Books: The Chalet School and Rosalie
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#1: Books: The Chalet School and Rosalie Author: RóisínLocation: Ireland PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:03 pm
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This very short book tells the story of Rosalie Way. She desperately wants Tom Gay to be her very best friend, but Tom is not as sentimentally inclined. There is an NCC summary here.

So, do you like this book? It's very rare in the original paperback, but most people have it in the later binding along with Mystery. Is there any way that you like to read into the way that EBD describes either Tom or Rosalie, or is this a straightforward story along the same lines as the Joey/Simone early relationship?

Please raise any points of discussion you like in relation to this book.

Next Sunday: (Chalet School Short Story 7) The Midnight That Didn't Come Off.

#2:  Author: SunglassLocation: Usually London PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:46 am
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This isn't on the transcripts site, is it? I know I've read it, but it was years ago in a library copy, and it's not clear enough in my memory to be able to talk about.

#3:  Author: roversgirlLocation: France PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:29 am
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I really enjoyed this book, particularly because it focuses on a group of pupils I really like. I liked seeing Tom having to deal with the sentimentality and how she does rise to the occasion, particularly at the party! It's a nice account of the school and how it works Smile
What transcripts website is this?

#4:  Author: RóisínLocation: Ireland PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:05 pm
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It is on the transcripts site. The transcripts site is here. If anyone is still waiting on membership approval, but wants to read Rosalie, I've hosted it temporarily here.

#5:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:08 pm
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I don't mind this one - it's not one of my favourites, but it's OK.

#6:  Author: Sunflower PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:29 pm
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I dont think I have ever read this one, so thank you for the transcript.

I'll post my comments when I have read it! Very Happy

#7:  Author: JBLocation: Cumbria PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:37 pm
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Although I don't reread this often, I enojy it when I do. It's a nice development of Tom's character from the previous book which introduces her. I also like that the references to some things which are referred to in later books so it feels part of the series - the half term trip and the birth of Charles Maynard.

I bought this when it was first published by Armada in the 1980s (not the edition with Mystery) and I didn't know it existed. It was lovely to find a "new" Chalet title.

#8:  Author: SugarLocation: second star to the right! PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:06 pm
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The armada pb is rare? Shocked

#9:  Author: MiaLocation: London PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:12 pm
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Sugar wrote:
The armada pb is rare? Shocked


It is! I have a copy from the 80s but I think they go for quite a lot on ebay. Not the two in one with Mystery edition but the very thin one that originally cost 75p (I think!)

#10:  Author: SugarLocation: second star to the right! PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:14 pm
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Crikey! I have think I have 2 1980's one's AND a mystery/rosalie one! I know what to do if I get skint! Laughing

#11:  Author: TorLocation: London PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:53 pm
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Shocked Shocked Shocked

I sent mine off to someone in India following a request in the FOCS mag many years ago, cos I had got the mystery combo.

Ah well, hope it is loved!

#12:  Author: SunglassLocation: Usually London PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:34 pm
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Can I ask a possibly dumb minor question about the opening scenes on the train? The gabby new junior Joanna pesters Tom to admit her real name, and says she will eventually find out anyway because she'll hear the 'teachers' calling her by it:

Gay, who had been gossiping with Jacynth up to this, suddenly took a hand. “Oh no, you won’t!” she told Joanna severely. “And stop asking so many questions. It’s jolly rude of you. And while I think of it, we don’t call the staff “teachers” – we call them “mistresses”. So don’t let me hear you doing it again.

Why the ticking off about calling mistresses 'teachers'? The only other time I can think of when a mistress is called a teacher is at the school Ros Lilley attends before she goes to the CS - is it a usage associated with lower-class speech? Or with a low-grade school? Or is it just childish? I have a feeling it comes up somewhere in Antonia Forest too.

#13:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:44 pm
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AFAIK it's just a snobbery issue! I may be wrong, though.

Richenda Fry mentions that staff at her previous school, which presumably was also a private school, were called "teachers", though.

#14:  Author: Kathy_SLocation: midwestern US PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:12 am
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Rosalie didn't particularly stand out for me. Not that it was particularly bad, especially if viewed as more about Tom, but it was too short for a proper novel, and Rosalie seemed rather bland and a bit on the early Simone side. I suppose it didn't help that I'd originally hoped it would be about Rosalie Dene!

Possibly its greatest contribution was the inspiration of one of my very favorite crossovers, Rachael P's How Matey Got Her Fez. Very Happy.

#15:  Author: jenniferLocation: Taiwan PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:25 am
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Much better than Mystery, not nearly as good as Tom.

It doesn't stand up as a full novel, but I did enjoy reading it. Rosalie was a fairly weak character - early Simone is probably a good description. I did like the costume party, and the complete contract between Tom and Rosalie.

#16:  Author: NineLivesBurraLocation: York, North Yorks PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:31 pm
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I too, have the armada pb version. I also have a separate mystery pb as well. To be honest, I get very frustrated with Rosalie's character. I don't mind the sentimentality in Simone when she is vying for Joey's attentions but for some reason, I get annoyed with Rosalie when she wants Tom's attention. Not really sure why. I love how Tom handle's it though. It is certainly not my favourite book. I think I even prefer mystery over Rosalie.

