St Clare's reread

[Yak]

'Class' is a fascinating subject. Almost all of the girls in the school stories are upper middle class, though they are normally more understanding towards those who are not than Janet was to Sheila.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, it is fascinating.

Pat also comments on Sheila's way of speaking (though not to her face), saying to Isabel, "...my goodness, she sometimes talks like our parlourmaid at home."

It strikes me as stereotypical for Enid Blyton to associate coming from a working-class background with being slovenly. When Sheila remarks that Janet has "no manners at all" (following the "Didn't ought to" comment), Janet says, "Good heavens! What about your own manners, I should like to know! You can begin to talk about other people's when you know how to wash your neck and brush your hair, and how to eat decently!"

It's possible that Sheila lived in conditions with limited access to washing facilities and hot water when she was younger. Even then, many working-class parents would have done their best to keep their children clean. I find it hard to believe that Sheila doesn't wash thoroughly or brush her hair properly at St. Clare's. After all, she's anxious to fit in and hide any traces of her working-class origins because she's afraid that the others will look down on her if they know her background. I understand that she might not have been familiar with every aspect of table etiquette at first (if that's what Janet means by knowing "how to eat decently"). However, if she's keen to be like the others then she'd surely try to pick it up as soon as possible.

Of course, Sheila doesn't help herself by feeling she has to overcompensate for her background. Putting on airs and graces, bragging about her sumptuous house and making herself and her family out to be superior isn't going to endear her to anyone, especially when she says things like, "The worst of people who think they are somebodies is that so often they are just nobodies. I'm sure I shouldn't trouble to know Patricia and Isabel at home." Feeling that she has to put on an act all the time creates a barrier which prevents people getting to know her - and prevents her getting to know others. It's sad that she has no real friends, but it's not surprising.

The way things unfold is very interesting - I've always enjoyed the psychology of the school stories. The first one I read was The Naughtiest Girl in the School and the details of Joan Townsend's family situation made a great impression on me, as did the story of the Bold Bad Girl herself!

[Yak]

i'd be interested to know just HOW long Sheila's parents had been rich for. Winifred refers to the manners that Sheila learned 'when she was very small' but there is no idea of timescale. And granted, she did not help herself - she could and should have been honest about her background and then would probably have been accepted and her 'lapses' excused. I can sort of understand why she did not, though, being thrown into a situation which was entirely different to the one in which she had been raised.

I know that a lot of working class families at the time might not have had indoor toilets though I think many had indoor baths than didn't (could be wrong but going on what I've read); I know some bathed in tin baths in front of the fire. We take so much for granted these days! It's easy to be clean and well groomed when we have access to hot running water and washing machines. Much more difficult if you do not.

[Yak]

I am nearly at the end of Summer Term now. One thing I did not understand as a child and still do not understand now is how Carlotta managed to phone the circus camp.They certainly did not have mobile phones and, even had there been a phone kiosk nearby how would Carlotta have known that .. and would anyone from the camp really have gone and answered it, even if they had heard it ring?

[timv]

My guess is that the circus camp had a (caravan) booking office where tickets were sold for the Big Top performances when th circus was open, and that this had a phone-line rigged up to attach this to the main local telephone line's overhead wire line (which would be strung between a line of telegraph posts, probably along a road). This would enable people to ring up and book tickets ahead of performances , eg group bookings for schools (like St Clare's trip to Galliano's Circus). The arrangement would have been similar to that done for temporary office caravans for building work out in the countryside - though I am unclear of exactly how the mechanics worked back in the 1940s. So was someone sleeping in the same caravan as the phone?

It is one of those lucky coincidences all too familiar to adventure stories that Prudence was close enough to the kidnappers' car when Sadie was grabbed to hear where the crooks were going and give Carlotta the name of the town (Jalebury); presumably it was dark enough for her to get quite close to them and see what was going on without being spotted but she doesn't strike me as the brave/risk-taking type! (Incident is on p. 139 of the HB first edition.) (Echoes here of Anne up the tree in Five Get Into Trouble hearing the kidnappers saying that Dick was being taken to Owl's Dene, and Jack Trent in Circus of Adventure hearing Count Paritolen or one of his men saying after the kidnap plane reached Tauri-Hessia that the other children and Gussy were to be driven to Borken.)

