The CBB
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/

Books: Shocks for the Chalet School
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4549
Author:  Róisín [ Mon May 19, 2008 1:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Books: Shocks for the Chalet School
Full synopsis here. A telegram arrives to the School announcing the arrival of Emerence Hope. Elfie Woodward's stepmother has died and she has to leave school. Mollie Bettany is ill. A hidden well and a sunken path are discovered during PT and gardening, leading to news for the Christie family.

So do you like this book? Is the storyline really full of *shocks*? :lol: What do you think of Emerence as a character here - she is still v. young (13) and is full of fire. Joey is almost absent from this book - can you feel the difference? What about the portrayal of Mollie's illness, and how the girls take it? What do you think of Elfie's leaving school - any strong and controversial opinions?

Please raise any issue you like to discuss below, in connection with Shocks for the Chalet School :D

Next Sunday: The Chalet School in the Oberland
Author:  LauraMcC [ Mon May 19, 2008 8:05 pm ]
Post subject: 
I enjoyed this one, although I don't think that it is too full of shocks, and it (the title, that is) reminds be of the not-too-exciting Excitements. I do wish that I had the HB, however, as I believe that it is one of the more abridged ones. I think that it is interesting to see Emmy as a contemporary of Mary-Lou's, and in the right form for her age, instead of being Margot's best friend, and in several forms below ML and the others.

I really like the bits that we see of the Prefects, as, I really like that particular group, and, unlike with Peggy's set, they are mostly girls that we have seen before as middles and juniors (except for Loveday, of course :shock: ), and I like seeing them in their final year. The bit about them getting stuck in the mud was quite amusing IMO, as being the sort of thing that the naughty middles would have loved to have known about the Pres, and which they would have wanted to keep quiet! :D

I feel sorry for Elfie, having to leave school so suddenly, but in the context of when it was written, I can see why she would have had to. If she didn't have any friends or relations who could immediately look after the young boys, and if they were too young to go off to school, and her father felt too grief stricken to do it himself, I can see the reasoning behind it, as she was already almost an adult, and had had years at school already. However, I am still very sorry for her, and for Bride, and I was very glad when she came back again. :lol:
Author:  JayB [ Mon May 19, 2008 8:23 pm ]
Post subject: 
This isn't one of my favourites, mainly because I don't much care for Emerence - I don't find her very interesting or likeable. And I do have to wonder why Hilda and Rosalie, who have years of experience with girls, felt they needed to ask Jack Maynard's advice on whether to take her.

I like the parts with the prefects. It's interesting that it's Loveday who takes the lead in keeping the Middles in order when they're on the way to school, before any prefects have been appointed, showing that she was the right choice for Head Girl. I feel Bride probably did a lot of growing up in this term, what with her mother's illness and not having Peggy to turn to. By the time she was appointed HG, she really was ready to take on the job.

In the circumstances, I think it was the right decision for Elfie not to return to school at the start of term. Her stepmother had been dead less than a fortnight. In the earliest stages of grief, Elfie was probably better at home with her family rather than being at school worrying about them, and the little boys probably really did need her. I'm glad she was able to return at half term, though; by that time it was right that she and the family should be beginning to move on a little.

As to shocks - I don't think there were that many more than in other CS books - but I suppose EBD had to call it something!
Author:  Alison H [ Mon May 19, 2008 8:25 pm ]
Post subject: 
I don't miss Joey in this book, I have to say! As Laura said, it's interesting to see Emerence with people her own age, although the later friendship between her and Margot is nice too. The "bad girl reforms" story is fairly standard but works OK - although I'm not impressed with the way that Emerence's parents just pack her off on a plane halfway round the world without making any proper arrangements beforehand :roll:. There are a lot of parents in the books who are neglectful or over-indulgent or just not very good at keeping discipline but, for all that talk about "training" being important, there aren't all that many cases of "naughty" girls whose behaviour can be attributed to their upbringing, so this book's interesting in that way.

Bride and her friends are lovely, and I feel sorry for Elfie and am glad when she's able to return to school.

This book seems a bit disconnected (for lack of a better word!) with the rest of the series in some ways, maybe because it's the last book before preparations for the move to Switzerland start. The stuff about Dai Llewelyn the pirate (which sounds like an Enid Blyton storyline that's escaped into an EBD book) never seems to be mentioned again, and there are other things too - isn't there some talk of Hilda, Nell and Rosalie going to Canada on holiday? - that're never followed up.
Author:  JayB [ Mon May 19, 2008 9:18 pm ]
Post subject: 
Events as described in this book don't quite match up with events as described in Oberland, do they? I don't recall any mention of Dickie flying home for her brother's christening in Oberland - unless I've read an abridged version it was cut from. And I think Peggy coming home for Mollie's operation happens slightly differently.

