History Literature / ThePrimeOfMissJeanBrodie

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Jean Brodie is described as grey-haired and sharp-featured - as well as already being middle-aged when the story begins. In the film, she's played by Maggie Smith in her early thirties - and portrayed as fashionable and attractive compared to the rest of the teachers.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The final chapter has Sandy discovering that there are many Fascists even among Roman Catholic nuns (in 1938), informing the reader that Miss Brodie's Fascist leanings were not considered as eccentric as they would be after the war.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Minor example but it would appear that the English actress Pamela Franklin is [[OohMeAccentsSlipping struggling with the Scottish accent]] in a few scenes. However in the book, Sandy has an English parent and there is repeated mention of her pronouncing words with "English vowels" - suggesting this to be a deliberate choice from the actress.

* HotScientist: Miss Lockhart is the chemistry teacher and [[spoiler: eventually marries Mr. Lowther]].

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: The girls (and by extension, the reader) never really finds out what it means that Jean Brodie is in her prime. They even say of Mr. Lloyd's wife Deirdre that she's either past her prime or never had one.

* PoliticallyMotivatedTeacher: And ''how''. Brodie never ceases to preach in favor of Mussolini, then Francisco Franco. One of her students buys into it so much she goes off to fight with Franco's forces, and is killed.

* PragmaticAdaptation: The constant time skipping in the book could create awkward pacing in a film, so the story unfolds in a linear fashion - also combining several of the Brodie set into just four girls. It also adds a more dramatic climax.

The novel has been variously adapted into a play, a film, and a television miniseries. The best-known adaptation is probably the 1969 film, directed by Ronald Neame and starring Creator/MaggieSmith, who won a Best Actress UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for her performance in the title role. The screenplay by Jay Presson Allen stays fairly true to the spirit of Spark's novel, but still makes quite a few changes, most notably pruning a few characters (reducing the 'set' from six to four and [[CompositeCharacter combining]] the ill-fated new girl Joyce Emily Hammond with the dim-witted Mary [=MacGregor=]), discarding the novel's use of prolepsis and flashback in favour of condensing its later incidents into single scenes, and not mentioning the post-school fates of the girls. The film also stars Maggie Smith's then-husband Robert Stephens as Teddy Lloyd, Gordon Jackson as Mr Lowther, Celia Johnson as Miss Mackay (for which she won a UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}}) and Creator/PamelaFranklin as Sandy (in probably her best-known role outside of ''Film/TheInnocents''). The 1978 miniseries, produced for Creator/{{ITV}}, stars Geraldine [=McEwan=] (''Series/{{Marple}}'') as Miss Brodie.

The novel has been variously adapted into a play, a film, and a television miniseries. The best-known adaptation is probably the 1969 film, directed by Ronald Neame and starring Creator/MaggieSmith, who won a Best Actress UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for her performance in the title role. The screenplay by Jay Presson Allen stays fairly true to the spirit of Spark's novel, but still makes quite a few changes, most notably pruning a few characters (reducing the 'set' from six to four and [[CompositeCharacter combining]] the ill-fated new girl Joyce Emily Hammond with the dim-witted Mary [=MacGregor=]), discarding the novel's use of prolepsis and flashback in favour of condensing its later incidents into single scenes, and not mentioning the post-school fates of the girls. The film also stars Maggie Smith's then-husband Robert Stephens as Teddy Lloyd, Gordon Jackson as Mr Lowther, Celia Johnson as Miss Mackay (for which she won a UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}}) and Creator/PamelaFranklin as Sandy (in probably her best known role outside of ''Film/TheInnocents''). The miniseries, produced for Creator/{{ITV}} in 1978, stars Geraldine [=McEwan=] (''Series/{{Marple}}'') as Miss Brodie.

Set at Edinburgh's conservative Marcia Blaine School for Girls in the 1930s, the novel deals with the eponymous schoolteacher and her 'set', whose futures and loyalties she seeks to control along Calvinist (and, increasingly, Fascist) lines. This is put against Miss Brodie's two romances -- with Mr Lowther, Marcia Blaine's singing master, a church elder and bachelor; and Mr Lloyd, the school's art master, a married Roman Catholic with several children -- as well as the attempts of the school's headmistress, Miss Mackay, to remove Brodie from her post.

->''"Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life..."''

** Teddy Lloyd uses Sandy as a substitute model and lover for Miss Brodie, much to her hurt and anger when she catches on. It is hinted in the school dance seen that Monica may be Teddy's next substitute for Miss Brodie.

Set at Edinburgh's conservative Marcia Blaine School for Girls in the 1930s, the novel deals with the eponymous schoolteacher and her 'set', whose futures and loyalties she seeks to control along Calvinist (and, increasingly, Fascist) lines. This is put against Miss Brodie's two romances -- with Mr. Lowther, Marcia Blaine's singing master, a church elder and bachelor; and Mr. Lloyd, the school's art master, a married Roman Catholic with several children -- as well as the attempts of the school's headmistress, Miss Mackay, to remove Brodie from her post.

The novel has been variously adapted into a play, a film, and a television miniseries. The best-known adaptation is probably the 1969 film, directed by Ronald Neame and starring Creator/MaggieSmith, who won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for her performance in the title role. The screenplay by Jay Presson Allen stays fairly true to the spirit of Spark's novel, but still changes quite a lot. Most noticeably, it prunes a few characters -- reducing the 'set' from six to four and [[CompositeCharacter combining]] the ill-fated new girl Joyce Emily Hammond with the dim-witted Mary [=MacGregor=] -- and gets rid of the novel's use of prolepsis and flashback in favour of condensing its later incidents into single scenes and not mentioning the post-school fates of the girls. The film also stars Maggie Smith's then-husband Robert Stephens as Teddy Lloyd, Gordon Jackson as Mr Lowther, Celia Johnson as Miss Mackay (for which she won a UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}}) and Creator/PamelaFranklin as Sandy, in probably her best known role along with ''Film/TheInnocents''. The miniseries, produced for Creator/{{ITV}} in 1978, starred Geraldine [=McEwan=] (''Series/{{Marple}}'') as Miss Brodie.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_prime_of_miss_jean_brodie_1969_film.jpeg]]

First published in 1961, ''The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' is probably the best-known novel by its Scottish author Muriel Spark.

First published in 1961, ''The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' is probably the best-known novel by the Scottish author Muriel Spark.