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The Chalet School #9
Exploits of the Chalet Girls
When Madge Bettany decides to start a school in the Austrian Alps, little does she realize how such a small idea will so completely change her life. Now, in this classic series of books, first published in the 1920s, join the Chalet School's first pupil, Joey Bettany, as she forges strong bonds of friendship with girls from Europe and America. Independent, intelligent, resourceful, and bold—the girls of Chalet School make each new term and adventure.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
3 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
171 books113 followersElinor M. Brent-Dyer was born as Gladys Eleanor May Dyer on 6th April 1894, in South Shields in the industrial northeast of England, and grew up in a terraced house which had no garden or inside toilet. She was the only daughter of Eleanor Watson Rutherford and Charles Morris Brent Dyer. Her father, who had been married before, left home when she was three years old. In 1912, her brother Henzell died at age 17 of cerebro-spinal fever. After her father died, her mother remarried in 1913.
Elinor was educated at a small local private school in South Shields and returned there to teach when she was eighteen after spending two years at the City of Leeds Training College. Her teaching career spanned 36 years, during which she taught in a wide variety of state and private schools in the northeast, in Middlesex, Bedfordshire, Hampshire, and finally in Hereford.
In the early 1920s she adopted the name Elinor Mary Brent-Dyer. A holiday she spent in the Austrian Tyrol at Pertisau-am-Achensee gave her the inspiration for the first location in the Chalet School series. However, her first book, 'Gerry Goes to School', was published in 1922 and was written for the child actress Hazel Bainbridge. Her first 'Chalet' story, 'The School at the Chalet', was originally published in 1925.
In 1930, the same year that 'Jean of Storms' was serialised, she converted to Roman Catholicism.
In 1933 the Brent-Dyer household (she lived with her mother and stepfather until her mother's death in 1957) moved to Hereford. She travelled daily to Peterchurch as a governess.
When her stepfather died she started her own school in Hereford, The Margaret Roper School. It was non-denominational but with a strong religious tradition. Many Chalet School customs were followed, the girls even wore a similar uniform made in the Chalet School's colours of brown and flame. Elinor was rather untidy, erratic and flamboyant and not really suited to being a headmistress. After her school closed in 1948 she devoted most of her time to writing.
Elinor's mother died in 1957 and in 1964 she moved to Redhill, where she lived in a joint establishment with fellow school story author Phyllis Matthewman and her husband, until her death on 20th September 1969.
During her lifetime Elinor M. Brent-Dyer published 101 books but she is remembered mainly for her Chalet School series. The series numbers 58 books and is the longest-surviving series of girls' school-stories ever known, having been continuously in print for more than 70 years. One hundred thousand paperback copies are still being sold each year.
Among her published books are other school stories; family, historical, adventure and animal stories; a cookery book, and four educational geography-readers. She also wrote plays and numerous unpublished poems and was a keen musician.
In 1994, the year of the centenary of her Elinor Brent-Dyer's birth, Friends of the Chalet School put up plaques in Pertisau, South Shields and Hereford, and a headstone was erected on her grave in Redstone Cemetery, since there was not one previously. They also put flowers on her grave on the anniversaries of her birth and death and on other special occasions.
Elinor was educated at a small local private school in South Shields and returned there to teach when she was eighteen after spending two years at the City of Leeds Training College. Her teaching career spanned 36 years, during which she taught in a wide variety of state and private schools in the northeast, in Middlesex, Bedfordshire, Hampshire, and finally in Hereford.
In the early 1920s she adopted the name Elinor Mary Brent-Dyer. A holiday she spent in the Austrian Tyrol at Pertisau-am-Achensee gave her the inspiration for the first location in the Chalet School series. However, her first book, 'Gerry Goes to School', was published in 1922 and was written for the child actress Hazel Bainbridge. Her first 'Chalet' story, 'The School at the Chalet', was originally published in 1925.
