Goodbye, Mr. Chips and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - October CC Book Club Selection

Parent Cafe
1

It’s time for a classic (or two)! Our October selection will be a duet: two short novels, both set in the 1930’s, about teachers who inspire loyalty from their students using very different methods. We will be reading Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark.

Goodbye Mr. Chips, published in 1934, tells the story of Mr. Chipping, a long-time instructor at a boys boarding school in England. The novella was an instant bestseller, has never been out of print, and has been adapted for radio, theatre, film and television.

"A tiny, catch-in-the-throat story . . . perfectly done’” - New Yorker

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, published in 1961, is set in a girls school in Edinburgh, Scotland, and focuses on the enigmatic title character and her influence on her students. In 2026, the book placed #31 on The Guardian’s list of the 100 best novels of all time.

"Elegantly written with an inimitably crisp, lyrical grace and economy, Spark’s fifth novel sketched 1930s Edinburgh and brought an unforgettable, iconic character to the literary stage: Jean Brodie.” - America Magazine

Discussion begins October 1st. Please join us!

5 Likes
Broken Country - August CC Book Club Selection
2

A similar (and excellent) novel is “To Serve Them All My Days” by R.F.Delderfield. It follows David Powlett-Jones in his time as a teacher at a private boys’ school in the West Country from his discharge during WWI to the beginning of WW2; it was serialized a number of years ago on Masterpiece Theater.

5 Likes
3

Goodbye, Mr. Chips is available for 75 cents on Kindle today.

3 Likes
4

Also, if you’re a subscriber to The New Yorker, you can read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as published in the magazine! (It’s behind a paywall)

2 Likes
5

Thanks for the nudge–just reserved both books and they will be sent to my preferred library. Both appear to be available (no surprise). Yay! I should be able to complete both before October 1.

3 Likes
6

I finished The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and started Goodbye, Mr. Chips last night.

Looking forward to the discussion.

1 Like
7

Picked up both books from library today and plan to finish before 10/1.

1 Like
8

Well finished Mr Chips and am working my way through Miss Brodie.

2 Likes
9

It’s October 1st! Welcome to our discussion of Goodbye, Mr. Chips and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. This was an interesting juxtaposition of stories: one sweet and straightforward and the other rather odd and ambiguous. I prefer the first (Mr. Chips) for reading pleasure, while acknowledging that the second (Jean Brodie) is probably the “better” literary work.

At first glance, Mr. Chips and Miss Brodie seem to have nothing in common; he is gentle, kind and traditional; she is manipulative, self-absorbed and unconventional. And yet…even though the two characters are very different, they share certain characteristics. Both are lonely; both are unwilling to venture outside the institutions where they are entrenched; both clash with the administration (but for opposite reasons: Mr. Chips being too traditional, Miss Brodie too progressive); and both leave lasting impressions on their students — although Mr. Chips leaves an affirming legacy and Miss Brodie a disquieting one. As for the ways they are different … oh, so many and we can discuss them! Below are discussion questions to peruse (or ignore).

2 Likes
10

Discussion Questions for Goodbye, Mr. Chips

1. How does Mr. Chips change from his arrival at Brookfield as a young teacher to his retirement? What specific life events spark these changes?

2. In what ways does Katherine Oliphant radicalize or soften Chips’s views on politics, society, and education? How does her legacy stay with him long after her death?

3. Is Chips a great educator because of his academic brilliance, or because of something else? What makes him a beloved institution rather than an outdated relic?

4. How does the outbreak of World War I affect the mood at Brookfield and Chips himself? How does his reading of the casualty list—including former German master Max Staefel—reflect his worldview?

5. Analyze the conflict between Chips and the young headmaster, Ralston. What does Ralston represent, and why do the governors and community ultimate side with Chips?

6. The novella is told largely through flashbacks. How does this structure mirror the way elderly Chips experiences reality?

7. How does Brookfield reflect the values, class structures, and expectations of late Victorian and Edwardian English society?

