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When the Chalet School books were republished in Armada paperback form, mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, many of them were abridged. Some were quite severely abridged, losing entire chapters, while others just cut down some of the conversation or philosophical asides.
However with this book, the publishers decided to divide it into two. That's good news for those of us with the Armada versions of both halves, as they're essentially uncut from the original. It's not so good news if you bought the paperback and thought it was the entire 'Lintons' book. It's not. The second half is published in Armada as 'A Rebel at the Chalet School'.
It's quite a slim volume, unsurprisingly as it's really just half a book, only 125 pages in the Armada version. So it's quite quick to read. And, in my opinion, it's one of the better books. There are two new girls in this story: Gillian and Joyce Linton. They're 15 and 14 at the start of the book, but very different in character. Gillian is hard-working, responsible and caring. Joyce is lazy, arrogant and selfish. But although Joyce is perhaps a little caricatured, Gillian feels realistic, and extremely likeable.
Moreover, the book doesn't start with people at the Chalet School. It starts in a doctor's office. Mrs Linton, the girls' widowed mother, has just received a diagnosis of advanced tuberculosis. She is told that (in these pre-antibiotic days) her only hope of recovery is in treatment at the sanatorium in the Austrian Alps. She's worried about what to do with her daughters, and the doctor recommends the Chalet School...
So there's an emotional hook early in the book, and I could empathise with Gillian very strongly. Her mother doesn't tell the girls what is wrong (which seems rather odd) but Gillian realises that it's serious. They still treat Joyce very much as a baby, which doesn't help her attitude or selfishness, and Joyce, unsurprisingly, is quite angry when she discovers that she hasn't been told. For all her faults, Joyce does love her mother very much.
Most of the book is about the girls' introduction to the Chalet School and the difficulties Joyce finds, when she's not treated the way she hopes, and is forced not just to work but to modify her behaviour and language. She tries out various stunts, including an ill-fated midnight feast, but gradually the Chalet School ethos inevitably starts to take over.
The cover of my edition, and the blurb on the back feature a rather brief section of the book involving the staff entertainment evening - someone picking up the book on the basis of the blurb would probably be rather disappointed. Indeed, the reference to Mrs Jarley and her waxworks is somewhat obscure - apparently she's a minor character in a Dickens novel.
That apart, I thought it a thoughtful, well-written book. Gillian is an important character in some of the later Chalet School books, and she's a well-rounded, pleasant person who is quickly accepted and liked for her personality and friendliness.
Recommended. If you can get hold of a GGBP edition of 'The Chalet School and the Lintons', then it's the full edition and you won't also need 'A Rebel at the Chalet School'. Unfortunately, the full editions go out of print very quickly, and tend to be highly priced second-hand.
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