About book The Princess Of The Chalet School (2000)
I can still remember the feeling I got the first time I read Princess. At this point I was fairly new to the CS, so I'd read a couple of the much later stories (Shocks, Barbara, Island), and then decided I ought to make the effort to read them in the right order. So I came to Princess having read School and Jo. And it was ... weird.Firstly, there seemed to have been a major uniform change, judging by the cover. The smart tussore tops (no, I had no idea) and brown tunics had become blue dresses with pink cardigans. And why was Jo posing on a makeshift rope when she could clearly have scrambled down the path to the right from the top of the overhang?Secondly, there seemed to be a couple of books missing. True, the next term after Jo was going to be the summer term; but not this summer term, with Juliet head-girl and Jo apparently having had measles the term before. I was a bit disappointed that we'd lost a whole year, especially as this turned out to be Madge's last year as headmistress. Why, she'd hardly been head at all.Thirdly, there were lots of new staff and new girls, all nicely settled in, but leaving me a bit at sea about who was who.Coming to it now, with much more experience of just how low Armada covers can sink, and with three fill-in books giving me that missing year and introducing me to all the new characters, all those issues can now be set aside. But it's still a bit strange. It's like, I don't know, it's like it has a plot.Well, it's EBD, so it has more than one plot, but the horrible matron is dealt with fairly early on, and we settle down with the rescue-the-kidnapped-princess plot. Cosimo's plot, which appears to consist of standing underneath each dormitory window in turn speaking Belsornian until the princess wakes up and investigates, is remarkably successful. It's foiled mainly because Uncle Ted's Russian lessons have included such useful vocabulary as 'brats'.I still don't understand how those searching for the princess and Joey weren't able to find them much sooner - they were going quite slowly and can't have had more than four hours' start, and Joey had to keep stopping to carve trefoils, which must have slowed her down considerably. And personally I don't consider a couple of breadrolls, a blueberry tart, and a handful of wild strawberries, to be sufficient sustenance for a two-day mountain-climbing expedition. And did they all come back down in a car? No? So Madge is carrying her thirteen-year-old sister down a mountain? What is she, Europe's Strongest Woman or something?My copy of Princess is still the original Armada paperback which I bought nearly 40 years ago. But, unlike its original immediate neighbours on the shelf (School, Jo, Head Girl, Rivals) it has no pages falling out. That, in itself, suggests to me that as a child I didn't like this one as much. Perhaps, even at a young age, I recognised that this isn't really a proper Chalet book - it's a 'foreign princess' book, which happens to be set in the Chalet School.
I had never heard of the Chalet School books, or of the whole boarding school genre, while growing up. I've started reading this series now, as an adult, and I'm really enjoying it. The setting is so beautiful (and the author obviously knows and loves it) that I'm, unexpectedly, enjoying even the parts in which nothing is happening except for the girls getting out of bed, brushing their hair, going to breakfast and having lessons. That said, The Princess of the Chalet School is my favourite novel so far because it seems to be plottier than the first two. I enjoyed both the intrigue surrounding Elisaveta and the secret society's fight against the Matron. (I have to say, though, as someone who lives in Southeast Europe, that the fictional country of Belsornia made me laugh.)
Do You like book The Princess Of The Chalet School (2000)?
One of my favourite books in this series. Elisaveta, who is the Princess of Belsornia, has been sent to the Chalet School, to help her recovery from an illness. The fact that she is a princess has been kept secret from her schoolmates, except for Joey Bettany.Her cousin, who would be heir to the throne after her father, the Crown Prince, kidnaps her from her school in order to force her father to give up his position as the Crown Prince. Joey sets off to rescue her, and once again, saves the day!
—Sarah
The Tyrolean part of the Chalet School series remains a constant and beguiling delight to me. There's something so obvious about Brent-Dyer's love for the surroundings and her brand new school that I can't help but adore these early books.Elisaveta is our new girl for this term and she's a Princess. She's a Princess of Belsornia and she's being sent to the Chalet School to improve her health. (And this always reminds me of "I came for the Waters ... I was misinformed") Naturally hijinks ensue - but then things get a little serious. There's two men with an interest in the school - and in 'Veta in particular.Coupled with this, there's a new Matron on the scene and her presence inspires the girls to, well, I won't spoil this but suffice to say it's the stuff of legend. This book is spectacular and actually rather unique in the series but it's not without fault. There are points in it where you could be incredulous and doubtful but to be honest, that's a hallmark of the series as a whole. I think what makes it so perfect for me is the sort of the way Brent-Dyer writes it. She's so confident in her story, so at the height of her ability, that she just doesn't care about the less than logical bits. This is a very pure, very brilliantly told adventure story masquerading as a school story and one that you pretty much just have to sit down and enjoy the ride.
—LH Johnson
One of my favourite Chalet School books (I love almost all of the ones I've read). Brent-Dyer connects a number of plotlines (Elisaveta, Matron, Madge) and makes them very much part of one term - there's no disjointed sense of 'this happened. Then that happened. Term ended' that sometimes characterises school stories. The Cosimo plotline doesn't have to be massively realistic - the use of a fictional kingdom situates it firmly within the story, and so it works really effectively as an adventure.I did blink a few times at the (view spoiler)[mention of dispatching Cosimo to the fortress, and then his subsequent demise (hide spoiler)]
—Jessica
