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Books: The Mystery at the Chalet School http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4045

Author:	jennifer [ Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:57 am ]
Post subject:	Books: The Mystery at the Chalet School
This is a short novel written out of sequence, which is rife with EBDisms as a result. A synopses can be found here. EBDisms aside, what do you think of this book? Do you find the repeated references to the cinema is out of place compared to the more oldfashioned nature of the other books? Is Dorcas an engaging character, or rather dull?

Author:	LizzieC [ Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:17 am ]
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The constant talk about the cinema is in sharp contrast to all of the other books, in which the girls seemed to rarely - if ever - acknowledge that such a thing existed. Dorcas wasn't a bad character, but she was rather flat. I also thought her story was rather obvious. I saw the conclusion of the book coming before I'd got very far at all into the story, and I felt very sorry for the poor CS mistresses, who apparently can't even go to the cinema without some injury befalling one of the girls Overall, it's a story that seems to fit a magazine setting (as I believe it did) rather well, but as a stand alone book it's rather poor.

Author:	Liz K [ Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:24 am ]
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I've never heard of this one, I must be slipping!!!

Author:	Lolly [ Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:35 am ]
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It was published in the first Chalet Book (the jewel of my collection ). IMHO it works well as a short story if you like that sort of thing (I do) but I can't really see why it was published separately as its own book. It's fairly slight, and yes, the outcome is pretty obvious. Also, the continual harping on Dorcas's plainness got slightly on my nerves.

Author:	Alison H [ Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:20 pm ]
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I think it's OK as a short story for a magazine, but it doesn't really work as a book - especially as Dorcas is hardly ever mentioned in any of the later books. And it really bugs me that, when there's an accident in the kitchen causing "Cook" (it's never made clear if this is meant to be Karen or an unnamed British cook!) to suffer some quite nasty burns, all any of the teaching staff or girls care about is that their tea is late! It's nice to see them going to the pictures, though - we never get anything like that in the Swiss books. I quite liked the idea of Joey's books making it on to the big screen - shame she didn't seem to like the idea .

Author:	Joyce [ Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:12 am ]
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It was the constant reference to the 'flicks' that got to me. I guess it is the same as saying now "going to see a movie" or "going to a film" but 'flicks' grated for some reason. It was as if EBD managed to get of a which she thought was trendy and then worked it to death to make the Chalet girls seem up to date. I can only remember one mention of Dorcas afterwards. They are going to see a play in Rosalie and Gay says that Dorcas would like to see how the real actors operate. Is there any other mention? Cheers, Joyce

Author:	jennifer [ Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:41 am ]
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Dorcas is mentioned briefly in Tom Tackles and Rosalie, but nowhere else.

Author:	LizzieC [ Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:26 am ]
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Joyce wrote: It was the constant reference to the 'flicks' that got to me. I guess it is the same as saying now "going to see a movie" or "going to a film" but 'flicks' grated for some reason. It's yet another example of EBD getting hold of a word and running with it. There's a discussion elsewhere of the constant use of "brats" in Joey Goes to the Oberland. Sometimes she needs to take her own advice about repetativeness I found it very grating too. I don't know how many times "flicks" appears in Mystery, but it seemed on reading to be all pervading

Author:	Joyce [ Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:14 pm ]
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Ok I'm sad but I've just done a count on the transcript and the word flicks appears 8 times, and the word flick appears 7 times - if you include the contents page and the chapter title - if you don't, then it's five times. But in one conversation alone that Dorcas has with Jacynth, Gay and Gillian the word appears 4 times. That said, I actually do like Mystery. We see more of the triumverate as well as Jessane as head girl. And it's nice to see that a Chalet girl can have an accident, a doctor appears to help, meets a Chalet School teacher and they DON'T end up married! Cheers, Joyce

Author:	Lesley [ Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:31 pm ]
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I thought Mary Burnett did end up marrying him?

Author:	Miriam [ Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:38 pm ]
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It's never made completely clear how she met her doctor, but I think it is generally assumed that he was the doctor from Mystery.