That time of night there would be very few cars about, so the circus folk could guess that any speeding car coming up the road towards the camp must be the kidnappers' car and block the road in time. But there is one minor slip-up in the plot here, ie why neither Prudence nor Pam thought to check the envelope given to Prudence by the crooks and see whose name was written on it. Prudence was evidently over-confident, thinking 'it's clearly for Carlotta, I've got her where I want her at last, she'll be expelled'.

Miss Theobald correctly interprets the reason for Prudence not daring to come and tell her that she'll reform but just putting a note under her door as showing her being a 'humbug', ie not really meaning she'll reform. Bobby. by contrast, does go to Miss T to explain her decision to reform though she's as scared of her as Prudence presumably is. By 1940s school story moral 'codes', this shows that Bobby is honest and 'open' and will confess her real thoughts to a wise moral guide but Prudence isn't. A bit tough on a girl if she was genuinely too terrified to face Miss Theobald again, though.

[Hannah]

I never mind people answering to older posts, Anita.

"Didn't ought to" is a non-standard construction used in some working-class dialects, so it marks Sheila out as having come from a working-class background.

I've been wondering for days if we have such working-class dialects in Germany. I've never noticed differences in grammar use (except if people aren't native in German - ok, and teenagers wanting to be "cool" but in both cases it's not a class thing). There are regional dialects and I think in some regions the upper class people turn their noses down at people using dialect but not everywhere. Where I grew up middle class people used dialect too and were (and are) proud of it.

I've started the second book now. Not much to comment so far. Just one question: Would girls of this class really mend torn sheets in their own household or would a maid do this kind of work? (Matron thinks it is important to know for the girls for when they'll have their own home. Of course it was expected that a woman could sew, knit etc. but would she really use it in practice for such a mundane task as mending socks?)

[Anita Bensoussane]

I haven't really thought about the sewing question before. "Make do and mend" would have been drilled into people of all classes during the war so sewing would have been viewed as a vital skill at the time the books were written, particularly for females (and perhaps for some males too). We know that Enid Blyton could sew well and that she made clothes for her daughters when they were babies.

A few things that come to mind immediately from Enid Blyton books:

Girls in the short stories often receive a workbasket (containing sewing things) as a birthday or Christmas present. I think that applies to both working-class and middle-class characters.

In Mr. Galliano's Circus Mrs. Brown (working-class) teaches Lotta (circus girl) to sew.

In Come to the Circus! Fenella (working-class) sews beautifully. She has been brought up by her Aunt Janet, but when her aunt goes to Canada she's sent to live at the circus with her Uncle Ursie and Auntie Lou because Auntie Lou "wants somebody she can train to help her with the circus dresses."

At St. Clare's, Claudine (middle-class French girl) is gifted at needlework.

At Malory Towers, Emily (middle-class) loves sewing and enjoys talking to Darrell's mother (middle-class) about the cushion cover she's making. Both Emily and Mrs. Rivers have done tapestry work for chair seats. Mrs. Rivers says she finds it hard to get Darrell to do so much as "a simple darn" at home, and Emily offers to teach her - much to Darrell's horror! Gwendoline (middle-class) hates darning too.

In The Naughtiest Girl in the School it's Elizabeth's governess (Miss Scott) who sews Elizabeth's name on her school clothes. Elizabeth's mother doesn't do it. I'm not sure what class a governess would have belonged to at the time. "Middle-class" goes from lower middle-class to upper middle-class and covers a wide spectrum.

I suppose all girls - and some boys - would start by learning the basics (e.g. darning and sewing on buttons). Depending on their circumstances, as they got older some would use sewing mainly for practical purposes, e.g. making and mending everyday clothes, while others would sew chiefly as a hobby, for enjoyment, e.g. doing fancy embroidery. St. Clare's has to prepare them for whatever life might bring - and ensure that the school bill for sheets etc. is kept as low as possible!

