Elinor Brent-Dyer: Chalet School Fête

[shewhomust]

I don't usually buy Chalet School books in paperback, and certainly not when it's as tatty a paperback as this one. But this was very cheap, I was piqued by not recognising the title, and besides, just look at that cover - which, by the way, turns out to be a quite faithful rendition of the fête in question.

There's a reason why I didn't recognise the title: it's been invented by the publisher for the second volume of A Genius at the Chalet School, which they have published in two halves. That title did ring a bell. I don't know whether it says more about me or about the Chalet School, but I had always rather assumed that genius would be displayed in some academic field: science, perhaps, or maths (I don't know why those particularly, except that they are fields where brilliant work is done young, and can be objectively identified). Silly of me, of course: she's a musician.

Any Chalet School book offers two indications as to where in the sequence it belongs: where is the school located, and how many children has Jo? Here we are in Switzerland (there is an excursion to Geneva), and Cecily Maynard has just been born. There's an intriguing discussion about her name: she is to be Cecilia after her godmother, and Mary because all of the girls are (except Felicity, who is Felicity Josephine), but the family are not keen on Cecilia for everyday use - the suggestion that they shorten it to Cecily is received as an inspiration.

And. to anticipate a little, that was what they did in .the end. The baby was baptized Cecilia Mary - ­the two names of her godmother - and known as "Cecily" thereafter.
"Thank goodness," Joey said when they laid her new little Christian in her arms two days later, "she hasn't got a name that'll date herl I'm always so sorry for the various Joans and Pamelas and Susans and Annes. People will always be able to guess their ages from their names. I call it most unfair!"

Intellectually I know that the names which wre fashionable when I was born are no more classical and timeless than those which are fashionable now; to every age its own favourites, and its own sense of what is on the one hand faddishly new-fangled and on the other laughably old-fashioned. 'Susan' is of my era, and I have to make a conscious effort to remember that; I can easily believe that Pamela is of the same age. Joan and Anne I still regard as constant (two good medieval names, after all...). It would certainly never have occurred to me that Anne is more datable by her age than Cecilia Mary.

Princess Elizaveta of Belsornia is a figure of legend throughout the series, but I don't think I had actually read any book in which she appears until she turns up to open the eponymous fête. There's something unexpected going on in Elizaveta's own story, with the information that "now that Belsornia had been annexed to the Soviet Union, she was anxious to drop her title, but so far the government in exile had refused to agree", but she retains some regal certainties. The highlight of the fundraising fête is the competition to win a doll's house, made by former Chalet School girl Tom Gay, and much is made of the extraordinary details of its construction and furnishing, and how much effort Tom must have put into it alongside her university studies. When the winner of the house has been announced, Elizaveta declares - in Tom's absence but in the presence of the entire school - that she will match the sum it has raised if Tom will make another like it for her daughters. This is not, apparently, a gross imposition and appalling piece of emotional blackmail, but a generous charitable gesture.

Well, that's the Chalet School for you.

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I have a copy of The Princess at the Chalet School. I'm tempted to sugest I bring it with me in July and you post it back when finished. It depends on how important it is that you read the single volume in which she's a major character. (She really is part of Jo's first story, not the 'how many children' bit.)

And should I be admitting any of this? Or that I'm a bit tempted to write one day about Josephine March and Josephine Bettany as a kind of unholy influence on budding writers age ten to twelve?

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

PS I grew up in that "If you don't put that much work into charity, you are not a fully-functioning human being" approach to life. It's very effective socialisation, but I do find myself envying people who don't have it.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

There's an interesting comment by Margery Allingham somewhere that, when she invented Amanda Fitton as a love interest for Albert Campion, she deliberately gave her an 'old fashioned' name in line with the Fittons' history and their then-constrained lifestyle. She added that she was delighted that, as the books went on and Amanda grew older, the name came back into fashion, so in the 1950s and 60s, it seemed modern and fresh, as befitted a practical 'modern woman' and engineer.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

That is an immensely kind offer, and I'm not sure I could bear the responsability!

And should I be admitting any of this?

Your secret is safe with me! Am I alone in finding it mysteriously significant that Jo March is born JM and becomes JB on marriage, whereas Joey Bettany makes the reverse journey?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Elisaveta isn't putting her work into charity, she's putting Tom's work in - that's what bothers me about her gesture!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

That rings a bell.

And makes me wonder about the name Albert (although, of course, there's the added twist that it's an alias, and may not be his own name at all - except in the sense that a name you adopt is even more your own than a name your parents give you)...

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

That's how noblesse obliges. And yes, I got mad about that aspect, too. Except that Tom prseumably makes up for it down the track by geting invites to places and...wait...the USSR limits that. You know, there are some things that should not be read by adults.

What I find interesting is that Brent-Dyer was a school principal (or was it school mistress?) - she was writing about what she knew.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

In A Fashion in Shrouds Albert admits his name is really Rudolph.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Is okay, I too have the Princess and can lend, and there will be no need for postage.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

No need to bring your copy from far Australia; I have one much closer to hand.

And yes, absolutely you should be admitting this. And writing about it, please. You may add me to the list of the unholied influenced. (Oh, and Val McDermid: I shall out her too.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Um. She and her mother founded their own school, during WW2. And then found that actually it wasn't like the books, and they really weren't that good at it.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Of course! Which, let's face it, is worse. Even Magersfontein would be better.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, please.

Um, I was thinking of the first of these, but actually, it applies to both (all, indeed).

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong of me to be very amused that she wasn't good at it? Or to wonder if the Abbey girls couldn't actually folkdance?

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

When I find the right hook, I'll do a Chalet School article for BiblioBuffet. That'll tangle both the literary readers adn the spec fic readers!

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

You are not alone. Jo ought to have made her initial living out of potboilers! The other Jo, I mean, the one who never tried it. Or did she and I hae forgotten? (My memory says she wrote school stories.)