Author:	Tor [ Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:23 pm ]
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the episode with cook made me cross too. It's even worse than them just caring about their tea... cook scalds herself with fat, and then (i think) falls of the aga, and possibly sets herself alight, and Gay or somebody comments how they would have loved to have seen it But then, i never liked slap stick, so maybe i am a kiljoy... but still not like our Gay, really. I read this first when armada published it with Rosalie (presumably because Rosalie is so slim, as it ought to go before Tom), and was soooooo excited to find a new chalet school book. Dorcas gets mentioned again in Rosalie as wanting to go into character acting on the stage... Presumably because she was so plain

Author:	Lolly [ Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:41 am ]
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Was anyone else ogling the 1st edition of Rosalie on Ebay this week? sigh

Author:	Mona [ Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:32 am ]
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Oh, yes. I just couldn't justify it, having bought 2 hardbacks already this month. I do try to ration myself!

Author:	leahbelle [ Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:59 pm ]
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I'm not a fan of Mystery. Like others, I think it must have worked well as a story in the first chalet book, but I don't think it works as a stand alone book. I find Dorcas quite dull and uninteresting. I've just read it again, actually, as part of a re-read of the series and by the time it got to the bit where Dorcas was telling Gay about her past, I was just thinking "who cares?". It's probably my least favourite book. The constant use of the word "flicks" was immensely annoying, too.

Author:	Róisín [ Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:21 pm ]
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I find it hilarious in this book that EBD considers 'Brown' a good cover for 'Brownlow'. Because who would ever think the two sounded alike. The same in Exile - Gertrud instead of GertrudE. What a subterfuge.

Author:	Katherine [ Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:45 am ]
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I agree Brown isn’t much of a cover. But with the Gertrud/Gertrude Beck/Becker thing I thought it was that the spellings sounded more English (or at least less German).

Author:	Kathy_S [ Sat Feb 23, 2008 7:51 pm ]
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I still think that GGBP had some nerve charging full price for this booklet, but do think it has a place in the canon, if only for including important events like Hilda's continued recovery and Phoebe's wedding. I do enjoy seeing a little more of Gay, Gillian & Jacynth, and predictability doesn't bother me at all. It's one of the reasons I enjoy the CS. Brown for Browlee seemed reasonable to me, given that Brown is such an ordinary surname. If Dorcas hadn't been so prickly on the topics of family & movies, I doubt anyone would have noticed the resemblance. On the negative side, I agree that the responses to the "chapter of accidents" were shockingly callous. I also didn't think much of the handling of the blanket wedding invitation. Surely priority should have been given those who had more interaction with the bride or groom, rather than making it a popularity contest within each form? I hope at least Sybil had a personal invitation!

Author:	jennifer [ Sun Feb 24, 2008 7:34 am ]
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I can't figure out why the school is invited to Phoebe's wedding at all? She's a friend of Joey and Jack and the Quartette, whom Joey met the previous summer, and who hasn't interacted with the school at all. The fact that she's marrying a San doctor, and is a friend of Joey's seems to make it a school wedding? The only schoolgirl with any connection to her is Sybil.

Author:	Travellers Joy [ Sun Feb 24, 2008 8:35 am ]
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I agree. I always thought that was a bit strange.

Author:	Fiona Mc [ Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:53 am ]
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I actually didn't mind this book and thought Dorcas's treatment at her old school had been sad. I loved reading more about Gillian, Jacynthe and Gay, but it is very much a short story and is probably the worse out of this, Tom and Rosalie

Author:	elanortook [ Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:01 pm ]
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This story was published as a book? Isn't it only a few pages long? I have it in my copy of "The Chalet Book for Girls" which I got last weekend for 20p

Author:	Sunglass [ Sun Aug 10, 2008 2:17 pm ]
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It is odd. I suppose it's part of Joey's butting-in campaign, to ensure that she supplies some 'family' for the actual wedding. Although I would have thought that a wartime wedding, with the bride being a rather shy woman who's lived a largely reclusive existence due to her chronic illness, could have been very quiet and small, without anyone thinking it inappropriate. There really is never a sense in any of the books that people can actually get married without the serried ranks of the Bettanys and Maynards and a chunk of the school in attendance. Are we to assume another loan of that frankly unlikely Italian lace veil of Joey's?