[Yak]

Timv, I had not thought of that, thanks! Yes I suppose that there really must have been some way to book tickets without having to turn up in person (though yeah, this was eleven at night ).

Re sewing, poor Bets getting a work basket for Christmas! NOT at all something that I would have been grateful for.

[Hannah]

I've started the second book but have been making slow progress - probably partly because I'm very busy at work right now but also because this book isn't my favourite. It's not a bad book of course but I like it least of all books in the series.

I'll write some of my observations.

Alison mentions the "mouse-like French mistress" at Redroofs. That's the only French teacher I can remember that doesn't have a temper - the three Mamzelles at St. Clare's and Malory Towers and the French master at St. Rollo's all have one. I'm not sure about Whyteleafe though - was there a French teacher? I don't know this series well.

Then there are two passages that might become victim of editors or already have:

“Her father must be an artist or a musician or something, his hair’s so long!” said Pat.

Quite outdated but still there in the Kindle edition (2016).

A bit later a "wireless" is mentioned which has been changed to "record player" in the Kindle edition. My guess ist that probably more children know a radio (as it is still in cars) than a record player.


Next is a question - what kind of "overall" is meant? Google only gave results that don't fit in the context in my opinion as it would mean changing the uniform against the overall. Would they do that to go out? Probably not, I think.

...the cloakrooms, where each girl had a locker for her shoes, and a peg for her out-door things and her overall.

I also learned that apparently you're only able to have a "midnight feast" in the dormitory, otherwise it's called something else .

“Oh—is it a midnight feast, like we had last term?” asked Pat, eagerly.
“No—not quite,” said Tessie. “It’s not going to be held in the dormitory, like a midnight feast—we are going to have it in that little music-room not far from my dormitory. You know the one I mean?”
“Yes,” said Pat. “I say—what fun! It will be a proper midnight party, all by ourselves. Who else are you asking?”

Then there's the whole business about Margery. After the row with Miss Lewis:

The girls gave her a bad time. Even Erica was forgotten. In fact Erica seemed quite harmless, somehow, after the dreadful way Margery had behaved!

“It’s this meanness I can’t stand,” said Pat. “I can put up with bad manners and rudeness and even sulkiness, but I just hate meanness.”

I'm surprised at the judgement in the first quote. Of course Margery was very rude but on my scale of bad behaviour Erica is much ahead of her. Pat seems to think the same (the second quote is from after half term when they think that Margery has played the mean tricks).

“I’m glad we won the match—but I wish it hadn’t been Margery who did it all,” said Pat. “I feel a bit uncomfortable now about not cheering her a bit. Do you think we ought to go and say a word to her, Janet?”
“Of course we ought!” said Janet, “but you know jolly well what would happen if we did! She’d bite our heads off—and I don’t wonder! No—we’ve started this uncomfortable game of sending some one to Coventry—and we’ve got to stick to it.”

I don't see why they can't end it .

Miss Roberts noticed that Margery was missing. She guessed what had happened. She had heard all about the Big Row, and knew that Margery was being punished by the girls for her misbehaviour. Well—people always were punished for that kind of thing, by being disliked. Miss Roberts could not do anything about it.

A mistress taking the easy way out.

[Yak]

I did not understand why Margery was treated that way after the Big Row - after all, Carlotta was very rude to Mamzelle at one point and she was not ostracised in that way. And Belinda saying that she'd have dropped Margery from the match if she'd not been so good is pathetic in so many different ways ..

There was a Mamzelle in Whyteleafe but I don't recall much about her

One thing I thought about Lucy's father is how naive he was to not have any savings or, presumably, any insurance. Is that really realistic? Had he died unexpectedly then his widow and daughter would have been left potentially homeless. It's just not realistic.

[Hannah]

The girls were probably more ready to forgive Carlotta because usually she behaved in a much nicer way than Margery.

Yes, it was certainly very foolish that Mr Oriell didn't have any savings or insurance. Realistic? I don't know - maybe. There are some people who refuse to think of things like death or illness and who are trusting to luck.

[Kate Mary]

Always late to the party, I’ve just started to read The Twins at St Clare’s. Enjoying people’s comments though.