Would any of the medically trained people here recommend a glass of whisky with four aspirin as a remedy for getting chilled?
Author:  Mel [ Mon May 19, 2008 9:50 pm ]
Post subject: 
It's interesting to see Mary-Lou as a contemporary of Emerence when later she is the all-poweful HG. Emerence is awful but I like the scene where Matron picks her up and the prefects peep through the crack in the door! The prefects falling in the mud is the usual termly accident but is it necessary for Julie to be stripped , dunked in a bath and rolled in blankets? This seems to happen a lot and most girls of that age 16/17 would find it embarrassing. Doesn't Jo appear at the end? I must admit my heart sinks when I read the words 'said a well-known golden voice'
Author:  Mia [ Mon May 19, 2008 9:58 pm ]
Post subject: 
JayB wrote:
Would any of the medically trained people here recommend a glass of whisky with four aspirin as a remedy for getting chilled?


I think that would cure most ills. :lol:
Author:  Kathy_S [ Tue May 20, 2008 4:12 am ]
Post subject: 
Well, Shocks does have its drama, what with the well and its history, the reappearing pond, and the hidden treasure – things we can't accuse EBD of repeating within the series. Nor do we have anyone but Emerence managing fire and flood in the same book!

I thought assigning Games to a committee this time, with someone in charge of each sport, sounded a lot more realistic than always finding a super-athlete who's good in everything. Nice that Elfie got to come back and head the committee, though.

Re my usual favorites, I was quite amused by Jo's tactic over withholding Felicity's existence. The turnabouts on flying seemed rather EBDismish, with Mary-Lou, famed for hoping the whole school will fly, so dismissive of Emerence's flight, and Joey jumping on a plane to show off the babies on time rather than refusing to risk their precious necks as in Peggy. (Actually that phrase was Madge's, but Jo 'wasn't having any' either – though of course Canada may have cured everyone's fear of flying.)

My biggest question: Are the identities of the rest of the costumes revealed in the unabridged version? If so, what are they? Or if not, what do you think they represent? I was dead certain that Bride, with dancing pumps all over her person, was Noel Streatfeild's Dancing Shoes, only later realizing that (a) it wasn't called Dancing Shoes in the UK, and (b) it came out 5 years after Shocks. Other mysteries:
*Miss Derwent in a swirling scarlet curtain
*Julie and the mangoldwurtzel
*What appalling pun was Matron, that she won the booby, given that Miss Stephens is credited with All-Over Twist?
*Why did Rosalie Dene on her own win first prize, when she and Miss Annersley were sharing Pillars of the House with no costume but their ordinary evening dress? *knows nothing about this book and is therefore unclear why the stares and gasps and shrieks of mirth*
Author:  JayB [ Tue May 20, 2008 10:20 am ]
Post subject: 
I thought Bride was Ballet Shoes, which came out in the '30s. And I thought Rosalie won the prize for guessing everyone else's books, not for her own. And Matron guessed the fewest.

No idea about the others. Probably books that were well known in EBD's day but forgotten now. (Afterthought - unless Miss Derwent is A Study in Scarlet, perhaps?)
Author:  Miriam [ Tue May 20, 2008 5:16 pm ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
Why did Rosalie Dene on her own win first prize, when she and Miss Annersley were sharing Pillars of the House with no costume but their ordinary evening dress? *knows nothing about this book and is therefore unclear why the stares and gasps and shrieks of mirth


I've never read Pillars of the House either, but my understanding was that it was a pun on their roles within the school rather than the contents of the book. The came as themselves - the Head Mistress and the School Secretary/Administrator/Bursar upon whom everything else depended - very literally the pillars of the house.
Author:  claire [ Tue May 20, 2008 5:32 pm ]
Post subject: 
How does the letter from Mrs MacKenzie arrive prior to Emerence when she is meant to be leaving on the next plane (which is presumably the same one taking the letters)
Author:  Sunglass [ Tue May 20, 2008 8:42 pm ]
Post subject: 
I agree with Miriam about the pillars of the house notion and JayB on A Study in Scarlet. No idea re Julie and her root vegetable.

I like this book, for things like the very tender Bride and Elfie relationship, and the slightly improbable sensitivity of the staff of a big school having the time and leisure to see about consoling one girl about the departure of another. (Juvenile me when I first read this one, aged ten or so, found Elfie's name absolutely hilarious...) Given the context of all the Middles always being quoted as saying they'd rather fall into staff hands than run foul of the prefects, I tend to enjoy Emerence's cheek when she gatecrashes the prefects' meeting. I have a perverse liking for the scene where Hilda and Whatshisname Christie (Commander? Dickie's dad?) go fishing about in the overflow ditch, and I like the prefects race (and the exaggerated fairness of the shortest setting off in front) until they jump into the sunken path and the whole thing descends into farce. I think when I read it first I thought they'd essentially got caught in quicksand or something, such was the kerfuffle with the ropes and panic and 'Don't go too far down!', but, seriously, it's ankle-deep mud! Does it really merit dosing and stripping and blankets and post-traumatic stress disorder etc?
Author:  Alison H [ Tue May 20, 2008 9:46 pm ]
Post subject: 
Sunglass wrote:
(Juvenile me when I first read this one, aged ten or so, found Elfie's name absolutely hilarious...)


Apologies if I'm being thick, but what would Elfie's proper name have been? Presumably "Elfie" was a "short" rather than a nickname as nicknames apparently weren't allowed except in Tom Gay's case.

