The Princess Of the Chalet School

I’ve just finished reading the third book in the Chalet School series, The Princess of The Chalet School. This is the fourth book I’ve read by Elinor M Brent-Dyer, two being The School at the Chalet and Jo of the Chalet School, which are the first and second books in the series, respectively, and The Lost Staircase, a standalone title. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I have read by her and I’ve been wanting to write about her books, and I think this book is a perfect place to start, given it features a Princess as a main character, and you know how I love themes of Princesses and royalty!

About the Chalet School series

I most likely never would have heard of the Chalet School series if it weren’t for the Tea & Tattle podcast. The creator of the podcast, Miranda Mills, is a lovely woman based in London, and she has a whole Youtube video about the Chalet School and similar books, which is what really spurred me on to start reading the series.

The Chalet School series is a children’s book series containing 58 books (not including short stories and spin-off titles) originally published from 1925 to 1970. It follows the inception and subsequent success of the Chalet School, an international girls’ boarding school located in the Australian Tyrol. It is called the “Chalet School” because the main building was converted from an old chalet-style inn. This series is very interesting from a historical perspective because several of the books were being written and published as World War II broke out, and the plot reflects the massive changes that were happening around the world at the time. For example, the School started in Austria, but in the 14th book in the series, The Chalet School in Exile (published 1940) the members of the school flee the country following the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. They reestablish the school in the British Channel Islands, but as soon as that story was published the Channel Islands were invaded by the Nazis, so they moved again to Hereford.

It is worth mentioning that while the Chalet books were very popular in the UK, they were never published in the US. So if you live in the US like me, it can be quite tricky to get access to the books, which are expensive even without factoring in overseas shipping! You pretty much have 4 options on the secondhand book market:

1. The original books published by W. & R. Chambers. I don’t own any (yet) because any that are in decent condition and come with a dust-jacket are usually very expensive.
2. The Armada/Collins paperbacks published in the 1960s-1990s. These are the cheapest and most easily available, but I have avoided purchasing any of them because they contain heavily abridged/cut versions of the text.
3. The Girls Gone By reprints. Girls Gone By is a publisher specializing in out-of-print vintage school stories, mostly Chalet books. Their books contain the full original text and also extras like short stories and essays. Unfortunately, many of their reprints have also gone out of print. You can order whatever is in print from their website, or you may be lucky enough to find their books secondhand at a decent price.
4. The Chambers facsimile editions published in the 80s. These have the original unabridged text, and the original dustjacket illustrations by Nina K Brisley. They look gorgeous on my bookshelf! I’m not sure which books received a facsimile edition, though. I think it may have only been the very early books in the series.

Whew, I think that’s enough context, now on with the book review!

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Summary

The book opens in Belsornia, a fictional country located somewhere in Central Europe. We meet twelve-year-old Princess Elisaveta Margherita, the only child of the Crown Prince. She is in repose in her palace bedroom, recovering from illness. Both her father and her doctor are concerned about her health, and the doctor suggests that perhaps she is suffering from the stress and loneliness of her currently strict and sheltered life. He recommends the Chalet School in Austria, for he has a friend who sent his daughter there, and plus the fresh mountain air would do her good. The Prince of course agrees, and relays the plan to Elisaveta, who is over-the-moon excited to be done with lessons from governesses, and to actually join a boarding school like the ones in her storybooks.

The first part of the book is dually concerned with the assimilation of Elisaveta into the school, and with the new and universally disliked Matron. I hadn’t heard of a “Matron” before this book, but from what I can gather they are in charge of the domestic affairs of the dormitories, rather than having any academic duties. This Matron, Miss Webb, is particularly cruel and strict and seems to live only for scolding the girls at every opportunity and doling out punishments. Plus, she looks like a weasel and has a loud and grating voice. She’s basically a Roald Dahl villain. Even the Headmistress, Miss Bettany, doesn’t like her, but decides to give her a chance.

