My first blog is about book, which was recomended to me few years ago by my dearest friend Sarah. I have to add that ”The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” by Muriel Spark was one of my first books which I have read in English. My son Daniel has started primary school this year and I think this is the reason why I am going back to my Scottish friend Sarah and this book. 

           Some people might say it is just a light, easy to read plain story about a teacher but it isn't for me. There is something that is hidden and becomes clear only to the one who is able to read between lines. It is actually very complex and fascinating story which was included in a ranking of the best 100 English-language novels. I will intoduce you with  my view and maybe one day you might decide you are going to read it. 

           Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher in one of Edinburgh’s schools in 1930s, where we closely follow her together with “the Brodie set” which consist of six ten-year-old girls.

Firstly Miss Jean Brodie appears to me as a wonderful teacher, who wants to teach girls something more than what is written in a curriculum. ”To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul.” Instead of books she uses her stories, life experience, trips and love life as main source of knowledge and also she discusses quite complicated as for ten year olds issues of sex and Mussolini Fascist regime. 

As I read further, I start to recognize that she is not all so great in her “prime”. It seems to me that she starts to show some psychopathic attributes by using girls in her own games. Although she is very clever at doing that sometimes she is losing control. It is noticeable that she doesn’t want to be just a good role model but she wants the girls to be like her and to follow her values and believes. Eventually Miss Brodie is betrayed by Sandy and is loosing her job on the grounds of teaching Fascism.

        What happens to girls who were forming “Brodies set”? Mary becomes a typist, Eunice a nurse, Monica a scientist, Jenny engages in acting career; Rose gets married to handsome man. Sandy becomes a nun and now is called Sister Helena. She is an author of “The Transfiguration of the Commonplace” which is a strange book of psychology.

  I found this novel interesting but also challenging. I think it shows how important are teachers in children’s lives. They have a huge influence on personal and psychological development of their pupils and most of all they have a big impact on their future.