[timv]

I assume that the 'overalls' mentioned as being part of the clothing that the girls kept in the cloakroom were what they wore for cookery or crafts/ art over their normal clothes so that these did not get splattered and need washing. These would be long-sleeved , buttoned, usually knee-length light 'coats' as worn by shopkeepers and tradesmen who were used to handling dirty goods - or the 'housecoats' worn over dresses by housewives while doing housework or cookery in the post-War period (which older relatives of mine in rural Wales were still wearing in the 1980s). Certainly it was more normal for girls - and boys too - to wear aprons for 'handling food/ paint/ other dirty materials' classes by the 1970s, as at my schools, but coats may well have still been worn in the 1940s and 1950s as I have seen these in illustrations in contemporary annuals.

Impoverished artists who had no or few savings and thus put their families at risk in case of illness were often used as a plotline in 1940s and 1950s children's novels, as I have come across other instances, and before the NHS probably they would have prioritised saving money to pay medical bills if needed (as well as the usual domestic bills) over keeping some money untouched for emergencies. In the case of the Oriells presumably Lucy's school fees would also have swallowed up considerable funds, and Mrs Oriell does not seem to have had much money either. The 'austerity' of the 1940s, first wartime and then the post-War cuts, would have reduced the ability of a lot of private art-buyers to spend 'unnecessary' money on commissioning portraits.

The idea of the talented but feckless artist , even married ones, not bothering about money or not having much common sense was a stock cliche of contemporary fiction ever since the late Georgian period with their culture's portrayal of romantic impoverished artists and poets 'starving in garrets' Presumably someone in the art world who relied on his own earnings not primarily on family funds would have only got paid when he was able to sell pictures and/or had his / her art accepted for an exhibition and so came to public attention. A lot of artists, eg Mr Jillions in Malcolm Saville's late 1940s 'Jillies' teenage adventure series, were 'commercial artists' who mostly relied on commissions to do illustrations for books and magazines or for advertising posters, and thus did not have much to spare in between commissions - in the MS series Mr Jillions has difficulties finding money to pay for his children's holidays and is constantly seeking cheap options (eg bed and breakfasts not hotels). But Mr Oriell's inability to afford the fees for school when he could not work does suggest some carelessness, or risking sending his daughter to a school which he could not really afford if anything went wrong. Keeping up appearances?

[Anita Bensoussane]

I also learned that apparently you're only able to have a "midnight feast" in the dormitory, otherwise it's called something else .

“Oh—is it a midnight feast, like we had last term?” asked Pat, eagerly.
“No—not quite,” said Tessie. “It’s not going to be held in the dormitory, like a midnight feast—we are going to have it in that little music-room not far from my dormitory. You know the one I mean?”
“Yes,” said Pat. “I say—what fun! It will be a proper midnight party, all by ourselves. Who else are you asking?”

How strange! I hadn't noticed that before, Hannah. The Malory Towers girls have a feast by the pool in Upper Fourth at Malory Towers and it's still called a midnight feast.

I assume that the 'overalls' mentioned as being part of the clothing that the girls kept in the cloakroom were what they wore for cookery or crafts/ art over their normal clothes so that these did not get splattered and need washing. These would be long-sleeved , buttoned, usually knee-length light 'coats' as worn by shopkeepers and tradesmen who were used to handling dirty goods - or the 'housecoats' worn over dresses by housewives while doing housework or cookery in the post-War period (which older relatives of mine in rural Wales were still wearing in the 1980s). Certainly it was more normal for girls - and boys too - to wear aprons for 'handling food/ paint/ other dirty materials' classes by the 1970s, as at my schools, but coats may well have still been worn in the 1940s and 1950s as I have seen these in illustrations in contemporary annuals.

That's how I picture the overalls too, Tim. When I was at secondary school, we were told to bring in an old shirt belonging to our dad (or other adult relative) to wear over our uniform for art, woodwork, etc.

[Hannah]

Thanks for the explanations regarding overalls.

Edit: At St. Rollo's they also have a midnight feast that isn't held in a dormitory.