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: An underrated classic
Review: After reading the novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie I felt that at times it was somewhat interesting but mostly uneventful. Just as the book would take a turn that would get my attention it seemed like Spark found a way to bore me,which made this a very hard novel to finish.
The main idea of the book was well established and easy to understand. Miss Jean Brodie a teacher at an private school, was simply trying to "relive" her prime again through several eleven year old girls. She picked six girls and tried to mold them into "perfect" young women or as she called them "the creme de la creme." She taught these six girls how women were to speak, walk, talk and act. Although later in life the girls realized that Miss Brodie had taught them a life of make-believe and that in the real world that was not how people acted at all.
At the beginning this book seemed very interesting but that quickly changed and there was no reason to read on. I feel that Spark did a horrible job explaining important details in the novel that would paint a picture and make the reader feel apart of the book. Also Spark had a way with being able to go on and on about pointless details which in my eyes did not make the book more exiting it just made each page drag. Also Spark kept jumping from one year to another then back to the previous year which did not do anything except frustrate me. Also the characters are unreal and misunderstood throughout the novel. Miss Jean Brodie was sought to be an idol at the beginning of the book but as the novel went on she was actually trying to fix all her mistakes and imperfections through her students. And as far as the other girls, they were not fully explained and the little information that was presented was repeated over and over again.
Overall I think that the novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is not one I would recommend. It is not a horrible novel but the way everything was explained did not satisfy me and was boring. At times I did think the novel was going to pick up and change directions but Spark gave away the ending less than half way through the book which made it pointless to read on.
Rating:
Summary: 'There were legions of her kind'
Review: By now I'm sure that Miss Jean Brodie and her prime are better known from the film than from the original novel. The film, and the absolutely wonderful stage production that preceded it in London with Vanessa Redgrave as the first Brodie, caught one side, the caricature side, of Muriel Spark's immortal creation, but the story is a more complex matter altogether, short though the book is.
Any story by Muriel Spark is complex up to a point - her way of thinking is devious and unstraightforward and her characters tend to inhabit the moral and motivational lowlands. Insofar as they seem like real people at all rather than clever animations, her attitude towards them is usually ambivalent. Indeed it's almost fair to say that she makes her feelings for her own creations clearest, and expresses them most strongly, when those feelings consist most of repugnance, as with Patrick Seton and Father Socket in The Bachelors. Nevertheless she always seems to distance herself successfully from their general squalor through her quick wits and the dazzling speed at which she keeps rearranging the scenery.
This book has a lot of the familiar Spark `feel' to it, but it's a bit different in some ways too. It's short, but it doesn't come across to me as a lightweight effort like The Abbess of Crewe. The cast of characters is not as large as in The Bachelors or The Ballad of Peckham Rye, but it's large enough. What makes it simpler is that it consists largely of a group of juveniles on the one hand, and on the other it is absolutely dominated by one single outsize personality, maybe the nearest to a true heroine or hero that Spark ever allowed herself. Jean Brodie is a silly woman but not a mean or corrupt one and that, in a novel by Muriel Spark, is quite something not to be. Another thing that may have softened the author's stance is that the setting is not London or the east side of Manhattan or Crewe or any other foreign clime, but her own native Edinburgh. I don't suppose she is trying to conceal her affection for it (although being who she is she doesn't indulge it either), or if she is she has failed at that. I can recognise the kinds of people and the kinds of attitude through a similar if not identical background, and it has brought out a most unusual candour in the author. At the start of chapter 3 there is a very straightforward account of the kind of Edinburgh spinster that Jean Brodie exemplifies. Spark typically springs it on us who it was that `betrayed' Miss Brodie, but once she has done so she takes us through the person's thought-processes with a most untypical clarity. The book shuttles backwards and forwards through time-frames, but this time with a sheer naturalness that conceals the cleverness of it. There is even a rare glimpse into the author's fascination with Catholicism when she discusses Miss Brodie's semi-ecumenical religious interests. Above all the typical spurts of sarcasm and ridicule are more often funny than bitchy, not the other way round as is more usual from her.
A taste for Muriel Spark is a bit of a mini-religion itself. This book might make her a few converts.