In 1930, the same year that 'Jean of Storms' was serialised, she converted to Roman Catholicism.
In 1933 the Brent-Dyer household (she lived with her mother and stepfather until her mother's death in 1957) moved to Hereford. She travelled daily to Peterchurch as a governess.
When her stepfather died she started her own school in Hereford, The Margaret Roper School. It was non-denominational but with a strong religious tradition. Many Chalet School customs were followed, the girls even wore a similar uniform made in the Chalet School's colours of brown and flame. Elinor was rather untidy, erratic and flamboyant and not really suited to being a headmistress. After her school closed in 1948 she devoted most of her time to writing.
Elinor's mother died in 1957 and in 1964 she moved to Redhill, where she lived in a joint establishment with fellow school story author Phyllis Matthewman and her husband, until her death on 20th September 1969.
During her lifetime Elinor M. Brent-Dyer published 101 books but she is remembered mainly for her Chalet School series. The series numbers 58 books and is the longest-surviving series of girls' school-stories ever known, having been continuously in print for more than 70 years. One hundred thousand paperback copies are still being sold each year.
Among her published books are other school stories; family, historical, adventure and animal stories; a cookery book, and four educational geography-readers. She also wrote plays and numerous unpublished poems and was a keen musician.
In 1994, the year of the centenary of her Elinor Brent-Dyer's birth, Friends of the Chalet School put up plaques in Pertisau, South Shields and Hereford, and a headstone was erected on her grave in Redstone Cemetery, since there was not one previously. They also put flowers on her grave on the anniversaries of her birth and death and on other special occasions.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 3, 2020
First published 1933. Uneven at best. The school is old enough to feel established but small enough where it still feels like a family, which leads to some hilarious moments: the tableaux where they casually ransack Madge’s house - the girls thinking they can fix the clock by taking it apart and boiling the pieces - the explosion in the lab - and then you get to the descriptions of the poured lead during the Halloween party:
Of course, in 1933 no one really knew there’d be another war, but conversations like this take on a wistful tone in retrospect:
“I think myself it’s a coffin,” said Jo, knitting her brows.This book, of course, also introduces Thekla, who “respected none who were not in the Junker class”, and who is repeatedly described as a Prussian, and I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that I can draw a straight line from “Prussian” to “torpedoes” to “Nazi”.
“Nonsense, Joey! It is a train and Lonny is going to travel!” replied Frieda sharply.
“I think it is a torpedo,” said Margia Stevens pensively. “There must be going to be another war, and Lonny will be on a ship that’s torpedoed.”
Of course, in 1933 no one really knew there’d be another war, but conversations like this take on a wistful tone in retrospect:
“Your pardon, Fraulein, but I cannot associate with people like this... My father would not expect it.”Yikes.
Miss Wilson suddenly smiled. “Did he not send you to this school?” she asked... “Do you think he does not know about our girls?”
“I scarcely think he can have grasped it. He would never have expected me to mix with girls whose parents are tradespeople and innkeepers.”
Miss Wilson nodded. “He knows that we take girls of many classes here, and when he sent you, he agreed to your associating with them. That is all, Thekla. I am afraid you must sit where I have told you.”
...Graf von Stift had found that it would be easier to send his only daughter to school for the remaining years of her girlhood than engage another [governess]. His wife had agreed. She was beginning to find her only child rather too much for her. Besides this, Wolfram, her husband’s son, was coming home, and Wolfram had imbibed a great deal of the spirit of the Young Germany, and she was anxious that Thekla should not be infected... Frau von Heiling had assured them that it was a delightful school, and she had mentioned the fact that the Crown Princess of Belsornia had been there for two terms...
So Thekla came, a Prussian to the backbone, to find at the very outset that she was expected to mix with girls of every class, and that her own cousin was especially friendly with Frieda Mensch, whose father was manager for a big engineering firm; while Maria Marani... was the daughter of a cashier in a bank.