8. What does Chips mean when he says all his students are his “children”? How does the school shape these boys, and how do they shape Chips?

9. The book is deeply sentimental. Does this sentimentality feel earned, or does it feel manipulative? Why do you think it remains a classic?

10. Consider Chips’s final words responding to the comment that it was a pity he never had children. Why is this a fitting conclusion to his life story?

11

Discussion Questions for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

1. What does Miss Jean Brodie herself mean by the phrases “one’s prime” and “the creme de la creme”? What additional meanings do these phrases take on in relation to Miss Brodie, her girls, and other characters?

2. What are Miss Brodie’s “principles of education” and the practices she derives from those principles? How do her principles and practices differ from those of Miss Mackay? What are the pros and cons of each approach to education?

3. How do Miss Lockhart and her science room contrast with Miss Brodie and her lessons? Why are the girls “enthralled” by Miss Lockhart’s science room? What ironies are involved in Miss Lockhart’s marriage to Gordon Lowther?

4. Why does Miss Brodie admire Mussolini and, later, Hitler–“a prophet-figure like Thomas Carlyle, and more reliable than Mussolini”? What parallels emerge between Miss Brodie’s “vision” and methods and those of the fascist dictators she admires? How do Miss Brodie’s “politics” affect her life and her pupils’ lives?

5. To what extent is Sandy’s betrayal of Miss Brodie a multiple betrayal? Why does Sandy betray her former teacher? What connections exist between Sandy’s relationship with Miss Brodie, her discovery of Calvinism, and her becoming a Catholic nun and the author of an influential book on moral perception? To what extent might Sandy’s betrayal of Miss Brodie be justified?

6. How does Miss Brodie’s attitude toward “team spirit”–it is “always employed to cut across individualism, love and personal loyalties,” she announces–both agree with her educational principles and undermine her relationship with her students? What dangers arise from allegiance to a tightly organized group?

7. How does Miss Brodie’s story of her ancestor, Willie Brodie, and his cheerful death “on a gibbet of his own devising”–“it is the stuff I am made of”–reflect on her own life and personality? Does Miss Brodie die “cheerfully on a gibbet of [her] own devising”?

8. When the seventeen-year-old Sandy realizes Miss Brodie’s plans for Rose and Teddy Lloyd, she decides of Miss Brodie: “She thinks she is Providence . . . she thinks she is the God of Calvin, she sees the beginning and the end.” To what extent is Sandy’s assessment accurate? Has Miss Brodie assumed godlike prerogatives?

9. Shortly after her forced retirement, Miss Brodie writes to Sandy, questioning who might have betrayed her. Sandy replies, “If you did not betray us it is impossible that you could have been betrayed by us.” In what ways does Miss Brodie betray her girls?

10. What is the role of religion in the novel, in Miss Brodie’s behavior, and in Sandy’s and the other girls’ lives? What correspondences are established among Scottish Calvinism, Roman Catholicism, and fascism?

12

I really enjoyed Goodbye Mr. Chips and didn’t like The Prime of Miss Jean Brody. I actually started to watch the movie, The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, and didn’t like that either. I did enjoy seeing Maggie Smith play Miss Brody though. She won an Oscar for the role and she was great. She portrayed her just like she was portrayed in the book, which is why I didn’t like it.

4 Likes
13

Mr Chips was very benevolent & likable and Miss Brodie seemed quite judgmental & dangerous.

Katherine helped Mr Chips mellow a bit and youthen. It’s interesting that people forgot her and that he had been married to her before she died in pregnancy or childbirth. I guess it’s because he was single so much longer than his brief marriage.

I really struggled to finish Brodie. She was quite a bully, calling people names and putting them down and grooming her girls to do her bidding, including having sex with an old married teacher who had six kids!

1 Like
14

I didn’t get a chance to read Goodbye Mr. Chips but I did, with a lot of fits and starts, finish The Prime of Miss Jean Brody. It was not an easy read.

