Classics · ThoughtfulA charismatic teacher at an Edinburgh girls' school takes six ten-year-old pupils under her wing in the 1930s
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark
A self-assured teacher and the six girls of the Brodie set
Miss Jean Brodie is a charismatic, self-assured teacher at a girls' school in 1930s Edinburgh. She selects a favored group of six ten-year-old pupils, the "Brodie set": Sandy, Rose, Mary, Jenny, Monica and Eunice. She shares with them lessons on art and classical studies, as well as her own views and personal life, and her influence shapes the girls and their relationships with the teachers around them as they grow up. It was serialized in The New Yorker before Macmillan published it as a book in 1961.
More about this book
Who
Miss Jean Brodie, the girls of the Brodie set, the art master Teddy Lloyd and the singing master Gordon Lowther.
World
A girls' school in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1930s.
What makes it different
Miss Brodie is partly based on Christina Kay, a real teacher of Spark's. The 1969 film won Maggie Smith the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Feel
Sharp and compact, at 170 pages.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The Prime of Miss Jean BrodieWikipedia