpuppy wrote: I also always assumed Aunt Luce meant Katherine to go to the Tanswick school but somehow got the travel arrangements to the CS lodged in her arty brain. As for musical comedy actresses - I think Moira Lister was a light comedy sort of actress in the 50s, and she ended up marrying a French vicomte! So, if Madge's friend's husband had an aristocratic/gentry background, even if he had no title, I expect the actress would have passed muster! (But not music hall, it would have had to be drawing room comedy!) It would have to be light comedy rather than music hall. I'd always imagined Noel Coward... But didn't EBD think the stage was respectable? Cecil Trevennor (who died of diphtheria in A Head Girl's Difficulties ) was destined for the stage & there was also Allegra Atherton. |
Author: | MJKB [ Tue May 04, 2010 2:52 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Now I am totally confused. I remember the book, liked Katherine and do agree with the person who said it was quite Malory Towerish. I don't remember the guide camp at all but I do remember Blossom being blamed for being locked into a room before the tennis match! Can anyone say for definite that she ended up in the right CS. What happened to Mary Katherine? |
Author: | Llywela [ Tue May 04, 2010 3:02 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I don't remember the guide camp either, although I did read the book fairly recently - but then again, I'm just coming off a complete re-read of the entire series, so all the books are blending into one in my mind. Was the guide camp maybe cut from the paperback, or have I just got a very bad memory? Quote: What happened to Mary Katherine? As I recall, we learned at the end of the book that Mary Katherine's family circumstances had changed and she would not be coming to school after all. I forget the details, though. |
Author: | Cosimo's Jackal [ Tue May 04, 2010 3:09 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
judithR wrote: But didn't EBD think the stage was respectable? I guess I just thought she's generally so down on anything that isn't either high culture or 'folk' that a touring musical comedy called 'Puss in the Corner' with a cash-strapped actress who explicitly gives her reason for going back on the stage as money, sounded a bit low-rent for an old school pal of Madge's. Plus there's that amused (or possibly slightly snide?) remark - from Joey in her letter, I think - about how on earth a musical comedy actress came to marry a missionary! MJKB wrote: Now I am totally confused... Can anyone say for definite that she ended up in the right CS. What happened to Mary Katherine? I can't make up my mind which is why I brought it up to see what other people make of it! Aunt Luce chooses the school with the 'brown and orange' uniform, she says (which is Tanswick) but says she remembers definitely that the school she'd chosen had a brown tunic (which is 'our' CS). Two trunks show up at 'our' CS, one fully addressed, one saying only 'CS, South Wales', but EBD doesn't ever tell us which trunk says which address, though she does show Katherine thinking that the 'vague' address would be more like Aunt Luce than the properly addressed one - so Katherine's trunk might have been intended to go to Tanswick. Then, when Aunt Luce shows up to apologise and explain, she says she realised something was wrong when she found her unsent letter in her pocket and 'compared addresses' with the letter 'our' CS sent her, which makes it sound as if she's intended to send Katherine to Tanswick. But then, there's a prospectus from 'our' CS along with the unsent letter! I think Mary-Kate stays touring with her mother, because her father dies of diptheria while a medical missionary...? |
Author: | Llywela [ Tue May 04, 2010 3:24 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
With Aunt Luce being so muddled, she probably got the two schools confused in her mind, hence all the discrepancies and contradictions over which one she had chosen! |
Author: | judithR [ Tue May 04, 2010 3:24 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Cosimo's Jackal wrote: think Mary-Kate stays touring with her mother, because her father dies of diptheria while a medical missionary...? If I remember correctly, Dad is in the same internment camp as Katherine's parents & doesn't survive. I had the idea it was Chinese camp & the illness was typhus or typhoid? I have the hard back but haven't read it for ages being in a JD Robb phase at present. |
Author: | 2nd Gen Fan [ Tue May 04, 2010 7:44 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
EBD's ideas on the theatre were probably quite at odds with the rest of her outlook - the Bainbridges (?) were a theatre family, and wasn't the child actress Hazel Bainbridge the one whom the Robin was based on? (I believe EBD called her her 'adopted sister'). |
Author: | ivohenry [ Wed May 05, 2010 8:02 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
The Miss Wilson at Tanswick, who has now retired, is the one who knew Katharine's mother, so it is Tanswick where Katharine should have gone. The list the escort mistress has says Mary Katharine Gordon, which is the other girl. Our heroine is Katharine Mary. Since Aunt Luce didn't actually post the letter, the Tanswick school isn't expecting her, but as the CS is expecting Mary Katharine, they assume K M is her. But it must have been a very last-minute decision not to send MK after all, since her trunk had been sent. |
Author: | Cosimo's Jackal [ Wed May 05, 2010 8:23 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