November 20, 2021
Winter is always the best Chalet School season with huge thunderstorms, blizzards and snowfalls (how I yearn for a glimpse of those peculiar, yellowish clouds that move so swiftly towards the onlooker before the deluge).
‘Exploits’ marks the beginning of the final year of many favourite characters (and thankfully there appear to be some definite career paths on offer, other than marriage). It’s not especially memorable but there’s plenty of entertainment between the opening and closing pages for readers, including an extended and lovingly-detailed Christmas pageant which - sadly - seems to have alienated more than a few GoodReaders.
‘Exploits’ marks the beginning of the final year of many favourite characters (and thankfully there appear to be some definite career paths on offer, other than marriage). It’s not especially memorable but there’s plenty of entertainment between the opening and closing pages for readers, including an extended and lovingly-detailed Christmas pageant which - sadly - seems to have alienated more than a few GoodReaders.
February 15, 2020
I would have given this book five stars, for I truly loved most of it, but the last chapter. As someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas instead I celebrate Jesus' birth. May I call the last chapter a positive essay on the problems of Christmas.
February 17, 2021
Some very amusing sections, especially the clock episode. Though the last chapter dragged somewhat.
April 13, 2024
Lovely descriptions of life in the mountains
August 25, 2014
Technically, Exploits Of The Chalet Girls isn't one of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's best, not even in the early glory days of the Tyrol - when both she and her characters are truly at the top of their game. I've re-read this book a few times over the years, but never really registered it as one of my favourites in this era. Strictly speaking, too, nothing much at all happens for a series constructed around incidents, adventures, and - as the title would have it - exploits. Nonetheless, revisiting it this time gave me an appreciation of even Brent-Dyer's filler novels, which remain rich with character and detail, told in so charmingly descriptive a way.
This winter term in the annals of the Chalet School is actually unusual because, for one thing, winter doesn't start until halfway through the book. An unusually long and hot autumn forms the backdrop for this book in which one of the School's most difficult cases, Thekla von Stift, arrives. Thekla immediately sticks out for her snobbish philosophy: raised the daughter of a lofty army official, she is horrified that she must mingle and cohabit with girls from the lower classes. It sets up a series of quite spectacular confrontations, before winter arrives, tempers cool and Thekla retreats into the background. It's unusual too that, even when the snows come, no girls fall off mountains or shatter the ice coating the rivers.
That is, effectively, what makes the book so odd. Even if the series doesn't fall into a pattern in its latter half that has already begun with Eustacia Goes To The Chalet School, which it evidently does, it's odd to have an uppity, quite horrible new girl thrown into the mix with no sign of a genuine comeuppance or lesson learnt. Instead, Brent-Dyer seems to make a halfhearted attempt in the latter half of the book to downplay Thekla's brusque and difficult sides - perhaps saving larger conflagrations for future novels.
Indeed, it's possible to argue that not very much happens in this term. Brent-Dyer dwells on the half-term spent at the Sonnalpe for a good four chapters of the book, filling it with walks, a thunderstorm and a snow-fight - but, truly, it amounts to nothing much. Apart from a hugely amusing episode featuring Evadne Lannis and her nemesis, the chemistry laboratory, the rest of the term settles down too into the gently entertaining Staff Evening and Madge Russell's Christmas Pageant to outdo everything she's produced before.
Why, then, does this book rate so highly? For one thing, it's proof positive of Brent-Dyer's surprisingly liberal, tolerant attitude towards matters big, small, religious and political. It seemed natural to me as a child, reading it, and I'm sure I picked up many of its ideas through osmosis. Reading the book and series as an adult is almost astonishing: in a world so rife with religious and political tension, Brent-Dyer seems to have picked apart these notions and distilled them to the core ideas of love and tolerance for her readers. It's a staggering achievement considering that she was writing on the brink of the Second World War, but here we have long passages dissecting Thekla's unfortunately arrogant Junker attitude and her classist notions, which are presented as evidently wrong and bigoted. Brent-Dyer makes mention of the growing effect of Hitler Youth, mentioning that Thekla's brother has imbibed its values and hinting that he has done so to his detriment. These are mostly passing references, to be sure, but they do presage the uncanny brilliance that will come in The Chalet School In Exile.