#17:  Author: SunglassLocation: Usually London PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:52 pm
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I find Rosalie's 'crush' on Tom a bit odd, fast and unmotivated, and I find Tom (a) very quick to understand what is going on and (b) unexpectedly sensitive about it, given her 'boyish' lack of sentiment and her training in despising schoolgirl emotionalism - the word 'disgust' is used of the way her father has trained her to think of it, which is a very strong one for EBD!

OK, Tom sheepdogs Rosalie on the train and goes on being kind to her, but more or less the moment they get to school Rosalie is already so attached to her she is on the verge of tears when she finds she isn't in the same dormitory as Tom and Tom, somehow (and this is the weird part for me) is expecting her response:

Tom had been on the look-out for this and promptly checked it by saying, "Oh well, it's a jolly decent dormy. And thank goodness you aren't like a baby to howl over a think like that. We'll see lots of each other during the day - too much, most likely! I'll take you up, and see if I can find any of our crowd hanging about, and get them to keep an eye on you."

The other major crush in the CS is never actually called a crush, and Simone's intense affection for Joey is shared, less emotionally, by virtually everyone in the CS world, so you never find yourself asking why Simone is dying to be Jo's Bestest Friend.

Also, Gay figures out Rosalie's crush by watching her be told to partner Tom at tennis! It's like people are suddenly psychic! And then Rosalie turns into Joan Crawford and starts throwing tantrums and rushing off in high dudgeon, while Daisy Venables is also going mad because of her toothache! It all gets a bit CS having PMT - maybe that's what Tom's father meant when he warned her about schoolgirl emotionalism!

#18: Chalet school and Rosalie Author: JoMoranLocation: Wiltshire, England PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 6:27 pm
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I've got the single pb copy and also the combined with mystery (couldn't get mystery from ebay to start with, now I've got something to sell if I get stuck !) I thought both books are a bit weak if I'm honest - probably because they are quite short and therefore not enough to get your teeth stuck into - I like the cover though, its one of my favourites.

#19:  Author: MiriamLocation: Jerusalem, Israel PostPosted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:29 pm
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Sunglass wrote:
I find Rosalie's 'crush' on Tom a bit odd, fast and unmotivated, and I find Tom (a) very quick to understand what is going on and (b) unexpectedly sensitive about it, given her 'boyish' lack of sentiment and her training in despising schoolgirl emotionalism - the word 'disgust' is used of the way her father has trained her to think of it, which is a very strong one for EBD!


It's a side of Tom that we don't see a great deal off, but I think she would have picked up a lot of awarenes of people and emontional sensitvity from her father. (Real awareness of people's emotions i mean, not exagerrated schoolgirl silliness.) HE was a very sucessfull minister, which presumably included a certain amount of counselling,and Tom could have learned a lot about people from being with him all the time. he was also delicate/a semi-invalid in ome way, so which would have increased his sensitivity aand awarenes, which would have had an influence on Tom.

We also see how sensitive and aware her mother was, when she talked to Rosamund about how to accept the shcolarship, and dispelled a lot of her fears about going to the CS. When Tom is older, we see her talking about visiting the elderly/sick, which she seems to have been accustomed to from a young age, and there is her final choice of career as a misionary.

Her own awareness is unrefined at this age, which shows in the rows she has with Rosalie, but it is the whole situation with Rosalie which calls it forth. Later it is a side of her that often stays in the background but is always there, and comes to the fore a lot in her final year, as she matures and come to a final decision about her future.

Incidently, why does Rosalie stay an extra year at the CS proper insted of going on to St Mildred's with the rest of that group? She certainly seems to keep up well enough with them academically the rest of the time (when EBD remembers that she exists), and I would have thought that a finishing shcool would be the obvious destination for someone who intended enter Society.

#20:  Author: Sunflower PostPosted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:01 pm
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Totally agree with Sungass. Rosalie's crush does see a little contrived and over the top. And it does seem to began very quickly and end quite soon. Rosalie just comes across as very immature - we see her losing her temper more than once.

I did like seeing more of a younger Tom, but thougt she was very unsympathetic to Joanna on the train.

#21:  Author: Mrs RedbootsLocation: London, UK PostPosted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:26 pm
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Sunglass wrote:
Why the ticking off about calling mistresses 'teachers'? The only other time I can think of when a mistress is called a teacher is at the school Ros Lilley attends before she goes to the CS - is it a usage associated with lower-class speech? Or with a low-grade school? Or is it just childish? I have a feeling it comes up somewhere in Antonia Forest too.


We never said "teachers" at the school I was at, although we did at my (fee-paying, private) primary school. They were firmly "staff", and "members of staff", although I think one could speak of "mistresses".

(I am not sure which boys' prep school it was where delegates at a conference in the holidays were delighted to read a notice above the bed: "Should you require a mistress in the night, please ring the bell." Alas, it is probably apocryphal!).

#22:  Author: Fiona McLocation: Bendigo, Australia PostPosted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:46 am
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Sunflower wrote:
I did like seeing more of a younger Tom, but thougt she was very unsympathetic to Joanna on the train.


I think it was the continual questions that finally drove her nuts and then her checky/rudeness that topped it off. I don't know many 13yo who are that patient for an hour or more answering a 9yo questions, especially when they're a stranger too



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