I have just finished the sixth book in Elinor M Brent-Dyer’s lengthy Chalet School series, which I’m re-reading at a rate of about one per month. ‘Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School’ takes place not long after ‘Rivals of the Chalet School’ which I re-read at the end of June. It’s the last term for Mary Burnett as Head Girl.
But the main protagonist of this book is Eustacia Benson, a supercilious and uptight girl of thirteen who has been brought up in experimental mode by quite elderly parents. Brent-Dyer clearly disapproved of any parenting methods other than her own, but she manages to make an intriguing character in this young teenager, orphaned and alone in the world other than an aunt with five lively sons.
Eustacia has never mixed with other children - or many adults, it would appear - and considers herself rather a superior personage. She is introduced as a ‘prig’ and it takes almost the entire book before she starts to see the error of her ways. She doesn’t understand her cousins at all, nor why tale-bearing is considered a bad thing in all but extreme circumstances.
And so her aunt, after much discussion and correspondence, decides to send Eustacia to the Chalet School in the Autrian Tyrol. Eustacia is not impressed, and feels that everyone is against her; but she doesn’t see that her own attitude and behaviour tend to push people away from her.
Unsurprisingly, Eustacia clashes immediately with girls she meets. She doesn’t understand how schools function, or why prefects have authority. She doesn’t see why rules need to apply to her, or why she must go to bed at a certain time, or have a warm duvet which she sees as unhygienic. She treats staff and girls alike with disrespect, and is quite rude about ‘foreigners’.
The book is basically a series of incidents where Eustacia shows herself increasingly unpleasant, more and more determined to have revenge on everyone who (in her opinion) has slighted her in any way. She particularly dislikes Joey Bettany who is outspoken and sometimes abrupt; in this book Joey’s personality develops somewhat as she starts to grow up, and to think about her own responsibilities in dealing with people who either look up to her, or who dislike her.
I love the early Chalet School books; they are the ones I read from my grandmother’s shelves when I was a child, and which I now have in hardback editions, mostly from my mother’s collection. This was first published in 1930 but it doesn’t feel as if it were 90 years old; the situations are inevitably dated, but the people are realistic and mostly three dimensional.
Sometimes the rules and regulations might seem petty to modern teenagers. But the Chalet School, with its respectful friendship between staff and pupils as well as between girls of all ages would have been quite revolutionary in its day. Girls were encouraged to study sciences, to go to university and take up careers (unless they were destined to get married at young ages, as many of the Austrian girls were). This in itself was quite unusual in that era.
So once again I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had remembered the basic outline, of course, but I last read ‘Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School’ in 2009, on my last - and very slow - re-read of the series, so I had forgotten almost all the details. I found it quite difficult to put down at times. Perhaps I should warn about a single instance of a phrase which is now considered shocking and derogatory, which appears towards the end of the book. It probably won’t be included in the abridged Armada books, however, and I don’t know if it made the cut in the Girls Gone By edition.
Definitely recommended. It could make a good starter to the series, as it basically stands alone, although there are inevitable references to the earlier books. It’s the first of the books where someone arrives who doesn’t immediately ‘fit in’ to the Chalet School ethos, until some crisis makes them change their attitude, and it’s done well. The same general plot happens several times later in the series, but this is where it started. Unfortunately it's quite difficult to find copies of the full editions of this book. The hardback originals tend to be expensive, the 'Girls Gone By' edition is out of print. However, Armada paperbacks are sometimes available in charity shops or online, and apparently although there are frequent cuts in these abridged paperbacks, there was nothing too drastic removed from 'Eustacia'.
Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews
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