It's also a delight to follow along as Brent-Dyer continues to deepen her world and universe, a school-bound story which, unusually for the genre, features input from adults and mistresses almost as heavily as from the schoolgirls themselves. And so, alongside Joey and her ongoing desire to remain young, we have old girls Juliet Carrick and Grizel Cochrane returning to become mistresses themselves in the Annexe at the Sonnalpe. We have mistresses - Miss Wilson, for instance, a great favourite of mine and in the school - participating in snow-fights and the teasing indignities inflicted upon their august persons by the cheeky fun of Staff Evening. It presents a deeper, more evolved picture for an adult reader than, say, Enid Blyton's St. Clare's or Mallory Towers series.
In effect, Exploits isn't really one of the standouts in the series for me. But it's one in a long, enjoyable chain - at the moment - of really solid books in the series, benefitting enormously at this point from the freshness of the story, the characters and Brent-Dyer herself.
This winter term in the annals of the Chalet School is actually unusual because, for one thing, winter doesn't start until halfway through the book. An unusually long and hot autumn forms the backdrop for this book in which one of the School's most difficult cases, Thekla von Stift, arrives. Thekla immediately sticks out for her snobbish philosophy: raised the daughter of a lofty army official, she is horrified that she must mingle and cohabit with girls from the lower classes. It sets up a series of quite spectacular confrontations, before winter arrives, tempers cool and Thekla retreats into the background. It's unusual too that, even when the snows come, no girls fall off mountains or shatter the ice coating the rivers.
That is, effectively, what makes the book so odd. Even if the series doesn't fall into a pattern in its latter half that has already begun with Eustacia Goes To The Chalet School, which it evidently does, it's odd to have an uppity, quite horrible new girl thrown into the mix with no sign of a genuine comeuppance or lesson learnt. Instead, Brent-Dyer seems to make a halfhearted attempt in the latter half of the book to downplay Thekla's brusque and difficult sides - perhaps saving larger conflagrations for future novels.
Indeed, it's possible to argue that not very much happens in this term. Brent-Dyer dwells on the half-term spent at the Sonnalpe for a good four chapters of the book, filling it with walks, a thunderstorm and a snow-fight - but, truly, it amounts to nothing much. Apart from a hugely amusing episode featuring Evadne Lannis and her nemesis, the chemistry laboratory, the rest of the term settles down too into the gently entertaining Staff Evening and Madge Russell's Christmas Pageant to outdo everything she's produced before.
Why, then, does this book rate so highly? For one thing, it's proof positive of Brent-Dyer's surprisingly liberal, tolerant attitude towards matters big, small, religious and political. It seemed natural to me as a child, reading it, and I'm sure I picked up many of its ideas through osmosis. Reading the book and series as an adult is almost astonishing: in a world so rife with religious and political tension, Brent-Dyer seems to have picked apart these notions and distilled them to the core ideas of love and tolerance for her readers. It's a staggering achievement considering that she was writing on the brink of the Second World War, but here we have long passages dissecting Thekla's unfortunately arrogant Junker attitude and her classist notions, which are presented as evidently wrong and bigoted. Brent-Dyer makes mention of the growing effect of Hitler Youth, mentioning that Thekla's brother has imbibed its values and hinting that he has done so to his detriment. These are mostly passing references, to be sure, but they do presage the uncanny brilliance that will come in The Chalet School In Exile.