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Gets Better With Age
Review: I remember reading this book in high school, like most of the reviewers on this page. And, like most of the reviewers here, I recall that at the time I found this book incredibly boring; its only redeeming quality was that it ended after 150 pages. It has been 6 years since I was subjected to Brodie, and I've read hundreds of books since then, yet for some reason Brodie is one of only a handful of novels that has truly remained with me. Miss Brodie, so arrogant and destructive, and Sandy, who goes through what can only be described as one of literature's most trying adolescences, are two of the most deeply human characters one will encounter in 20th century English literature. Add to that a strong feminist undercurrent and a unique perspective on pre-war politics, and you have a recipe for an enduring classic. Spark is a very good, though not immensely talented writer, (which might explain why this book is so difficult for high school students to get through) but she succeeds in crafting an interesting group of characters, and has a great deal to say for such a short novel. So, for all the students who end up reading this book in 9th grade English, I would say that even if you don't enjoy the book now, there is a reason why it is being taught; it is one of those little novels, like To Kill a Mockingbird or The Catcher in the Rye, that almost everyone who reads through it is ultimately better for. For anyone else looking for a quick read that will stick with them, I recommend this title without hesitation. It is certainly not the greatest book ever written (as dozens of young reviewers can certainly attest) but it is deserving of its status as one of the 100 best of the 20th century.
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: she sure likes telling us she is in her prime
Review: Miss Brodie is a school teacher in 1930s Scotland, and she has selected 6 girls as her "creme de la creme" to whom she "dedicates her prime." We are told early on that one of the girls will betray her in the end -- who, what, how, why, and to whom is what the rest of the book is about. Brodie is not that great though -- I thought she would be like Mary Poppins but she is selfish and involves the girls in her illicit love affairs between the art teacher and the choir master. She also says things against the other female teachers to the girls -- who are between aged 12 and 15 throughout this book. This behavior is unprofessional and illegal, frankly. It's gross. I started to be glad she was betrayed! Even if she was in her prime! You really have to wonder about an adult woman who has no grown female friends and makes 6 girls hang out with her married boyfriend. Gross.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting as long as you have interest in the subject
Review: Miss Jean Brodie is a spinster and a teacher who can teach anything to her students. But she is a peculiar teacher. She doesn't care spending her class times with mathematics, history, English and all other regular subjects. She prefers to explore life, to teach her set of students --the chosen ones-- how to deal with life, love, friends and have good manners. Of course she will have problems with the school administration.
This is a summary of Muriel Spark's most important novel, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in a nutshell. And however the book is really short, it has a wide range of subject and characters. The writer explores not only the life of her heroine but also the existence of a couple of her students. Part of the characters is very human and part is rather archetypical. It would top notch if the author could have transformed all of them in human beings. However it turns out not to be a problem, since the narrative is quite entertaining and an interesting portray of a time.
The best creation is, of course, Miss Jean Brodie. She sounds stereotypical some time, some times a little naïve, but never uninteresting. She has advices for everything: "speech is silver, but silence is golden", a window can be opened more than six inches, it would be too vulgar; and so it goes. While for her girls they are quite important, for the readers they can be rather amusing. It is impossible to one not the wonder weather those advices are for real or some far fetched thoughts from Miss Brodie's mind.
Using the style of anticipation, early in the narrative we learn things that will only happen many years later, like the fact that one girl will betray Miss Brodie, and that another one will become a Sister. This device may put off some readers due to the fact it cuts short the surprise in the narrative.
However much I liked Miss Brodie and her adventures, I've never felt really connected to the book. There was always something missing to make me sink in the narrative and in the lives of the characters. Maybe a lack of emotion --most of it read a little to superficial to me--, or the theme --this may be a novel that have more connection with girls. But, I still recommend "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie". It is a fast an interesting 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: Here's why you should read this book
Review: This book offers many things that are appealing: a female protagonist (flawed, like the rest of us), somewhat complex, young female supporting characters, feminist undercurrents, and psychological delvings into the female mind, particularly in the 1930's. It is charming when Miss Brodie plays golf with her "set," or has them for tea. On the other hand, her love of Hitler and Mussolini is stupifying; one realizes the magnitude of her power over the young minds of her students. As a teacher myself, I have witnessed teachers who have this same mentality, a sort-of god-complex, whereby the students become their fascisti...it is highly self-serving. But when I was done with this novel, I didn't know what to think. I didn't like Sandy or Jean Brodie. It hardly mattered what became of any of them in the end. All their efforts, too, were highly self-serving. I'm not sure what this says of the female psyche, if anything -- I'm not sure if this novel does a perfect job of helping its readers draw any conclusions about the matter. This is why I give the novel four instead of five stars. Finally, in part because of the anachronistic telling of events, one ends up just noticing Spark's literary style (which, ironically, is highly self-serving).
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