ivohenry wrote: The Miss Wilson at Tanswick, who has now retired, is the one who knew Katharine's mother, so it is Tanswick where Katharine should have gone. The list the escort mistress has says Mary Katharine Gordon, which is the other girl. Our heroine is Katharine Mary. Since Aunt Luce didn't actually post the letter, the Tanswick school isn't expecting her, but as the CS is expecting Mary Katharine, they assume K M is her. But it must have been a very last-minute decision not to send MK after all, since her trunk had been sent. Yes, but when Aunt Luce originally makes the decision between schools, she doesn't know which CS Katherine's mother's friend was at, so she has to make the decision on other grounds - she 'swithers' and chooses on the basis of uniform, EBD says. We only find out that Miss Wilson is a retired Tanswick mistress later in the book. And Mary-Kate was definitely entered for 'our' CS, it's just never entirely clear (to me, anyway), whether Aunt Luce's unsent letter was entering Katherine for 'our' CS or the other one! |
Author: | Alison H [ Wed May 05, 2010 9:43 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Wasn't there something about letters being damaged by a flood in Rosalie's office and the letter about MK being one of them? Although that wouldn't explain why her mother decided not to send her to the school at such short notice that her trunk'd already been sent! & why didn't they contact the CS to ask them to send her clothes, teddy bear and other personal possessions back ? I think Aunt Luce's letter was addressed to "our" CS. None of it makes any sense . & it makes me laugh when Aunt Luce said that she'd got a list of all the Chalet Schools to try to work out which one Kat's mum meant - exactly how many Chalet Schools were there? |
Author: | Llywela [ Thu May 06, 2010 6:34 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Like I said, I think Aunt Luce herself got the two schools thoroughly mixed up in her head - hence our confusion over which school she intended to send Katharine to! |
Author: | MJKB [ Thu May 06, 2010 11:47 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Alison H wrote: None of it makes any sense . & it makes me laugh when Aunt Luce said that she'd got a list of all the Chalet Schools to try to work out which one Kat's mum meant - exactly how many Chalet Schools were there? Even as a child that kept me up all night! There were, if memory serves me right, 3 Chalet Schools, one of which was a prep school. Is it every stated or even implied that the Tanswick one copied the 'real' CS? And if Katherine's mother went there, it had to have been going for about the same length of time as the CS. The whole thing is awfully confusing, even the orange gym slips the Tanswick girls wear. Doesn't Aunt Luce says that the school to which Mrs. Gordon went had a brown gym slip, so if that's the case there must be anotherCS. It's a pity about the chaos at the beginning and the loose threads like the trunk, because the rest of the book is one of the most normal in the series. I almost think that Katherine's unorthodox arrival beats even Carola's, and that' s saying alot. |
Author: | Nightwing [ Thu May 06, 2010 9:42 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I never found the thing that confusing, to be honest, at least not as far as Katherine was concerned! Her aunt decides to send her our Chalet School, based on the fact that the uniform looks better, but forgets to send the letter confirming that she'll be going. That's actually simple enough! The problem is that EBD puts in so many red herrings that it just becomes a seething mass of confusion. Katherine's mother's old friend is called Miss Wilson - but there's a Miss Wilson in Tanswick and on the island. She refers to the Tanswick uniform as being "brown and flame", with the flame being the tunics - but doesn't EBD call the CS uniforms "brown and flame" in other books, too? Rosalie's letters are, of course, destroyed, so that none of the mess can be easily cleared up. And, of course, the whole improbability of Mary-Kate, and the fact that Madge just happens to get to know her mother, even though it doesn't seem like she knows her before she decides to send Mary-Kate to the CS - so why is she sending her there anyway?! |
Author: | Mel [ Thu May 06, 2010 10:02 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I thought she discarded 'our' CS at the beginning because brown and flame was too vague, so chose the brown and orange of Tanswick. At the station she assumes that the vivid Tanswick colours are the brown and flame school? But they must have ordered 'our' CS uniform?? |
Author: | Cel [ Thu May 06, 2010 10:36 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Nightwing wrote: I never found the thing that confusing, to be honest, at least not as far as Katherine was concerned! Her aunt decides to send her our Chalet School, based on the fact that the uniform looks better, but forgets to send the letter confirming that she'll be going. But she only decides that the uniform looks better at the train station, doesn't she? She's presumably already chosen a school 'on paper' (or at least she thinks she has). And it seems to have been Tanswick, for their brown and orange uniform, as 'brown and flame could mean anything'. As Mel has just said, sorry! |
Author: | Abi [ Thu May 06, 2010 10:42 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