Jean Brody is a rather disturbing character, having a cult-like hold on her protégés. This comports well with her attraction to authoritarian figures like Mussolini and Hitler. I found it particularly repugnant that she manipulates these young girls to have sex with older men. Where are the parents? Were they really this loosey-goosey with daughters in the 1930s?

On a less serious note, while reading this book, I was wondering throughout whether I was in my “prime,” passed It, or is it yet to come? :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes::grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

4 Likes
15

Yes, this business about “primes” seems to be extremely subjective. Who is to say that people can’t have multiple primes or none at all? Is it prime sexuality? Intellectual prowess? What?

2 Likes
16

Good review: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

1 Like
17

I read Mr. Chips quickly one evening and enjoyed it and the character. Then I tried to watch the (older) movie and it kind of jarred me.

I tried reading Miss Jean Brodie but seriously disliked both the characters and the writing style, Great Book or not. So I stopped reading. I did find a summary of the plot and would not have liked it. Unfortunately that means nothing much I can contribute to the discussion.

3 Likes
18

My feelings echo those expressed so far. I loved Goodbye Mr. Chips. I am still reading Miss Brodie, but I think that I will just drop it. I kept hoping that it would get interesting or that I would like the characters more, but I never did. My initial impressions (only 60 pages in) was that the book was about the girls, and Miss Brodie was just a peripheral character. It might change later in the book, but I really thought that we learned about Miss Brodie through the eyes of the girls.

19

3. Is Chips a great educator because of his academic brilliance, or because of something else? What makes him a beloved institution rather than an outdated relic?

It’s not his academic brilliance. Even Mr. Chips knows he falls short in that regard. Brookfield “was a good school of the second rank” and “if it had not been this sort of school it would probably not have taken Chips.”

It had taken him some time to realize this, at the beginning…it was only gradually, after repeated trials and failures, that he realized the inadequacy of his qualifications. His degree, for instance, was not particularly good, and his discipline, though good enough and improving, was not absolutely reliable under all conditions.

I think his success lies in his devotion to his students and, unlike Jean Brodie, it is without any self-aggrandizement. He doesn’t use his students as pawns or trophies.

He’s also truly interested in teaching – you’d never catch Mr. Chips putting a fake lesson on the board so that he could secretly discuss his personal life. Unlike Jean Brodie, Mr. Chips understands boundaries. He knows intuitively that relationships with students are important, but limits must be strictly observed.

He made a special point of getting to know all the new boys and having them to tea with him during their first term…And he would ask the new boys where they lived, and if they had family connections at Brookfield. He kept watch to see that their plates were never empty, and punctually at five, after the session had lasted an hour, he would glance at the clock and say: “Well–umph–it’s been very delightful—umph–meeting you like this–I’m sorry–umph–you can’t stay…” And he would smile and shake hands with them in the porch, leaving them to race across the road to the School with their comments, “Decent old boy, Chips. Gives you a jolly good tea, anyhow, and you do know when he wants you to push off…”

His success as a teacher grows under Katherine’s influence. Without her, he may well have become an outdated relic, but after his marriage, “his mind, which was adequately if not brilliantly equipped, began to move more adventurously. The one thing he had always had, a sense of humor, blossomed into a sudden richness to which his years lent maturity.”

When he had first come to Brookfield he had aimed to be loved, honored, and obeyed – but obeyed at any rate. Obedience he had secured, and honor had been granted him; but only now came love, the sudden love of boys for a man who was kind without being soft, who understood them well enough, but not too much, and whose private happiness linked them with their own.

And even though Chips lost his “private happiness” too soon, Katherine’s influence stayed with him through the years and shaped how he dealt with his students, keeping him “always at the mercy of a softening wave of reminiscence.”

3 Likes
20

Why was it jarring? Did it not age well?

I no longer remember it, although I recall the trivia that Robert Donat (as Mr. Chips) beat Clark Gable (as Rhett Butler) for the Academy Award that year (1939).

There is also a 1969 musical version. I just watched a clip on YouTube. Peter O’Toole is well-cast, but the the movie seems very dated. I love musicals, but the songs are forgettable.