Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
$35.76$35.76
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
$14.77$14.77
$4.99 delivery May 21 - 28
Ships from: YardSaleBookShop Sold by: YardSaleBookShop
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Audio CD Library Binding – Unabridged, January 1, 2006
Purchase options and add-ons
In the classic work that launched a play, a movie, and a song, Muriel Spark tells the darkly intriguing story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher and the intense relationship she develops with six of her students.
At the staid Marcia Blaine School for Girls, in Edinburgh, Scotland, teacher extraordinaire Miss Jean Brodie is unmistakably, and outspokenly, in her prime. She is passionate in the application of her unorthodox teaching methods, preaching the value of art, passion, and daring. She is also passionate in her attraction to the married art master, Teddy Lloyd, in her affair with the bachelor music master, Gordon Lowther, and-most important-in her dedication to her girls, the students she selects to be her creme de la creme. Fanatically devoted, each member of the Brodie set-Eunice, Jenny, Mary, Monica, Rose, and Sandy-is famous for something, and Miss Brodie strives to bring out the best in each one. Determined to instill in them independence, passion, and ambition, Miss Brodie advises her girls, Safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth, and Beauty come first. Follow me.
And they do. But one of them will betray her.
Told from the unsympathetic perspective of one of Miss Brodie's students, this novel explores themes of innocence, betrayal, and the tension between cold rationality and unchecked emotionalism.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBlackstone Audiobooks
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2006
- Dimensions6.58 x 1.19 x 6.36 inches
- ISBN-101433206145
- ISBN-13978-1433206146
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Similar items that may ship from close to you
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A gloriously witty and polished vignette."
-- "Times Literary Supplement""A perfect book."
-- "Chicago Tribune""Admirably written, beautifully constructed, extremely amusing, and deeply serious."
-- "Saturday Review ""Muriel Spark is one of the few writers on either side of the Atlantic with enough resources, daring, and stamina to be altering, as well as feeding, the fiction machine."
-- "New Yorker""Remarkable; Surprises are systematically reduced until there is only one left, and it is like the stab of a stiletto."
-- "Spectator"Narrator [Wanda McCaddon's] voices are an almost musical backdrop to the story; her accents dance gracefully with one another throughout all types of interaction. Miss Jean Brodie's eccentricities and the author's use of time shifts are not lost in [McCaddon's] reading. [McCaddon] keeps the reader right by her side.
-- "AudioFile"Product details
- Publisher : Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged edition (January 1, 2006)
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1433206145
- ISBN-13 : 978-1433206146
- Item Weight : 8 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.58 x 1.19 x 6.36 inches
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Muriel Spark (1918–2006) was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer, and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film. Spark became a Dame of the British Empire in 1993.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
I adored Miss Jean Brodie. Her fun and artistic atmosphere is a haze around her personality warts, like a keen fascination for twentieth century fascism. Her enlightened diatribes underscore a sharp pettiness, and her five favorite pupils shape their lives in accordance to, and reaction against, her philosophies that can be boiled down to: "Love me."
Originally, I was going to give this 4 stars. The last line is so unnecessarily cliche, the focus wobbles around, and characters that have a lot of color become caricatures towards the end. But the more I think on its faults, the more I realize that the story of Jean Brodie could not have been written any other way. When it comes time to draw a portrait of a former object of affection, a whole messy mix of emotions are bound to come out.
(If you've seen the movie, a lot of the plot beats are the same. But there is definitely some new emotional beats to explore in the text)
The symbol of Miss Brodie as a charismatic leader is relevant for our times. The character tells the students not to give in to "team spirit", but to seek to express their individuality - yet openly admires the facists. This becomes her undoing... She cannot be taken down for personal reasons, but rather her politics.
This was an interesting book. I would have liked a bit more development into the " set" as they got older, especially Sandy.
