I know that I read some of the Chalet School books by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer when I was a youngster, maybe about 11 or 12 years old, but I had never known how the series came about – the Chalet School beginnings, so when I saw a copy of The School at the Chalet I decided to buy it.
It seems that twins Madge and Dick Bettaney and Jo their much younger schoolgirl sister had been orphaned some years before and with their guardian’s recent death they’ve been left in a difficult situation. Dick is in the army, but Madge and Jo won’t have much money to live on, especially after Jo’s school fees are paid. Jo isn’t in the best of health and Madge thinks that the fresh air of Alpine Austria would help to build up her strength. Madge is a trained teacher and she plans to open a school of her own, she loved a holiday they had had near Innsbruck and a there’s a chalet available to rent. It can be converted to be used as a school and has space for a dormitory and Madge already knows of a few girls that she could have as boarders.
Madge enjoys setting up the school and gathering together the basic requirements for it and in no time she has acquired more pupils and even some day girls from the local area. It’s an international school which some parents send their daughters to so that they can learn English.
As you would expect from a group of youngsters there’s going to be adventure and angst and it was an enjoyable read. I recall feeling quite cosmopolitan when I read some of the Chalet School books previously, there are some French and German phrases in this book, and the several contretemps with a character nicknamed Frau Berlin who is nasty to the ‘English girls’ has led to some people on Goodreads regarding this book as somewhat racist, but I think it should be remembered that this book was first published way back in 1925, so not long after the end of World War 1, and would have been read by girls who had lost fathers and other relatives in the war. That war was started by Germany and particularly Prussians as is mentioned – and for that matter even Germans don’t like Prussians – the Germans I know anyway!
I was a huge fan of the Chalet School books but I don’t remember reading this one. Maybe at that age it didn’t matter to me how the school began, I just found it all very exotic and exciting! It’s rather nice now to know how it came about. The difficult issue of ‘racism’ in books written long ago is a thorny one. As you point out, Katrina, these were the views of that time. That doesn’t make them right now of course, but it was a different world then.
Sandra,
I suppose we must all have felt rather exotic and cosmopolitan to be reading the Chalet books! I always think that people shoould remember the history that preceded books, and it was the adult German woman who was so rude to the schoolgirls just for being English! But somehow it’s the schoolgirls who get it in the neck from the complainers!
My family visited Bermuda when I was 11 and my mother took us to a bookshop which was full of delightfully unfamiliar titles, including many Chalet School books. I bought this one and The Chalet School and the Lintons and A Princess at the Chalet School. I am surprised I didn’t end up addicted to the series because (as you know) I love school stories. I do enjoy the early books in the series, however.
One of my favorite school stories, if you ever come across it, is And Both Were Young by Madeleine L’Engle. Swiss boarding school. Misfit but talented heroine. Handsome boy with a secret. Scenary. Altogether delightful!