The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a fascinating and engrossing read. The premise is seemingly simple: a teacher takes six young girls, the “Brodie Set,” and through unconventional teaching methods, educates them using anecdotes from her own experiences. “Give me a girl at an impressionable age,” she says, “and she is mine for life.” 

The fast-paced narrative switches from past to future, creating a circular chronology and allowing the reader some limited knowledge of future events while discovering the ways in which they came about. This allows the tension to mount to a height throughout the book, and casts innocent ventures such as Miss Brodie’s afternoon tea with her “set” in a far more sinister light. 

The teacher’s, and consequently the girls’, obsession with sex and with art teacher Teddy Lloyd obscures what in the end turns out to be Miss Brodie’s downfall: her politics. Set in pre-WWII Edinburgh, the twin shadows of Fascism and Calvinism hang over the book, but as the group of “crème de la crème” girls are distracted with the business of growing up, it is easy for both the characters and the reader to ignore these signposts. 

The narrative is witty and sparse and allows the reader to make what they will of a lot of the plot, although in other areas things are spelled out pointedly for the reader, for instance the way in which the girls’ – incessantly repeated – physical traits correspond to their specific role in the Brodie set. The story hinges on Sandy’s journey from adoring pupil to suspicious and aloof young woman, the eventual betrayal of Miss Brodie clearly something that will haunt the Brodie set for the rest of their lives.  

Originally published in its entirety in the New Yorker Magazine and in print format in 1961, the text now appears in a new, super-readable edition which makes it especially clear for dyslexic readers or for anyone who struggles with smaller fonts and is more accessible than ever. You’ll fly through it!

Deirbhile Brennan