A book or two later it says quite definitely that Katharine was supposed to go to the Tanswick school (annoyingly I can't find it now, but I noticed it particularly because of this discussion). Of course, whether EBD got confused in the interim is another question entirely... |
Author: | Emsnan [ Thu May 06, 2010 11:02 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I always thought Katherine was meant to go to the Tanswick school, which is why our CS was not expecting her, only Mary Katherine. Aunt Luce muddled the whole thing up, bought the brown-tunic uniform because the other was "too vague" and then saw the two schools on the platform and pushed KM into 'ours'. I admit the likelihood of all this is pretty non-existent, and there are lots of impossibly loose ends, but that's the way I always imagined it. Hence the title of the Wrong CS, because it was the wrong one, but, of course, how lucky Katherine was to go there! Simples!! |
Author: | MJKB [ Fri May 07, 2010 11:57 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
To go back to the uniform.....surely any shop that supplied the uniform would have given Katherine the correct uniform. EBD seems to suggest that Aunt Luce decided to assemble the uniform herself from the colours given. |
Author: | Alison H [ Fri May 07, 2010 12:04 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
& surely she'd've had to ask the school which shops stocked its uniform in the first place . |
Author: | abbeybufo [ Fri May 07, 2010 12:06 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Sometimes, though, people have to go to matron for their tunics, don't they? Too long since I read this to remember if that's the case in this book - did Katherine arrive in a tunic, or did she get kitted out at school??? |
Author: | MJKB [ Fri May 07, 2010 2:24 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I tnink she arrived in uniform - the plot thickens! |
Author: | Alison H [ Fri May 07, 2010 2:49 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Sorry for going a bit OT, but how do you go about getting the uniform for a boarding school? IIRC, the blazers (complete with school badge ) for our school were available from 2 particular shops in Manchester city centre (I got mine new and then my sister had to wear my outgrown stuff - there are advantages to being the eldest ), but with a boarding school pupils would be coming from all sorts of different areas so that wouldn't be viable. Would the uniform normally be obtained directly from the school? If the skirts and blouses were just plain then maybe it was OK just to get them anywhere so long as they were the right colour, but some things must have had to be bought from a specific place. |
Author: | claire [ Fri May 07, 2010 4:08 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I'm sure badges etc they get from Matron when they first arrive - think it's in Carola |
Author: | Mel [ Fri May 07, 2010 8:24 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I would imagine that the uniform would be available from one ot two shops or by mail-order. My grammar school uniform in the 1960s came from one outfitters. I'm sure the CS would be strict about uniform and any old tunic or blouse just wouldn't do. I always felt that about Carola that she wouldn't look anything like the others in her cobbled together uniform |
Author: | Emsnan [ Fri May 07, 2010 11:00 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Nowadays most boarding schools sell their uniform either in the school shop on site, or have a website. Ours is only available actually on the school site and even the girls from abroad have to buy their kilts, jumpers, blouses, ties and blazers from there before they start on the first day of term. Not to mention various sports kits and dance clothing, as well as fleeces and jackets with the logos on. I think the uniform at the CS was perhaps slightly more casual as surely Katherine must have got hers from ordinary shops, perhaps just a plain brown tunic, cardigan etc. I certainly always wondered about Carola, as the book tells us exactly how she cobbled her uniform together and yet no-one at school seemed to notice that hers was different. |
Author: | Moorplant [ Sat May 08, 2010 1:16 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
My boarding school also had a shop onsite that was the only place you could buy the uniform, or you could order it sight unseen by forms if you were an overseas girl who really couldn't come before. I always wondered about the aparent and confusing popularity of the name Chalet School in the UK, let alone several in south Wales, as they can't have all been started in chalets like CS was. But then again you could say that in the days when the country was littered with small private schools started by women like Madge/EBD as a business there would probably be a lot of silly, strange and quaint names floating around. |
