Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-03-25
MurieI Sparks Novel
His Best in Years

family resemblance is I'M
mistakable.
Early in the book we learn
that Miss Brodie is finally
betrayed by one Of her own
Brodie set; only a little later
we find out that it is Sandy,
famous for her pig-like
eyes," now q nun in a Roman
Catholic convent, who is to
be her betrayer. miss Spark
is too fine an artist to allow
her book to be a whodunit;
she tells us the big points at
once and matter-of- factly so
that we can concentrate on
the details.) Miss Brodie uses
her own past and present life
as the warp and wool of her
teaching-her lover killed in
the war, her admiration for
the successful methods Of
Mussolini, Franco, and Hit
Ter, and her contempt for
her fellow teachers.
The girls are given to
dramatising themselves in
day dreams, and also in fic-
ton secretly written and Sc
cretly destroyed. Converse
lions with Alan Breck Of kid
naped," Mr.. Rochester of
Jane Eyre" a future hus-
band, or Madame Pavlova,
and also imagined episodes in
Miss Brodie's love-life, in
which Teddy Lloyd, the
schools art master, has taken
the place of her early love,
are among Miss Sparks most
masterfully executed concep-
lions. OF the latter, one,
conceived of as to another
teacher, can be quoted:
my Own Delightful Cor
don,
your letter has moved
me deeply as you may mag
inc. But alas, I must ever
decline to be Mrs. Lowther.
My reasons are twofold. I am
dedicated to my Girls as is
Madame Pavlova, and there
is another in my life whose
mutual love reaches out to
me beyond the bounds of
Time and Space. He is Teddy
Lloyd! Intimacy has never
taken place with him. He is
married to another. One day
in the art room we melted
into each others arms and
knew the truth. But I was
proud of giving myself to you
when you came and took me
in the bracken on Arthur'S
Seat while the storm ragged
about us. If I am in a certain
condition I shall place the
infant in the care of a worthy
shepherd and his wife, and
we can discuss it calmly as
platonic acquaintance. I may
permit misconduct to occur
again from time to time as
an outlet because I am in my
Prime. We can also have
many a breezy day in the
fishing boat at sea. :"
One Of the girls is a victim
on an incident of indecent
exposure, and gives her evil
dence to a woman police Of
ficer. Sandy, who is later to
betray Miss Brodie, is fas-
cinated by the details, and
makes her friend tell her
again and again what the
policewoman asked, did, and
looked like. She becomes in
fatuated with this unknown
policewoman, imagines her
self her lieutenant, and be-
comes obSessed with the con-
ception of wickedness and its
just punishment. She is
slowly crazed by a compulsion
to punish Miss Jean Brodie,
not only for her love affairs
but also for her attempt at
vicarious enjoyment of Teddy
Lloyd through melting one
of her girls, some years later,
to become his mistress. Sandy
thinks that Miss Brodie is
an Unconscious Lesbian",
but the reader suspects that
it may be Sandy herself who
is disturbed.
The only fault I can find
with this magnificently con-
ceived and otherwise per-
fectly executed book is it's
somewhat perfunctory final
so pages. Earlier, Miss Spark
does not tell us what hap
pens, she shows it to us hap
pening. In the end, as though
in a hurry to finish, she tele-
scopes her marathon not in an