Elfrida?
Author:  Sunglass [ Tue May 20, 2008 10:05 pm ]
Post subject: 
I assumed Elfrida, too - despite wrangling with another ten-year-old reader who was arguing for 'Euphemia', which I would have thought would make it 'Effie' and which neither of us could spell in any case. Wasn't there a Queen Elfrida, or some variant thereof, who was mother to Ethelred the Unready? Or one of those Anglo-Saxon saints who are always called things like Ugtred?

Didn't EBD's Elfie also have a 'triangular' face, or am I imagining that? Oh, and I seem to remember also being terribly confused, aged ten, by her referring to her dead stepmother as 'Marmee', which I'd only come across in Little Women and assumed was a 19thc Americanism...
Author:  Theresa [ Wed May 21, 2008 2:12 am ]
Post subject: 
The mother of Ethelred the Unready was indead an Ælfthryth, which is ye olde version of Elfrida/Elfreda. There was also one who was the daughter of King Alfred the Great, and there's a saint Alfrida. I've always thought it's a very pretty name, and assumed it was Elfie's full name.
Author:  jennifer [ Wed May 21, 2008 3:10 am ]
Post subject: 
I think it says Elfrida in one of the newsletters.

I kind of like Elfie's case - it's clear that she's making a huge sacrifice for what she sees as her duty. I do think it would have done her a huge disservice for her father to accept it past a single semester, and would expect him to arrange something else for later, because she is essentially giving up her career plans. Rosalie, I think, plays down her sacrifice when she talks about Elfie being able to go to night school, as it's clear that Elfie isn't academically inclined, and it takes both a lot of hard work on her part, and an excellent school, to get her through the exams.

I like Emerence, and think it's one of the more realistic of the bad girl though mis-parenting examples. I've met a few kids who were raised along these lines (without the millionaire part), and they are thoroughly obnoxious. Emerence is thoroughly obnoxious, but you feel sorry for her because it isn't her fault. She also never really reforms totally later, even if she does calm down a bit.

I don't think the absence of Joey hurts the book, but I do find her coyness over the twins (and subsequent appearance with them) a bit annoying. Madge's reapparance to support Dick is lovely.
Author:  joyclark [ Wed May 21, 2008 3:25 am ]
Post subject: 
Alison H wrote:
Sunglass wrote:
(Juvenile me when I first read this one, aged ten or so, found Elfie's name absolutely hilarious...)


Apologies if I'm being thick, but what would Elfie's proper name have been? Presumably "Elfie" was a "short" rather than a nickname as nicknames apparently weren't allowed except in Tom Gay's case.

Elfrida?


I knew an 'Elphine' when I was young.
Author:  JustJen [ Wed May 21, 2008 3:26 am ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
How does the letter from Mrs MacKenzie arrive prior to Emerence when she is meant to be leaving on the next plane (which is presumably the same one taking the letters)


I always thought that someone she knew was coming to England and brought the letter with them.

Quote:
it's ankle-deep mud!

I've been stuck in ankle deep mud (x-country running) and I was covered head to toe in mud by the time I got out. Being wrapped in blankets sounds heavenly!
Author:  KB [ Wed May 21, 2008 11:23 pm ]
Post subject: 
claire wrote:
How does the letter from Mrs MacKenzie arrive prior to Emerence when she is meant to be leaving on the next plane (which is presumably the same one taking the letters)


I had always felt that was a father's very unrealistic view of the situation and the belief that a girl could be immediately sent to the airport without worrying about buying and packing all the things she would need for the next year. I imagine he sent off the telegram while in a blue funk of sorts and then had to wait while all the necessary things were acquired.
Author:  Billie [ Thu May 22, 2008 7:15 pm ]
Post subject: 
It is Elfie's having to leave school suddenly that strikes me as the stand-out moment of the book. I'm not quite sure why - I guess it's the shock to her and Bride, and how she's all of a sudden been pitched out of the safety of school and into the real world, having to play mum. I don't know much about Elfie as a character but I did find that most moving.

Not sure how this book counts as more "shocking" than any other, but I suppose she had to call it something. Emerence is a wonderfully wicked character.

One more thing: "All-over-twist." EBD has used that pun at least three times, and it really confused me, as I was sure, after that scene, I had read that book before, though I couldn't remember most of the story. It was only when I read the pun elsewhere (Jane, possibly?) that I realised it was new to me after all.
Author:  Fiona Mc [ Sun Jun 01, 2008 1:28 pm ]
Post subject: 
One thing I find interesting about this book is Emmerence's reaction to Verity. She's described as falling under her thrall and doens't want her misdeeds recounted to her for some reason in the sense that she doen't want to shock her. I've always wondered if EBD had planned Verity to have a greater influence over her than what eventuated
Author:  JayB [ Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:16 pm ]
Post subject: 
It would have been good to see Verity brought out from ML's shadow and given a more influential role. It's a pity EBD didn't follow through with it. I think it would have been more interesting than the Emmie/Margot friendship we got.
All times are UTC
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/