# Any fiction on girls in prep schools? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655 "2008-01-15T21:19:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/1 "2008-01-15T21:19:46Z")
I was wandering the local bookstore and found [The Headmaster Ritual](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618756825/ref=reg_hu-wl_item-added) which Christopher Buckley gives high praise for it on a back cover blurb about being better than A Seperate Peace. I haven’t read A Seperate Peace in 20+ years, but somehow I felt the need to re-read it again. And then I wondered, are there any fictional ( or biographical accounts) of girls boarding schools? ( yes, yes, I am sure there are a \*\*Dear Penthouse, I never thought this would happen to me… \*\*kinda thing somewhere out there, but this train ain’t going down that track.) ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/2 "2008-01-15T21:34:53Z")
\*\*Prep \*\* by Curtis Sittenfeld is a novel about a girl at a co-ed prep school. I liked it, but many hated it. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/3 "2008-01-15T21:39:45Z")
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest] ( yes, yes, I am sure there are a \*\*Dear Penthouse, I never thought this would happen to me… \*\*kinda thing somewhere out there, but this train ain’t going down that track.) [/QUOTE] [:sniff:](http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/3070192.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=396B455078B246EC5EC6D0DD1344D4D3A55A1E4F32AD3138)☹ ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/4 "2008-01-15T21:43:31Z")
Enid Blyton. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/5 "2008-01-15T21:45:34Z")
I’ve never read it, but my fiancee has the book \*\*Virgins \*\* on our bookshelf and it appears to be about girls in catholic prep school. The reviews on [this Amazon page](http://www.amazon.com/Virgins-Rivers/dp/0671640763/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200433429&sr=1-2) seems to support that notion. EDITED TO ADD: The author of the book is **Caryl Rivers**. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/6 "2008-01-15T21:57:20Z")
Google : “St. Trinian’s”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/7 "2008-01-15T22:02:55Z")
**St. Trinians**. The highly amusing (and, for the time, racy) books, not the bowdlerised movie. ETA: how did **Bosda** ’s post get there? I swear it wasn’t there when I wrote this post, and writing it didn’t take me five minutes. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/8 "2008-01-15T22:03:04Z")
Prep was the first one I thought of, too. Also, how about Colette’s “Claudine a L’Ecole” (“Claudine at School”)? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/9 "2008-01-15T22:10:03Z")
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest] I was wandering the local bookstore and found [The Headmaster Ritual](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618756825/ref=reg_hu-wl_item-added) which Christopher Buckley gives high praise for it on a back cover blurb about being better than A Seperate Peace. [/QUOTE] Talk about damning with faint praise… ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/10 "2008-01-15T22:26:36Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Google : “St. Trinian’s”. 😃 [/QUOTE] Ooooh…thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/11 "2008-01-16T03:53:11Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Google : “St. Trinian’s”. 😃 [/QUOTE] Quite. Or “Angela Brazil”. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/12 "2008-01-16T10:02:42Z")
[QUOTE=anu-la1979] Enid Blyton. [/QUOTE] Yup, “Malory Towers”. There used to be plenty of other school stories too. I suspect the genre is much less fashionable than it used to be. School stories were a staple of girls’ comics and annuals, along with ballet, tennis and showjumping. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/13 "2008-01-16T10:13:28Z")
There’s the whole “Chalet School” series too… ---
**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/14 "2008-01-16T12:57:24Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Yup, “Malory Towers”. There used to be plenty of other school stories too. I suspect the genre is much less fashionable than it used to be. School stories were a staple of girls’ comics and annuals, along with ballet, tennis and showjumping. [/QUOTE] And St Clare’s. Don’t forget St Clare’s! (The joys of having an older sister in the 1970s…) ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/15 "2008-01-16T19:18:39Z")
**Malacandra** , in 2001 I was sitting on a train to Scotland next to the sweetest old English grandmom having a lively chat about Enid Blyton (I’m a fan because my mom and dad were raised in post-British india when she was all famous-like, hence my exposure and affection) and she told me they’ve fallen out of vogue on account of the sexism/ethnic stereotyping. Same for Dr. Doolittle, I’ve heard. Malory Towers and the Famous 5 were my faves. Though I do have a special affection for those siblings and their friend who stow away on the island because their mom and dad abandoned them to go take a trip to Bafutoland and were never heard from again, and then they were raised by their evil aunt and uncle. Oh, and in the sequel the siblings and their friend go to Bafutoland to rescue the 'rents from the darkies deep in the heart of the mountain, remember? That was totally awesome. