Well, I've reread about ten of these today (not going to rate them all, thinking of your poor feeds), and I've only got about twenty in the series, which must contain over fifty books... I tend to divide the copies I've got into two sets. The first set is the beginning of the school, which is a boarding school that Madge Bettany, all of twenty-four years old, starts in the Austrian Tyrol, while her sister Joey becomes one of the first students. It's entertaining, particularly the obsession with slang. If you've ever read any British boarding school stories, nothing about these will surprise you: lots of emphasis on honor and the prefect system and pranks and proper behavior. The series is also a weird mix of cosmopolitan (students from all over Europe, even a few Americans) with casual misogyny and asides that smack of racism, which honestly isn't the oddest thing in old-school British boarding school stories.The second set takes place some fifteen or twenty years later, when Madge and Joey and a bunch of former students, of course, have children attending the school. The stories aren't really new there, but again, I grew up with stories like these, and they have a certain charm nevertheless. And it's fun reading about the school now that it's so established!I don't know how the books deal with the two world wars that take place during the time these stories take place. There are references to the school moving to either northern England or Ireland for a few years, but I can't quite figure out during which books, or if the books even cover it with any specificity. Mostly, the stories feel like they take place in a bubble, where old-fashioned living and schooling are predominant, everyone marries happily, and all their children come back to the school - this despite countless illnesses and rows and kidnappings by any number of crazed people. It's classic melodrama, but it's fun anyway.
“… condemmed to sitting and sewing name-tapes onto new stockings and gloves …” (p.12) brought back memories galore; though my stitching was onto articles such as gym shirts and hockey socks. I sometimes wonder if the harmless fun of certain schoolgirl pranks such as (p.148) vaselining the blackboards (or whatever is the best equivalent is on a whiteboard) ought to be positively encouraged nowadays, as a way of teaching what limits can be tested but must never be breached.I’m horrified to read on Goodreads that this book was later abridged to comply with health & safety and political correctness; but there again I would have naturally been cautious of a Yorkshireman sharing fresh gooseberries on a train between (of all places) Boulogne and Paris: I’d have thought I’d stumbled into a “Two Ronnies” sketch!The un-sentimentalised death of the parents of a pupil comes as a shock, though for me that acted as a very useful prompt to discuss (and be greatly reassured) with my own parents that what would happen were I and my siblings to be orphaned, .had all already been thought out.
Do You like book The School At The Chalet (2001)?
The first book in the Chalet School series (which comprises an incredible 60 volumes). I decided to re-read the series this year - or what books I can get hold of, as many of them are out of print - and do it in order. In School at the Chalet we meet English sisters Madge (in her early twenties) and Joey Bettany (a twelve year old). Madge has decided to start a boarding school in Austria, in a small chalet in the mountains, with Joey as her first pupil. The school develops in leaps and bounds in this first book - many students are introduced, expeditions are undertaken, and the scenery and "fresh mountain air" of Austria is lovingly described. A terribly fun book.
—Celia Powell
I adored these books when I was a little girl, and I used to wish I could attend the Chalet School. It sounded like a dream, a boarding school for girls, studying in a foreign country, and plenty of outdoor fun.I decided to re-read my collection this year, and even though I'm much older now, I still enjoy them. In this first book, Madge Bettany decides to open a boarding school for girls in Austria. Her younger sister, Joey, is her first pupil, and the Chalet School soon grows rapidly.This book sets the scene for the many books in the rest of the series. I only wish I had all the books in the collection, since it's out of print now, the rarer books are tremendously pricey!
—Sarah
Good and entertaining - though I'd prefer if more of the classes and school itself were shown (as opposed to whatever happens in the area around the school), I really enjoyed this, especially the fact that Brent-Dyer focuses as much on the staff as she does the students. The premise is quite original since we see the founding of the school and the number of girls is quite small in this first book. That being said, all the characters seem exactly the same to me and the author's use of racial stereotypes was painful to read, though she does subvert them by having the prefects not be English and the school is very multicultural in its composition, there always seem to be an undercurrent of 'English is better anyway, and only if we don't have access to that should we go for something else' (when the prefects are chosen, the headteacher says she would have preferred English girls but they weren't good enough for the job, also, the students have to speak English around the school at all times even though the Chalet seems really international to me with some of them having French or German as a first language). I did enjoy the story as it's got enough school stuff to keep me happy but I do hope the next installments will be a bit more focused.
—Ruby Rose Scarlett
