Dissecting Claudine

[MARKTAYLORUK]

It was said that after being exposed Pauline had "gone into her shell" and had no friends. Perhaps she was just an average person of no distinction?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Pauline never does find her feet at the school, it seems, even once her dissembling has been discovered and she can be herself. The words about her having "gone into her shell" come in Fifth Formers at St. Clare's, which is remembered for its humorous incidents (e.g. the shoe polish episode, the poem trick and Mam'zelle's night-time prowl) yet shows St. Clare's to be an unhappy, dysfunctional school in many ways. In that book, Pauline is at first described as "the plain and quiet Pauline, who had once been as big a boaster as Angela, but had learnt a bitter lesson, and was now a much nicer girl." Yet in the very next chapter, when studies are being allocated, Enid writes:

"No one had asked Pauline to share a study with them, and she had no friend to ask. She was not a girl that anyone liked much, for she was envious, and had been very boastful till the others had found out that all her wonderful tales were made up. She had gone into her shell, and no one knew quite what the real Pauline was like."

It's sad when we recall that it's a real struggle for her parents to afford the fees for St. Clare's but they manage because their daughter had "always wanted to go there."

[timv]

It's several years since I had quick read through 'Claudine' as I was writing my Blyton book, when I was concentrating on C and Eileen's behaviour rather than Pauline - and I had totally forgotten about her father being an invalid and her wanting to go to St. Clare's. That makes it even sadder that she seems to give up after her fantasy and inaccurate boasting about her real background is exposed - though probably the rest of her form were puzzled by her and could not work out why she had been so deceitful so they gave up on her. A bit like their sidelining 'Misery Girl' Gladys in the Second Form book due to an attitude of 'she makes us uncomfortable and we can't get through to her' ?

As with nobody noticing that Prudence was bullying and pressurising Pam in Summer Term or that Felicity was near a nervous breakdown in Fifth Formers, we get a rather bleak picture of school life and internal relations among a disparate group of girls - is St Clare's really as acute a series of character studies as MT, and just assumed to be all 'jolly japes' because of the headline-catching tricks and feuds? And bleak studies, as Prudence seems incapable of improvement (so Enid hints) and Angela and Mirabel 'regress' in later books after supposedly improving. Did Enid write this series on two different levels, one for the 'quick read' by younger fans and a deeper one for those older ones who wanted to be more thoughtful and see how people interact? (You don't see much character study in the FF, Adventure or Mystery series, but there the plot's the main story arc and it's kept quick-moving with interactions among the main characters already 'set'.) There's more thoughtfulness and 'insight' in the Barney series with B's character arc and maturity, and the crooked conjuror's sinister manipulation of him - and to a degree in the Find Outers with Fatty and Ern, or the bullying behaviour of some of the villains eg Tupping the gardener towards Luke and PC Goon's scorn and victimization of the ageing ex-'traitor' caretaker in Strange Messages. And a lot more sublety in the individual family crisis books.

[MARKTAYLORUK]

I am.inclined to guess that she'd have been the first of the form to lose her virginity!

[Moonraker]

I am.inclined to guess that she'd have been the first of the form to lose her virginity!

[John Pickup]

Hear, hear, Nigel. Well said.

[Irene Malory Towers]

Lots of digressing but as I am a sad pernickety git and also because I just reread the last 2 books of St Clare's I just want to correct a point made (by timv) about Pauline, her father is an invalid and presumably that is why they are poor as he probably could not work then.

Re Claudine I think the most turning point of her character is when she finally realises that some of her jokes can have far reaching consequences and so with her inciting her sister Antoinette to ring the alarm bell and not owing up, poor Jane Teal was blamed and subsequently (and wrongly for other reasons) badly treated by Mirabel. The stereotyping of French, not liking sports, not having a sense of honour etc, is of course both wrong and in today's language would be seen as racist or at least mildly ! insulting. However, in the context of when it was written it was appropriate. I always felt that EB meant more to highlight the British honour and morals rather than criticising foreigners, as there were references in other books like the Adventurous Four and I think The Circus of Adventure of fine British standards and morals. Bear in mind that the St Clare books were written during the second world war.