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/16 "2008-01-16T19:44:26Z")
There’s _The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie_ by Murial Spark and _Miss Pym Disposes_ by Josephine Tey – these are a little dark. Not girls, but a co-ed boarding school YA book that I thought was excellent is the somewhat recent _Looking for Alaska_ by John Green. _A Great and Terrible Beauty_ by Libba Bray is another recent one – girls’ school, Victorian(?) setting. You might need to be a kid to find the mystery parts mysterious, though. _And Both Were Young_, by Madeline L’Engle. This is the author of the Wrinkle in Time books, but this one is not fantasy at all. It’s set right after WWII. L’Engle’s writing is great (as expected) but the book is a little dated – in a good way, if you are into that kind of thing. Teen romance and all that. Classic story of the new girl at boarding school who has a hard time fitting in, but then learns to make friends and all that. Jean Webster’s _Daddy Long Legs_ is set at a women’s college, not a boarding school, but it’s still awesome. The school is based on Vassar at the turn of the century (the previous century). It’s not like the film version. _The Secret Language_ by the late, great Ursula Nordstrom. This is at a bit of a younger reader level, I think, but it’s really charming. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/17 "2008-01-16T20:02:34Z")
[QUOTE=anu-la1979] **Malacandra** , in 2001 I was sitting on a train to Scotland next to the sweetest old English grandmom having a lively chat about Enid Blyton (I’m a fan because my mom and dad were raised in post-British india when she was all famous-like, hence my exposure and affection) and she told me they’ve fallen out of vogue on account of the sexism/ethnic stereotyping. Same for Dr. Doolittle, I’ve heard. [/QUOTE] Yeah, you can hardly get an Enid Blyton book these days. We have one, which hasn’t got any awful ethnic stuff in it, and it’s one of my daughter’s favorite books. I wish they would republish the ones that are worth reading; she’d love to have more of them. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/18 "2008-01-16T20:26:13Z")
[QUOTE=dangermom] Yeah, you can hardly get an Enid Blyton book these days. We have one, which hasn’t got any awful ethnic stuff in it, and it’s one of my daughter’s favorite books. I wish they would republish the ones that are worth reading; she’d love to have more of them. [/QUOTE] Try searching [amazon.co.uk](http://amazon.co.uk) - there’s no shortage of her stuff over here, so far as I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/19 "2008-01-16T20:48:00Z")
I second _Daddy-Long-Legs_ – one of my favorite books. The sequel (_Dear Enemy_) is also worth a read. Particularly interesting due to its eyebrow-raising (by today’s standards) on eugenics. I also liked (loved, actually – it was one of my absolute favorites when I was a teenager and I still enjoy it today) – _Miss Bannister’s Girls_ by Louise Tanner (who was married to Patrick Dennis of _Auntie Mame_ fame). It was written in 1961 and is pretty dated, but it’s an absolute stitch, if you can find a copy. _Life With Mother Superior_ by Jane Trahey is set in a girl’s Catholic school. The Hayley Mills movie _The Trouble With Angels_ was based on this book. Hard to find (I’m still having trouble tracked down a copy I’m willing to pay for) but funny. If you don’t mind a children’s book, _The Courage of Bethea_ by Elizabeth Howard (about a student at the Western Female Seminary in Oxford, Ohio in the mid 1800s) is quite enjoyable. You might have some luck finding these through inter-library loan as they are all long out of print. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655/20 "2008-01-16T20:55:02Z")
Are films acceptable? If so, check out [_Strike!_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120692/) (variant titles: _All I Wanna Do_ and _Daughters of the American Ravioli)_. The uprising part is exciting – Yeah! **Power** to the . . . to the rich, overprivileged schoolgirls! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-on-girls-in-prep-schools/433655.md?page=2)