Giggled my way through the list of rules. One wonders what the effects of "high bookcases" might have been? Perhaps to encourage an over-dependency on literature which might lead to febrile imaginations and an increased susceptibility to getting wet? That would quickly have been fatal in the well-bred, no doubt.
I always think the "low bookcases" sound very attractive (actually, her rooms in general do), but I have far too many books for low bookcases to be the slightest bit practical!
I can’t think of an example of a girl receiving corporal punishment but there may be one.
I can't think of one in the La Rochelle series, but Richenda (in the eponymous Chalet School book) has had her hands caned in the past for going into her father's room of Chinese porcelain. Of course he is a Bad Father, until converted, so this is probably Unreasonable Behaviour; when the CS staff and prefects yearn for a cane and the right to use it, this is a Joke.
She and Julian behave more naturally and realistically with each other than her sisters did with their fiancés.
That wouldn't be difficult! I love the La Rochelle series, but the love scenes in Maids make me cringe even more than EBD's other romantic efforts!
Brilliant Barbara! Have a weakness for the Rhodes book myself, and you've inspired me to have a go at reading the La Rochelles in order at last! Did you buy the GGBP reprints?
More rules: A hero (doctor) will have clear-cut features though he may not be classically handsome. And a heroine is likely - if not ravishingly beautiful - to have an elusive prettiness, or failing that, a certain distinction. A *real* heroine (Jo) with have ink up to her elbows which will emphasise her likeness to Jo March. Any exciting games/activities at parties or Staff Evenings (sheets and pillowcase parties) will have been 'borrowed' from the books of Mrs George de Horne Vaizey. And sometimes from Charlotte M Yonge. (Not that I can criticise because CMY's books are a fruitful source of research for my own Victorian mysteries - along with those of Mrs Henry Wood!)
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Wee sister
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I can't think of one in the La Rochelle series, but Richenda (in the eponymous Chalet School book) has had her hands caned in the past for going into her father's room of Chinese porcelain. Of course he is a Bad Father, until converted, so this is probably Unreasonable Behaviour; when the CS staff and prefects yearn for a cane and the right to use it, this is a Joke.
She and Julian behave more naturally and realistically with each other than her sisters did with their fiancés.
That wouldn't be difficult! I love the La Rochelle series, but the love scenes in Maids make me cringe even more than EBD's other romantic efforts!
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With you on the cringeing! I was surprised that Peter calls Anne 'Anne girl' all the time, just like Gilbert in AOGG.
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I bought the two books privately; they're 1950s reprints.
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A hero (doctor) will have clear-cut features though he may not be classically handsome. And a heroine is likely - if not ravishingly beautiful - to have an elusive prettiness, or failing that, a certain distinction.
A *real* heroine (Jo) with have ink up to her elbows which will emphasise her likeness to Jo March.
Any exciting games/activities at parties or Staff Evenings (sheets and pillowcase parties) will have been 'borrowed' from the books of Mrs George de Horne Vaizey. And sometimes from Charlotte M Yonge. (Not that I can criticise because CMY's books are a fruitful source of research for my own Victorian mysteries - along with those of Mrs Henry Wood!)
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