Rating: 
Summary: "I always knew your upbringing was a bit peculiar."
Review: In the 1930s, Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher at the Marcia Blaine School in Edinburgh. Miss Brodie teaches at the Junior school, and her pupils pass into Senior school at age 12. In spite of the fact that the pupils pass on to the Senior school, several of the girls--known as the Brodie Set--maintain strong bonds with their former teacher. Miss Brodie--it seems--favours a particular group of girls. These girls, according to Miss Brodie, are going to be "the creme de la creme"--thanks to her unique, and unorthodox approach to education. Miss Brodie is a great admirer of fascism, so her pupils are kept informed regarding Mussolini and Hitler, while their regularly scheduled lessons are ignored.
While the girls are required to wear uniforms that largely remove individuality, the Brodie Set manage to create individualism through their school hats, for each girl in the Brodie Set wears her hat in some unique way. Miss Brodie encourages individualism, but she also demands a strange loyalty from each girl. In exchange for outings to museums, and golf courses, Miss Brodie expects the girls to listen to stories of her past and present loves. The girls are quite aware that they are being included into some sort of select club, and they repay Miss Brodie with a mis-placed hero worship. She becomes the heroine of their imaginative, overwrought romantic tales. This hero worship protects and shields Miss Brodie from the school authorities who are constantly on the lookout for inappropriate behaviour.
"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is one of the best-known books from Scottish author, Muriel Spark, and the book is quite different from her other novels. Spark's novels always contain malice, and there is certainly some degree of malice at work in this story. Jean Brodie is one of Spark's most fascinating subjects. She's the sort of teacher many pupils desire--a teacher who selects a pupil based on some sort of merit, and then gives that pupil special attention. Even the headmistress--an arch enemy of Miss Brodie's has to admit a certain frustration that the Brodie Set always score amazingly well on their exams. Miss Brodie's extra-curricular attention to her girls is admirable on the surface, but then it is also self-motivated. The girls are Miss Brodie's audience and also mirror Miss Brodie's reflected opinion of herself. Miss Brodie is actually a dangerous influence on her pupils, and the novel shows how a position of privilege and trust can be abused in the most insidious ways. The art teacher, Mr. Lloyd, uses the Brodie Set girls as subjects for his portraits, and each portrait somehow, inexplicably, looks just like Miss Brodie--although it's impossible to identify exactly how this likeness is created. Mr. Lloyd is possibly quite unaware of the truth behind his sub-conscious act, for the girls in the Brodie Set are forever marked by Miss Jean Brodie's influence. As Miss Brodie once said in her prime: "give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life."--displacedhuman
Rating:
Summary: More than meets the eye
Review: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is not an easy book, though it seems to be at first. If you start reading it, you expect something in the "Dead Poets Society" vein: a teacher who inspires his/her pupils and makes them better human beings.
But in Miss Brodie's case, this is not so. In fact, Muriel Spark's novel is ultimately a very dark and depressing one, in spite of its seemingly lighthearted tone and loads of irony. It is about power, deception, loyalty, influence, sin, love and hate...
In fact, the novel adresses many dilemmas of human interaction, all inserted in a seemingly simple and straightforward story. There are no good and bad characters in the book, only good and bad acts and attitutes. But in the end no-one can remain unspoilt and pure.
One of the most fascinating books I've ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Review: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is about a young unorthodox teacher and her special but ultimately different relationship with six of her students. The story is set in Edinburgh around the 1930's. It mostly takes place in the school where Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher but in the least sence of the meaning.Miss Jean Brodie is a woman in her prime and has been many places that follow with dramatic stories. She lives her life through six girls. The girls are know to everyone as "The Brodie Set." Miss Jean Brodie picked the six girls and they soon became her favorites. Even though Miss Jean Brodie lives her life through the girls she taught them to grow up to be and do what they believe. She teaches them about art, love, and how to be a proper woman. She tends to demonstrate it as well. Miss Jean Brodie is ultimately a unique woman. She encourages the girls to become sexually active and tells them stories of the love of her life. Miss Jean Brodie would have them over for tea, accompany them for walks, and take them to plays. The head mistress of the school despises Miss Jean Brodie and is willing to do anything to get rid of her but she needs a reason. The book goes through the lives of the girls from when they were young and in their prime until they are older and no longer associate with Miss Jean Brodie. The turning point of the story is that Miss Jean Brodie gets fired because of one of her precious girls. Overall the book was slightly boring but still satisfying. The book reflects betrayl, fitting in, relationships, rebellions, and love. I would recommend this book to others.
Rating: 
Summary: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Review: I feel that The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie written by Muriel Spark is a "good" novel. It is not a spectacular story and it is not a horrible story either. For me, the novel was simply satisfying. The plot is not outrageously exciting. The novel tells a story of a far-reaching teacher at a private girls school who is looked down upon by her superiors. She keys into the lives of a select number of students to try and broaden their horizons, and make them the "crème de la crème". The climax of the plot is fuzzy. The story had many ups and downs, but nothing extreme that sticks out in my memory. For me the novel was on the verge of boring. The novel tended to drag in some sections, especially in the first two chapters. These chapters take an abnormally long time to introduce the characters and the setting. Spark takes plenty of time to piece together these aspects for the reader. This was slightly frustrating for me. It takes a while for the novel to really pick up and become interesting. Spark is incredibly detailed throughout the novel making it boring for me during some parts, but mostly her descriptive writing worked to her advantage to paint a picture in the readers mind. Spark did a wonderful job of developing her characters and weaving their lives together throughout the novel. As the story developed I felt that I was growing and learning with the characters. The story followed the lives of six schoolgirls from the age of twelve to adulthood and the influence of their radical teacher and friend Miss Jean Brodie. Being a female I might be able to relate to and be more interested in the novel than others. Overall The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was slightly boring and redundant, but still a satisfying read.
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