The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie

About The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a novella by Muriel Spark, appearing first in The New Yorker and later published by Macmillan in 1961. By far the best-known of her books, the bizarre, unforgettable character of Miss Jean Brodie helped make Spark internationally famous and a leading figure in modern Scottish literature.

It was adapted into a stage play in 1968, a film starring Maggie Smith in 1969, and a TV serial in 1978.

In 1930s Edinburgh, six ten-year-old girls are assigned Miss Jean Brodie as their teacher: Sandy, Rose, Mary, Monica, Eunice, and Jenny. Miss Brodie, intent on their receiving an education in the true sense of the word educere, to lead out, would give her students lessons on art history or her love life and travels. Under the mentorship of Miss Brodie, the girls begin to stand out from the rest of the school as distinctively Brodie. In the Junior School, they meet the singing teacher, the short Gordon Lowther, and the handsome, one-armed Teddy Lloyd, a married man with six children. These two teachers form a love triangle with Miss Brodie, each loving her, while she only returns the affections of Teddy. Miss Brodie never acts on her love, except once to exchange a kiss which Monica witnesses.