The Nicest Girl in the School
This is a hundred year old novel by Angela Brazil, a thick old tome I picked up at the Bilpin markets. Basically, Patty happily goes off to school where she struggles to find friends, copes with a little bullying, refuses anything “underhand” like passing notes, cheating on her Latin, or telling tales, and eventually saves her nasty cousin from drowning. In the end, she gets voted the Nicest Girl in the School.
It’s funny to read something like this after reading the previous school story. A hundred years has certainly changed things, although the language of the two books isn’t too far apart. There’s a mention of sex on practically every page of the Bard School book, let alone drugs and violence (and rock n’ roll); in this book, the excitement is when the Patty removes the ladder from the roof after naughty girls climb up there, or when the nasty cousin admits publicly that she used a crib for her Caesar.
There’s certainly some interesting bits historically – there’s pictures of their school uniform, there’s a chapter about their “crazes” (stamp collecting, autograph albums, pressed flowers – all of which remind me of my primary school days), and there’s even a mention of the ancient method of CPR. But this book is too boring for reprint. Her later books, which star princesses, twins separated at birth, and an Italian heir to the family fortune, have been reprinted, because they’re a bit more exciting and less pious. Evidently influenced by her competition, Enid Blyton (whose books are funnier) and Elinor M Brent-Dyer (whose characters are so well-drawn you want them to be your best friends), amongst others. I don’t know what would happen if Patty met Miranda; I fear that Miranda would find it easy to corrupt her by waving good chocolate and ipods in front of her face – so long as she didn’t suggest cheating at Latin.
It’s funny to read something like this after reading the previous school story. A hundred years has certainly changed things, although the language of the two books isn’t too far apart. There’s a mention of sex on practically every page of the Bard School book, let alone drugs and violence (and rock n’ roll); in this book, the excitement is when the Patty removes the ladder from the roof after naughty girls climb up there, or when the nasty cousin admits publicly that she used a crib for her Caesar.
There’s certainly some interesting bits historically – there’s pictures of their school uniform, there’s a chapter about their “crazes” (stamp collecting, autograph albums, pressed flowers – all of which remind me of my primary school days), and there’s even a mention of the ancient method of CPR. But this book is too boring for reprint. Her later books, which star princesses, twins separated at birth, and an Italian heir to the family fortune, have been reprinted, because they’re a bit more exciting and less pious. Evidently influenced by her competition, Enid Blyton (whose books are funnier) and Elinor M Brent-Dyer (whose characters are so well-drawn you want them to be your best friends), amongst others. I don’t know what would happen if Patty met Miranda; I fear that Miranda would find it easy to corrupt her by waving good chocolate and ipods in front of her face – so long as she didn’t suggest cheating at Latin.
posted by Carly at 12:11 pm
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