Ms. Brodie is a single woman, and falls in love with Mr. Lloyd, the married art teacher. Their mutual affection is never consummated, so even while Ms. Brodie carries on a relationship with the bachelor singing teacher Mr. Lowther, she schemes to get one of her girls to have an affair with Mr. Lloyd in her stead, confiding in Sandy about her plans. While Rose is her intended proxy, it is Sandy who winds up sleeping with him, and who adopts his Catholic faith and becomes a nun. It is from the convent that she is recounting her youth and the role Ms. Brodie played in her life.
This is a brief work, only about 150 pages. As such, many of the characters are flat, even most of the "Brodie set" outside of Sandy. But generally speaking, it paints a vivid portrait of a time, and a place, and the people involved. Jean Brodie is a character who soars off the page, complex and interesting and so deeply flawed. For all her bluster and bravado and determination to avoid pity, she's ultimately a pitiful figure. And one who's careless of the damage she causes, inspiring a student to run away to fight for Franco, which leads to her death. On a lesser level, Sandy's assignation with her art teacher does not leave her without damage.
I was of two minds about the length. On the one hand, I wish there had been more time to develop the other girls, and the relationships between them as well their connection to Ms. Brodie. On the other hand, I don't know that the plot would have the same power, the same feeling of a drive toward the inevitable conclusion, if it had to persist over a longer period of time. This is a solid book, and an unusual twist on the stories about teachers who change lives. I'd recommend it for a quick, engaging read.
This story unfolds over three decades in the life of the delightfully charming Miss Brodie, who is, after all, in her prime, and has had many experiences in her life which she wants to share with the young women, girls, really, who she has been tasked with enriching their minds. Mind you, she isn’t your ordinary teacher, and she has several of these young women with whom she shares a close relationship. It is unveiled slowly, moving backward and forward over time, as these young women begin their tutelage by the inimitable Miss Jean Brodie, who is (in case you forgot) in her prime, sharing her stories of love and such, basking in the close bonds she’s formed.
”One’s prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.”
There will be a betrayal by someone, perhaps one of the girls, perhaps the art teacher, a man whom Miss Brodie has shared a very warm friendship over time, or perhaps someone else.
”Outwardly she differed from the rest of the teaching staff in that she was still in a state of fluctuating development, whereas they had only too understandably not trusted themselves to change their minds, particularly on ethical questions, after the age of twenty.”
This is a relatively short book, I believe around 120 pages or so, and was worth every minute of the time invested, and more. Miss Jean Brodie is one very memorable character, and I’m so glad I finally made time for this one.
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in India on April 16, 2024
It’s also brilliant and strange and shocking. Spark is a writer who refuses to be bound by convention. She writes in the way she wants to write and this book is wonderful because of that. Miss Jean Brodie is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever read about, and the way she speaks and behaves are skilfully portrayed. The narrative moves back and forth, showing the teacher and her girls at various stages from when they are ten right through to when they are adults.
The way Brodie manipulates and influences the girls is shocking at times, as is the behaviour of the girls themselves (and some of the other teachers). And the casual cruelties, particularly directed at poor, unfortunate Mary, reveal so much about human relationships. The interactions between the characters also reveal a lot about the conventions and social issues of the time, in the years leading up to the Second World War.
The book is short but it packs so much in. The economy of the writing shows real skill. Spark manages to say a great deal in a few words – a lesson that many writers could do with learning. Her use of language is the epitome of every word having meaning. There are no whimsical meanderings here.
Intelligent, dark, subtle and skillful – genuinely a classic.
Il testo comunque è molto gradevole, scritto in maniera leggera ma intelligente, ambientato in una scuola femminile, con un'insegnante che plasma le sue studentesse, anticipando di molto altre opere sullo stesso filone (mi vengono in mente i film "L'attimo fuggente" e "Mona Lisa Smile"). La rivista "Time" qualche anno fa ha definito questo volumetto uno dei migliori romanzi in lingua inglese dal 1923, peccato che in inglese sia quasi impossibile trovarlo...