Author: | Carrie A [ Sat May 08, 2010 3:27 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I know that this takes the discussion off at a bit of a tangent - but one of the EBDisms that has always bugged me in this story is the bit where Jennifer has nightmares about Blossom. When Miss Annersley asks every girl individually where she was at the time of Blossom's incarceration, Jennifer and Blossom are the only two left in the room. Blossom feeling more and more embarrased and Jennifer being defiant. Later on when Jennifer has nightmares about Blossom's cut face, EBD seems to imply that she hasn't seen Blossom since it happened, therefore doesn't know that Blossom is OK. Or is it just that she had worked herself up into such a state of hysterics that the only way out was to fetch Blossom up to San to prove that she was OK. If that was the case - surely matron would have dealt with it in her usual no nonsense fashion before this? As to the book being about journeys - I hadn't considered this before, but Katherine certainly grew up in the book and found her niche as it were. From this point on everyone takes it for granted that sport will be her future. I haven't read the later books beyond [i]New Mistress [i], does she appear again after leaving school? As for Joey and Co. It must have been tempting for EBD to leave them in Canada, after all many people did emigrate in this way in the post war period, leaving austerity and a depressed post war Britain behind them. Canada too would have been similar to Tyrol in terms of climate and landscape. Jack and Jem could easily have started a new San and maybe Madge and Jo could have created a Canadian branch of CS! |
Author: | MJKB [ Sat May 08, 2010 6:51 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Moorplant wrote: I always wondered about the aparent and confusing popularity of the name Chalet School in the UK, let alone several in south Wales, as they can't have all been started in chalets like CS was. But then again you could say that in the days when the country was littered with small private schools started by women like Madge/EBD as a business there would probably be a lot of silly, strange and quaint names floating around. I can't buy that. The Chalet School is so specific to its location that I can't imagine why any other school, started in rural England, Scotland or Wales would choose it. |
Author: | Cosimo's Jackal [ Sat May 08, 2010 7:02 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
MJKB wrote: Moorplant wrote: I always wondered about the aparent and confusing popularity of the name Chalet School in the UK, let alone several in south Wales, as they can't have all been started in chalets like CS was. But then again you could say that in the days when the country was littered with small private schools started by women like Madge/EBD as a business there would probably be a lot of silly, strange and quaint names floating around. I can't buy that. The Chalet School is so specific to its location that I can't imagine why any other school, started in rural England, Scotland or Wales would choose it. I always find myself wondering about why we never see Madge choosing the name in the first place, in Tyrol (at least, I don't know the hardback of School At well, but I don't ever remember there being a discussion about what the name should be in the early days of the school, or at the planning stage..?) We probably think of the name as natural and inevitable, but when you think about it, given that the Tyrol is crammed full of chalets as the normal kind of housing, it's a bit generic - like calling your school 'The House School'! |
Author: | Moorplant [ Sun May 09, 2010 2:34 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Quote: I can't buy that. The Chalet School is so specific to its location that I can't imagine why any other school, started in rural England, Scotland or Wales would choose it. I actually agree I'm mostly trying to "fanwank" a contempary answer, based on some randon school names from the 40's that my Grandma went to right before WW2. It is truly weird, especially without the package deals for skiing/Alpine adventures available to us where we know precisely what a "chalet" is. I mean obviously it is purely a plot device for EBD but it does make for some interesting speculation for us. Quote: I always find myself wondering about why we never see Madge choosing the name in the first place, in Tyrol (at least, I don't know the hardback of School At well, but I don't ever remember there being a discussion about what the name should be in the early days of the school, or at the planning stage..?) We probably think of the name as natural and inevitable, but when you think about it, given that the Tyrol is crammed full of chalets as the normal kind of housing, it's a bit generic - like calling your school 'The House School'! Well my grandma did tell of going to "The School House" when she was young with that apparently being it's formal name in the area..... I think that is one of the reasons that I love that the first book in the series is "School at the Chalet" rather than "The Chalet School" because that is a much better way of describing it in its early years when it is basically "Madamme's Kinda British School in the Tyrol". Then you get Biddy O' Ryan going to "The Village School" at first which would presumably be housed in some sort of chalet. Which book was it first referenced as "The Chalet School" rather than "that frightfully nice British style school run by that charming young lady" does anyone know? As early as The Chalet School and Jo? But considering their several visits to the area before hand I am suprised in retrospect that they never considered being The Saints as it were or something similar. |
Author: | Alison H [ Sun May 09, 2010 8:00 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
If it'd been in England, I think it would just have been referred to as "Miss Bettany's School". Or possibly "Miss Bettany's Academy for Young Ladies" , but I think "Miss Bettany's School" is more likely. The second book's "Jo of the Chalet School", and the magazine (which first appears in that book) is "The Chaletian" which suggests that the school name'd already been adopted by then. |
