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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 4:03 am| Quote: |
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Perfect in books NANDINI NAYAR Blyton, Brent-Dyer and others romanticised the idea of life in the boarding school. School stories will always be favourites regardless of whether we really like school or not. Most of these stories are set in boarding schools though a few do talk of `day schools'. But the idea of a school where children stay away from parents, in a campus with a swimming pool, classrooms, dining hall, music rooms, playground and even a sick bay, makes it seem very attractive. Stories set in schools were first written in Britain after the Education Act of 1870, which made education compulsory for all. In the beginning these stories were set in boys schools since girls were educated at home by a governess or at a small day school. Thomas Hughes' Tom Browm School Days remains one of the most popular of such books. What Katy Did At School was one of the first American books to look at life in a school for young ladies. Angela Brazil, Elsie Oxenham, Dorita Bruce and Elinor Brent-Dyer were the most successful authors writing at this time. In fact Brent-Dyer's Chalet School enjoys immense popularity to this day and these books are constantly in print. Charles Hamilton, who wrote under 20 pseudonyms, authored two of the most popular school series. As Frank Richards he wrote the Billy Bunter series and as Hilda Richards he authored Bessie Bunter's adventures at school. To today's readers, Enid Blyton's St. Clare's, Malory Towers and Whyteleafe are the most familiar schools. Jim Murphy's Worst Witch series and the Harry Potter books are set in boarding schools where magic is taught. Schools stories follow a certain formula. A new student joins the school, sparks off unrest or indiscipline, is made aware of the rules of the school, is punished and settles down to be a model student. Such children, it is hinted, are future head boys or girls, born to lead the school in a new direction. Half terms, school plays, concerts, tricks, petty quarrels, problems caused by thieves or tale-tellers — are some of the highlights of school life. Then there is the midnight fear, made so popular by Blyton, the stink-balls or the sneezing powder, the vain girl whose pride leads her to fall and the intelligent but careless student who realised the error of her ways. Boarding schools are portrayed as a miniature world, complete in itself. Seldom does the outside world intrude on this little world. And in the books where it does, it only causes unrest and trouble. Otherwise, the teachers and students co-exist; the Headmistress is the all-important authority who disciplines them and the comforting matron takes the place of their mothers. The world of the boarding school teaches students the rules of surviving. And so lazy students begin to work hard, eager to impress their parents, vain children learn their lessons, thieves and liars turn a new leaf and cowards learn to face the truth. But for those who do not benefit from this, the authors suggest there is always the big bad world. |
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 7:39 am
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 8:15 am| Quote: |
| Ugh, why did they have to use one of *those* covers - they could have used a lovely NKB illustration instead |
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 10:43 amPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 12:33 pm| Frogize wrote: |
| I love the typos! What exactly is a 'midnight fear'? |
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