It's also a delight to follow along as Brent-Dyer continues to deepen her world and universe, a school-bound story which, unusually for the genre, features input from adults and mistresses almost as heavily as from the schoolgirls themselves. And so, alongside Joey and her ongoing desire to remain young, we have old girls Juliet Carrick and Grizel Cochrane returning to become mistresses themselves in the Annexe at the Sonnalpe. We have mistresses - Miss Wilson, for instance, a great favourite of mine and in the school - participating in snow-fights and the teasing indignities inflicted upon their august persons by the cheeky fun of Staff Evening. It presents a deeper, more evolved picture for an adult reader than, say, Enid Blyton's St. Clare's or Mallory Towers series.
In effect, Exploits isn't really one of the standouts in the series for me. But it's one in a long, enjoyable chain - at the moment - of really solid books in the series, benefitting enormously at this point from the freshness of the story, the characters and Brent-Dyer herself.
June 15, 2015
EBD is really on top form here, creating a world in which it's perfectly possible to rig up a stage in a drawing room, blow up a chemistry lab with iron filings and a bit of acid, and arrive without comment just after you've left (Frieda, when they get to the Sonnalpe at half term. Seriously, go and check. She takes her group off to Das Pferd and then arrives with Joey five minutes later having just walked up the mountain).
The weather is also a strong character in this book, being meltingly hot into the start of November, then a massive thunderstorm, and then snow - a temperature drop of around 20 degrees in less than 48 hours. It must have been a record-breaking week in the Tyrol.
And Joey tells Bianca all about the camp, because Bianca didn't go. Except she did. And there are eight prefects. And then there are nine.
The trick is just to roll with it, and I shouldn't carp, because it's one of the best Chalets. There's lots going on (much of it referenced in years to come), all the characters are at the age to be exactly right, and it's great fun. Well, except for the Christmas play. Never my favourite bit of a Chalet book, this time it's longer than ever and described almost line by line. But don't let that put you off; in all other respects, it's a Top Chalet.
The weather is also a strong character in this book, being meltingly hot into the start of November, then a massive thunderstorm, and then snow - a temperature drop of around 20 degrees in less than 48 hours. It must have been a record-breaking week in the Tyrol.
And Joey tells Bianca all about the camp, because Bianca didn't go. Except she did. And there are eight prefects. And then there are nine.
The trick is just to roll with it, and I shouldn't carp, because it's one of the best Chalets. There's lots going on (much of it referenced in years to come), all the characters are at the age to be exactly right, and it's great fun. Well, except for the Christmas play. Never my favourite bit of a Chalet book, this time it's longer than ever and described almost line by line. But don't let that put you off; in all other respects, it's a Top Chalet.
April 22, 2023
Thanks to fadedpage.com for this book. I really enjoyed this one, and no one ends up in a coma for days. Think of a time when someone who "hurts her back" without being paralysed is "chained to a sofa" for over a year! No physiotherapy then, she's "allowed to sit up for short periods" after months lying flat. No wonder she is so easily tired! Her muscles must have been half way to atrophy. She is also mostly kept alone in her room upstairs, away from visitors and events, and the girls can only visit her room for short periods "so as not to tire her." Pilates had already been invented but maybe they hadn't made the leap from NY to Switzerland. The obnoxious "Prussian" arrives, and has to have the corners knocked off to turn her into a Chalet girl. Joey even says that she needs "a shock or an accident" to bring her into line! There is an explosion in the "chemmy lab" but the student involved is not seriously injured; it's just enough to teach her to be good (ie quiet and obedient). I direct the interested reader to Take Up Thy Bed and Walk: Death, Disability and Cure in Classic Fiction for Girls to learn more about the use of disability and illness to make young girls socially acceptable. No, it's not the best book in the world, but she brings out some interesting parallels.
A mild little eveningtime read.
I seem to be surrounded by "pageants" in my reading these days. We are treated to Madge writing a Christmas pageant for the school, back in the days when it was okay to associate Christ with Christmas. Even in the thirties, apparently, the religious focus was slipping. The author tells us there are many more students at the school now, but did they have enough to have all those crowds of revelers etc? Was there even enough room on the school stage in the "drawing room?" Ah well, it's fiction. When I started school in 1966 there was a Christmas play centred on the birth of Jesus and I looked forward to participating. Sadly by the next year it was snowmen and Santa.