A few weeks after joining the school, Elisaveta is doing splendidly. Her health is better and she has made friends of her own age for the first time in her life, and is generally enjoying the schoolgirl life. The Headmistress is worried that the other students will treat her differently if they find out she’s a Princess, so she tells her to keep it a secret, but Elisaveta accidentally reveals her identity to her friends and it turns out nobody really cares one way or the other. The only glaring problem is the mean and nasty Matron. Elisaveta ends up joining the SSM, the secret Society for the Suppression of Matron, “sworn to be the bitter enemies of Matron, and to harry her till she leaves the place.” They come up with several schemes and pranks to annoy Matron and get her into trouble, but in the end Matron ends up sealing her own fate when she locks Robin, the beloved school baby, in her room. She is fired and both students and staff rejoice.

But the real meat of the story is yet to begin. One day while the school is on a hiking trip in the Zillertal, Elisaveta strays away from the other girls and meets a strange man from her home country. He tells her his name is Ternikai and he has been sent by her father to keep an eye on her. Elisaveta does not know it yet, but her Uncle Cosimo is actually an evil man and Ternikai is not her bodyguard, but an accomplice in a plot to kidnap Elisaveta for ransom. Luckily for him Elisaveta believes him and doesn’t tell any of the staff about this strange man she met in the mountains. This sets the stage perfectly for what happens next.

Late one night Ternikai and Cosimo show up at the dormitory and lure Elisaveta out under the pretense of her father giving an order that she must go into hiding. Joey, the Headmistress’s younger sister and one of the school’s pupils, is awake and witnesses all this. She follows them into the mountains, bringing only her loyal St Bernard and some bread rolls. Over the next two days she climbs up a cliffside, confident she is heading the right direction when she sees a ribbon tied in a style of knot she and Elisaveta had learned during one of their Girl Guide meetings. She meets Elisaveta and they make their perilous escape, scaling down a particularly long drop of cliff by tying together their stockings to use as a makeshift rope. In the end their escape is successful, and Joey is invited to Belsornia where the King gives His official thanks for rescuing his granddaughter, and presents her with a gift of pearls.

Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I did with the first two in the series. Of course the plot is pretty far-fetched and predictable, but honestly, I feel like the plot is of secondary importance in the Chalet books anyway. The real charm shines through the writing, the period details, and the setting. EBD was inspired to set her fictional school in Austria after a real-life vacation to the Achensee, and her love of the area comes through so clearly in the writing, it’s contagious. In this book as in the previous two, there are so many lovely descriptions of the lake, the bits of forest near the school yard, the train station, etc., so that you feel like you’re really there. I love the quaint details of boarding school life, from the little things like the girls turning out their mattresses on the balconies every morning, to the Girl Guide drills and patrols, to the “Court of Queen Summer” masque put on at the end of the term. The descriptions of food are especially some of my favorites, for example this picnic in the Zillertal:

It was a gorgeous feast. There were rolls, buttered, and with hard-boiled eggs beaten up with butter and cream, and shredded lettuce, in a way of which Marie alone knew the secret, slipped in. There were delicious little cakes, contributed by Dr Jem, who had brought them on the previous evening from Vienna, where he had been attending a congress of doctors, besides those which Herr Mensch had brought from his wife in Innsbruck. There were French chocolates and bonbons, there were piles of apricots and plums and greengages, and there were two huge melons.

In the previous two books the focus was mainly on Miss Bettany and her sister Jo. They are still the main characters, but Elisaveta also had a starring role, and I thought the focus was well balanced between each character. I would have liked to see more done with the secret Princess plot thread; we didn’t get any kind of reaction from the girls when they found out Elisaveta was a Princess, which is sweet in a way, but it was like there was no point in keeping it a secret in the first place. I suppose it’s a played-out trope but I really did enjoy the idea of a Princess joining the school, kidnapping subplot and mountain rescue and all. That’s the thing I love about these books, they don’t contain anything magic or supernatural in them, yet they feel like perfect fairy tales, this one especially. I’ve heard Elisaveta fades into the background after this book which is a little disappointing, but I’m still really excited to continue on with this series.

Score: 8.5/10