Author: | Cosimo's Jackal [ Sun May 09, 2010 8:12 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Moorplant wrote: Which book was it first referenced as "The Chalet School" rather than "that frightfully nice British style school run by that charming young lady" does anyone know? As early as The Chalet School and Jo? But considering their several visits to the area before hand I am suprised in retrospect that they never considered being The Saints as it were or something similar. Presumably it would have had to firm up its name when it was clear it was going to grow far beyond Madge's original conception of a small number of girls, and professionalise with a prospectus etc? And yes, given that the CS houses are always called after saints, which appears to be regarded as entirely natural, the secular school name is interesting, especially given that a subsequent British C of E school is prepared to adopt the local saint as its new name. I'm Catholic, and don't know a great deal about the C of E and saints/saint veneration etc, but I have wondered at times whether calling a CS house after a post-break-with-Rome saint didn't run the risk of alienating Protestant girls...? Would C of E girls necessarily have known who Therese of Lisieux was, for instance? Well, she was only fairly recently canonised (1925 or so?) so they might well know who she was, and I know we see some of the girls reading her 'Story of a Soul' later on - but it still seems to me to be likely to be potentially a bit exclusionary, in a school that makes a big deal of its ecumenism...? |
Author: | MJKB [ Tue May 11, 2010 10:25 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Cosimo's Jackal wrote: but I have wondered at times whether calling a CS house after a post-break-with-Rome saint didn't run the risk of alienating Protestant girls...? Interesting point, but would that not underline further the ecumincal nature of the school? After all, it will always be a school founded by a Protestant, English girl, offering an English education in Austria, so it just emphasises Madge's respect and regard for the host nation. Perhaps? With regard to the name, the mention of the school magazine, The Chaletian, made me think that that would be a better name for the school, but still close to the intimacy of the orignal idea. |
Author: | Cosimo's Jackal [ Tue May 11, 2010 12:49 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
MJKB wrote: Cosimo's Jackal wrote: but I have wondered at times whether calling a CS house after a post-break-with-Rome saint didn't run the risk of alienating Protestant girls...? Interesting point, but would that not underline further the ecumincal nature of the school? After all, it will always be a school founded by a Protestant, English girl, offering an English education in Austria, so it just emphasises Madge's respect and regard for the host nation. Perhaps? I suppose I just thought that the house names need not have been religious at all - that it seemed to arbitrarily introduce religious terminology into an internal school naming issue. It would have been perfectly possible to call the houses after something secular like the flower names they later use for dormitories - Alpenrose, Gentian, Edelweiss etc. I tend to associate that kind of use of saints' names for classrooms or dormitories with Catholic schools - I think it just seems odder to me in the CS context because the school's name itself is secular, so it feels strange to me to then have religious house names. I agree with whoever said up the thread that in some ways it's surprising that the CS didn't end up being Saint Scholastika's! |
Author: | MJKB [ Tue May 11, 2010 8:58 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
The house naming began about the same time that EBD converted to Catholicism, I think, so maybe that had something to do with it. |
Author: | Cel [ Tue May 11, 2010 10:37 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Cosimo's Jackal wrote: I suppose I just thought that the house names need not have been religious at all - that it seemed to arbitrarily introduce religious terminology into an internal school naming issue. It would have been perfectly possible to call the houses after something secular like the flower names they later use for dormitories - Alpenrose, Gentian, Edelweiss etc. The school has such a strong religious ethos, though, that it seems a natural choice for naming the houses. EBD's attitude is admirably ecumenical, but the school is anything but secular. |
Author: | Sarah Carr [ Tue May 18, 2010 10:04 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I like the naming of the houses after saints, even though I am Protestant. And weren't the flowers used for dormitory names? i.e. "Pansy" and "Wallflower" after they ran out of colors? |
Author: | Miss Di [ Wed May 19, 2010 3:04 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
I can just imagine someone brought up like me arriving at the CS and announcing "We don't believe in Saints" and proceeding to call the houses simply Therese, Scholastika, etc. |
Author: | MJKB [ Thu May 20, 2010 3:43 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Books: Travelling - The Wrong Chalet School |
Miss Di wrote: I can just imagine someone brought up like me arriving at the CS and announcing "We don't believe in Saints" and proceeding to call the houses simply Therese, Scholastika, etc. You'd have OOAO to reckon with! |
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