A mild little eveningtime read.
I seem to be surrounded by "pageants" in my reading these days. We are treated to Madge writing a Christmas pageant for the school, back in the days when it was okay to associate Christ with Christmas. Even in the thirties, apparently, the religious focus was slipping. The author tells us there are many more students at the school now, but did they have enough to have all those crowds of revelers etc? Was there even enough room on the school stage in the "drawing room?" Ah well, it's fiction. When I started school in 1966 there was a Christmas play centred on the birth of Jesus and I looked forward to participating. Sadly by the next year it was snowmen and Santa.
December 31, 2018
I have no recollection of reading this before. Which may be because, in some ways, it feels as though nothing happens in this book.
That's not true, of course: Thekla arrives - a 'high-born Prussian' who is snooty as all-get-out and offends absolutely everyone with her classist attitudes; the Quintet unsuccessful try to fix the school clock; and Evadne blows up the chemistry lab. And that's without mentioning the snow storm, the 'tableaux' in Madge's living room, and the Christmas show. Despite all of that going on, this feels like a fairly quiet episode in the Chalet School's history.
A thoroughly enjoyable read, with some very amusing sections.
That's not true, of course: Thekla arrives - a 'high-born Prussian' who is snooty as all-get-out and offends absolutely everyone with her classist attitudes; the Quintet unsuccessful try to fix the school clock; and Evadne blows up the chemistry lab. And that's without mentioning the snow storm, the 'tableaux' in Madge's living room, and the Christmas show. Despite all of that going on, this feels like a fairly quiet episode in the Chalet School's history.
A thoroughly enjoyable read, with some very amusing sections.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2025
A very lackluster Chalet book, one of the least interesting I've read so far. Lengthy depictions of various school performances, a snow fight, a party, all without any closer look at specific characters. In fact, nothing of importance or interest happens. The troublesome new girl gets no real arc.
February 10, 2026
A disappointment as not enough was made of Thekla. She had a prominent role in the first half but then hardly anything about her afterwards. What a waste of an obnoxious character.
September 21, 2022
I've had two (2 in 1) Chalet school books for years. The first two stories and then a two in one set when the main characters from the first books are adults.
This book introduces one of only two characters which aren't reformed by the chalet girls during the series, but nothing much happens in this book specifically.
This book introduces one of only two characters which aren't reformed by the chalet girls during the series, but nothing much happens in this book specifically.
March 29, 2011
Another re-read, and another I didn't recognise terribly much of. It was a bit early in the series for the peak of my interest. A good one, very good to begin, but not the best - the ending brought it down a bit for me. I just get bored with final chapters that are just the school play, and not even funny stuff going wrong during said play - but just a description of its story and who played whom and when it's not even an interesting play... yeah, yawn.
The first half or so though was great because OMG THEKLA!! She is SO uppity and snooty and rude and it was hilarious to read. Especially when she called someone (one of the prefects, I think?!) a "Schweinhund", haha. And there was all this Austria/Germany rivalry, and it was no wonder Germany had lost the war with people like HER as its citizens or something... ouuuuch!! Thekla looked down on everyone in the rudest of all possible ways, and I admit I was totally hoping she'd stay that way and not become a good little schoolgirl like all the rest. (Probable sequel to her tale: Thekla Joins the Nazi Party.)
The first half or so though was great because OMG THEKLA!! She is SO uppity and snooty and rude and it was hilarious to read. Especially when she called someone (one of the prefects, I think?!) a "Schweinhund", haha. And there was all this Austria/Germany rivalry, and it was no wonder Germany had lost the war with people like HER as its citizens or something... ouuuuch!! Thekla looked down on everyone in the rudest of all possible ways, and I admit I was totally hoping she'd stay that way and not become a good little schoolgirl like all the rest. (Probable sequel to her tale: Thekla Joins the Nazi Party.)
