THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (Muriel Spark)

First of all, I don't like Jean Brodie.  She is manipulative, immoral, narcissistic, and callous.  She uses people, especially her students, to satisfy some unidentifiable lack in her own life.  Perhaps she is unable to love, or perhaps she feels that she needs to justify her own sense of superiority by minimizing the abilities of others. She is a rebel dedicated to her own cause, a standard of behavior and accomplishment that fails to take into account the talents and aspirations of others.  Instead of nurturing her students, she manipulates them.

Miss Brodie teaches at a Scottish girl's school.  Her students are 10-year-old girls, the perfect age at which to prey on their insecurities and influence their values.  The "Brodie Set" is a disparate group, including the beautiful, the brilliant, the awkward, and the clueless.  They worship Miss Brodie, each in their own way, and aspire to meet her unbendable standards of behavior and intellectual accomplishment.  She is, by her own admission, in her prime, and in her narcissistic mind this meas that she is superior (apparently no one else in her life has ever or will ever enjoy a "prime").  She also admires Mussolini and Hitler. I have to admit that I am not sure what author Spark meant to convey in this novel other than to present a character study of the ultimate narcissist.  I do know that Miss Brodie is based in part on a teacher that encouraged Spark to write, but I can't imagine that she would have been a favorite teacher!  The novel includes a great deal of flash forwards, so the reader knows what will eventually happen to each of the girls and to Miss Brodie.

Would I recommend it?  On the basis of the long-time literary merit it has enjoyed, I would.  It will keep you thinking long after you finish reading.  If you are looking for a novel to relax with and enjoy, however, I would not.  It's hard to love a novel where you thoroughly dislike the main character!