Author:	Alison H [ Sun Aug 10, 2008 3:08 pm ]
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I suppose EBD makes the happy couple invite everyone so she can describe the weddings from the viewpoint of major characters, but I'm not sure why Jack Maynard ended up giving Phoebe away and the triplets ended up being bridesmaids when they'd only known Frank and Phoebe for five minutes. Or why Phoebe donated a tier of her wedding cake to a school with which she had no personal connection. Just as I'm not sure why Bernhilda asked Joey and Robin to be bridesmaids rather than friends of her own age/relatives; and I'm certainly not sure how the Pfeifens could've afforded to ask the entire school to Marie and Andreas's wedding ! Or why Joyce Linton asked the whole school to her wedding years after she'd left, and we don't even get a description of that one! But Phoebe and Frank are a very sweet couple .

Author:	Kate [ Sun Aug 10, 2008 3:15 pm ]
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After reading about all the weddings the school were invited to, I was always very annoyed as a child that I wasn't invited to the weddings of anyone connected to my school!

Author:	claire [ Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:21 am ]
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I don't have a problem with Jo and Jack (and therefore the triplets) being in Phoebe's wedding as it doesn't seem like she does have any one else. Don't get the school receiving the wedding cake though

Author:	Mel [ Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:32 am ]
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It was probably Joey's idea and poor Phoebe wasn't strong enough to say no. Who paid for it? Phoebe has no money - does Frank? He's 'only' a doctor but as he now lives in Chalet Land he probably has a private income.

Author:	Ray [ Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:42 pm ]
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Thing is though, in a very real sense, without Joey, Phoebe and Dr Peters would have never met - in fact, you could make the case that without Joey and co being in Yorkshire at the right time, Phoebe would have died when she had the big rhumatic episode in Rescue, so I don't see Joey/Jack/the triplets' involvement in the wedding as a problem at all. It could also be argued that Phoebe is perhaps Joey's first adoptee! As for who paid for the wedding, I'm pretty sure that there's something in Rescue that says Frank has a trust fund or somesuch that was left to him by his mother. Though given Phoebe's status as a semi-adoptee of Joey's, she/Jack might have put up some of the money for it, too. Ray is boggled by the school getting cake, though

Author:	Aquabird [ Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:10 pm ]
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Maybe she couldn't get rid of it? I know when my cousin got married, there was a lot of wedding cake left over and the guests got extra pieces. Phoebe and Frank might have decided to give the leftover cake to the school to share, especially as, due to rationing, etc., that kind of thing would have been a treat for the girls.

Author:	claire [ Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:32 pm ]
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I wouldn't imagine a war time wedding cake would be that big

Author:	Jennie [ Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:40 pm ]
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Another of the EBD mysteries - the wedding cake is ALWAYS big enough for the school to have the second tier.

Author:	claire [ Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:43 am ]
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And the school has over 100 students, can you imagine how big that cake must be, even allowing for a tiny sliver each, if that's the second tier (I count the second tier as the top, smaller one)

Author:	Sunglass [ Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:49 am ]
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Probably Debby is magic like Anna, and manages to circumvent rationing by preserving like mad all over the place and contriving fruit cake out of bottled plums and air. Although I suppose it's feasible that getting your hands on enough butter was easier in Armishire - sugar might have been more of a problem. Or maybe the second tier was one of those cardboard fake tiers, and theSchool cried itself to sleep that night...?

Author:	CBW [ Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:57 am ]
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maybe it was the school's rations that went to make the cake in the first place?

Author:	Sunglass [ Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:45 am ]
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Oh, good point! I bet it was Joey's idea. Like Marmee in Little Women guilt-tripping the girls into giving their breakfast to the Hubbles. I can hear it now: 'Poor Phoebe - no friends but me, no family but us! I managed to snag her a doctor, but even he's not very good-looking by San standards, although he does have nice eyes. Give her your rations, girls!'

Author:	Emma A [ Tue Aug 12, 2008 12:28 pm ]
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Sunglass wrote: Oh, good point! I bet it was Joey's idea. Like Marmee in Little Women guilt-tripping the girls into giving their breakfast to the Hubbles. I can hear it now: 'Poor Phoebe - no friends but me, no family but us! I managed to snag her a doctor, but even he's not very good-looking by San standards, although he does have nice eyes. Give her your rations, girls!' I think you mean Hummels, Sunglass! But giggling at "he's not very good-looking by San standards..."

Author:	Dreaming Marianne [ Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:36 pm ]
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Mel wrote: It was probably Joey's idea and poor Phoebe wasn't strong enough to say no. Excellent

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