November 25, 2020
Ninth in the lengthy Chalet School series. A new and rather snooty girl called Thekla arrives and creates a lot of problems since she doesn't want to mix with many of the girls. However, she appears to become gradually more accepting (and nicer) without a lot happening.
I used to wonder if some significant sections of this book were removed in the paperback version, but apparently it's uncut. I find it a somewhat run-of-the-mill book, not one I would recommend starting with, or to anyone who isn't already a fan of the series. There's really nothing that stands out.
Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
I used to wonder if some significant sections of this book were removed in the paperback version, but apparently it's uncut. I find it a somewhat run-of-the-mill book, not one I would recommend starting with, or to anyone who isn't already a fan of the series. There's really nothing that stands out.
Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
April 3, 2023
More a collection of events the a book
I have the feeling that she planned a book about Thekla but thought too close to story of Eustacia so did not pursue this so rather wandering book
Just re- read as part of my attempt to read entire series in order for first time
2.5 - starts off well
Chalet School and EBD well established and feeling like a School but has the feel of 2 books, as if EBD put book aside and then started to write it again having forgotten about Thekla character plot
I have never understood the need for the Annexe having been constantly told about the life giving air of the Tiernsee
I have the feeling that she planned a book about Thekla but thought too close to story of Eustacia so did not pursue this so rather wandering book
Just re- read as part of my attempt to read entire series in order for first time
2.5 - starts off well
Chalet School and EBD well established and feeling like a School but has the feel of 2 books, as if EBD put book aside and then started to write it again having forgotten about Thekla character plot
I have never understood the need for the Annexe having been constantly told about the life giving air of the Tiernsee
March 15, 2008
In the 9th book, we are introduced to Thekla, a Prussian girl who considers herself to be superior to many of the other girls at the school (given that they are the "daughters of shopkeepers"). Most of the story revolves around Thekla's dreadfulness, although we have the usual mishaps (Evadne blows up the science lab, Cornelia falls down a pit). After an accident at the staff party, Thekla has a talking to and becomes more resigned to her position at the school - she's even given a minor part in the Christmas play - but we're left to wonder how long this will last.
September 1, 2009
Superior German student Thekla may be the most unpleasant but also one of the most interesting characters in the whole Chalet School series. Cornelia and Evadne also have to deal with adjusting to higher expectations of them in the fifth form. Joeye is head girl, and her triumvirate of friends, loyal Frieda, steady Marie, and the whiny Simone are all prefects. Brent-Dyer does a great job with anti-heroines--they're almost always more entertaining than the good girls (Joey, Mary Lou, Len).
Spoiler: Too bad she disposes of Thekla too quickly.
Spoiler: Too bad she disposes of Thekla too quickly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2025
This remains one of my favourite Chalet School books. It’s just so funny. The explosion, the clock, the staff party and Half term at Die Rosen, so much joy. This is my first reread of the series since going to Pertisau and it’s simply lovely. Book 10 in this reread 9 in the series (I started with Exile don’t @ at me, then went back to School and forward from there). Loving it.
June 12, 2014
This book contains some great moments and some less great moments. It explores Joey growing up, others growing up or learning lessons and introduces Thelka. This allows Elinor to explore the class situation and talk about Germany at the time.
A good book, not my favourite but close to.
A good book, not my favourite but close to.
May 20, 2014
Another lovely story. There seems to be a theme developing of horrible girls joining the school and becoming reformed characters, although we didn't get to see Thekla's full transformation here. Loved the clock episode.
December 2, 2014
Interesting incidents of life in Chalet school that begins a new session with new girl who joins trying to do things that are not liked to the school rules and many more.
February 25, 2016
I love this series. And this book does not disappoint.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews