History Literature / StClares

The original books were written from 1941 to 1945, but recently [[OutlivedItsCreator three additions to the series]] have been made by Pamela Cox - ''The Third Form at St. Clare's'' and ''The Sixth Form at St. Clare's'' in 2000, and
''Kitty at St. Clare's'' in 2007. However, they aren't particularly convincing as authentic portrayals of Forties life. The original books are as follows:

* AnimatedAdaptation: Has one in the anime [[Anime/MischievousTwinsTheTalesOfStClares Mischievous Twins: The Tales of St. Clares]]

%% Image replaced per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1579455877093872200
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* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Most teachers, especially the Head.
* RichBitch: Angela, Pauline.
* SchoolgirlSeries

*** As a note, the poem Miss Willcox insulted is a real poem by Matthew Arnold, called "Despondency" and is available to look up on the internet.

%%* RichBitch: Angela, Pauline.
%%* SchoolgirlSeries

* DemotedToExtra: Pat and Isabel's roles gets increasingly smaller as the series progress, the focus often emphasized more on the newer students that were introduced in the book.

%%* HugeSchoolgirl: Mirabel and Margery.

** The girls' bullying of Alma Pudden is treated as harmless and justified because she is fat and unpleasant, even after learning she can't help it. In an earlier book, they were disgusted when Prudence mocked Carlotta's background specifically because it was something Carlotta couldn't change.

** Mirabel denies Jane Teal a spot in the lacrosse team, treats her rudely and doesn't even care when the poor child becomes very ill. All of this because Mirabel had vague (and unproven) suspicions that Jane had ruined her meeting for a prank.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: When Mirabel was first introduced, she was set-up as the musical genius who excels at playing violin, while her friend Gladys was the sporty one. In the final book, Mirabel would later become the school's sports captain, while the role of "the musical genius" was passed on to Felicity.

* ''The Twins at St. Clare's''
* ''The O'Sullivan Twins''
* ''Summer Term at St. Clare's''
* ''Second Form at St. Clare's''
* ''Claudine at St. Clare's''
* ''Fifth Formers at St. Clare's''

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Carlotta riding off to rescue Sadie, calling her circus friends to help and then getting Sadie back to school.]]

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Many of the characters. Lucy and Margery, Alison and Sadie (until American heiress Sadie returns to {{Eagleland}}), Alison and Angela, Mirabel and Gladys, Bobby and Janet, Hilary and Carlotta, Doris and Pam... the list goes on.

* FatGirl: The unfortunately named Alma Pudden, [[spoiler: who it turns out actually has a form of eating disorder.]]

* DoubleStandard: A ProtagonistCenteredMorality variant. When Pat and Isabel first arrive at St. Clare's, determined to be defiant and unpleasant because they don't want to be there, all the other students took it pretty lightly, and just laughed them off by calling them the "stuck-up twins" behind their back. When Mirabel comes and does pretty much the exact same thing, the girls pranked her with StockShoujoBullyingTactics. Elsie (whose character is “the spiteful one”) was the ringleader of the latter. Several of the girls expressed misgivings about it, but Elsie was like “I’m the head girl so you have to do what I say” and the girls reluctantly went along with it after that. Eventually the girls refused to keep doing it and called Elsie out for being an asshole.

* DoubleStandard: A ProtagonistCenteredMorality variant. When Pat and Isabel first arrived at St. Clare's, determined to be defiant and unpleasant because they don't want to be there, all the other students took it pretty lightly, and just laughed them off by calling them the "stuck-up twins" behind their back. When Mirabel comes and does pretty much the exact same thing, the girls pranked her with StockShoujoBullyingTactics. Elsie (whose character is “the spiteful one”) was the ringleader of the latter. Several of the girls expressed misgivings about it, but Elsie was like “I’m the head girl so you have to do what I say” and the girls reluctantly went along with it after that. Eventually the girls refused to keep doing it and called Elsie out for being an asshole.

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Inverted with Pat and Isabel. In the beginning of the series, Pat was written as the dominant and more rebellious (shown by her refusal to wait on the older students, even when Isabel relented to do her duties, then pulling a TwinSwitch and taking Isabel's place when Pat was banned from going out to town for her disobedience). However, Pat later mellows down to become as responsible and reliable as Isabel is, to the point where the teachers can't choose between the two girls when they're to be appointed as head girls, because they're apparently that interchangeable now. (Pamela Cox's book taking place after the last one points out that Pat is hot-tempered and Isabel isn't, to the point where it really seems as if Isabel could have been the only head girl.)

* AnachronismStew: Some of the later releases of the books were extensively [[{{Bowdlerize}} bowdlerized]] to try and make them more appealing to current generations - shillings to pounds, grandmother to grannies and so on. Particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} are the more modern illustrations - the [[TheNineties '90s]] versions of the books find the girls drinking from plastic lemonade bottles and wearing baggy T-shirts and Rachel haircuts, while others have them wearing shorts instead of hockey skirts and so on. Carlotta threatening to slap Angela has also been edited out.
** There is another frustrating example: "sew a button on a shoe" gets turned into "sew a button on"!

* {{Bowdlerize}}: The latest versions to be released have all been abridged in some way. See Anachronism Stew above.

* CheatersNeverProsper: In one book, Isabel accidentally comes across the answers to a prescribed test and ends up reading them. She ends up wracked by guilt, but it turns out the test was actually for another class, so she was fine (but she ended up being so relieved she screwed up some of the questions.)
** Prudence is also caught with the answers for a French test by Carlotta and Bobby, but in her case, it was intentional.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Several cases.
** In ''The O'Sullivan Twins'', Pat's knitting is ruined and she believes that Margery is responsible. The entire form decides to refuse to cheer for Margery in the upcoming lacrosse game, even though she didn't do it and won the game for them.
*** Actually, they chose not to cheer for her ''before'' the knitting incident due to Margery's behaviour in class. Pat had reminded the other students and Margery retaliated by threatening revenge, which the other girls assumed resulted in the ruined knitting. However, the trope still fits.

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Inverted with Pat and Isabel. In the beginning of the series, Pat was written as the dominant and more rebellious (shown by her refusal to wait on the older students, even when Isabel relented to do her duties, then pulling a TwinSwitch and taking Isabel's place when Pat was banned from going out to town for her disobedience). However, Pat later mellows down to become as responsible and reliable as Isabel is, to the point where the teachers can't choose between the two girls when they're to be appointed as head girls, because they're apparently that interchangeable now.
** Thankfully, Pamela Cox's book taking place after the last one points out that Pat is hot-tempered and Isabel isn't, to the point where it really seems as if Isabel could have been the only head girl.
* DoubleStandard: A ProtagonistCenteredMorality variant. When Pat and Isabel first arrived at St. Clare's, determined to be defiant and unpleasant because they don't want to be there, all the other students took it pretty lightly, and just laughed them off by calling them the "stuck-up twins" behind their back. When Mirabel comes and does pretty much the exact same thing, the girls pranked her with StockShoujoBullyingTactics.
** Elsie (whose character is “the spiteful one”) was the ringleader of the latter. Several of the girls expressed misgivings about it, but Elsie was like “I’m the head girl so you have to do what I say” and the girls reluctantly went along with it after that. Eventually the girls refused to keep doing it and called Elsie out for being an asshole.

--> ''"Angela sends for the young ones far too much, though," said Pat, frowning. "She and Alison make them do too many jobs. They've got a bit of power and they are using it badly."''
--> ''Hilary knew that Antoinette was being very naughty about coming when she was sent for - but she knew too that Angela used the younger girls far too much. She used her prettiness and charm to make them into little slaves.''
--> Angela gets told off for it, but it doesn't seem to help: ''"You're not given power to play about with and get pleasure from, Angela, as'' you ''seem to think. You're given it to use in the right way."''
** And then there's Mirabel. She gets a bit of this after becoming sports captain, working the younger girls way too hard and forcing them to attend constant practices, [[spoiler: until they eventually get sick enough of her to literally go on strike and it's only Gladys' advice that stops her resigning completely.]]

* FearOfThunder: Several girls turn out to have this at the culmination of an outdoor midnight feast spoiled by rain.
* FemaleGaze: A few mild lesbian examples.
--> ''[Jane] wished she could dislike Angela, but she couldn't. Every time she saw the golden-haired girl with her starry eyes set in her oval face she thought how wonderful she was.
* FoodPorn: All those midnight feasts!

* SeriousBusiness: All kinds of sports are treated like this. Lacrosse and tennis are of paramount importance, and nothing like a silly ''injury'' should stop you racing up the field to score a winning goal for the Good Old Team.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The second through fourth book each have a different antagonist girl who is nasty and spiteful and tries to make life hell for other pupils: Erica in the second, Prudence in the third and Elsie in the fourth. In the fifth, Angela fulfills that role, but since she's more just arrogant and bitchy than an outright evil schemer and more integrated into the group overall, she doesn't have to leave at the end of the term and stays on for the next book.
** The books did do their best to distinguish them, though- Erica was just plain mean and held grudges like hell, Prudence was a holier-than-thou princess who thought she was a model student and had a huge grudge against Carlotta because Carlotta was from a circus and was extremely popular, while Prudence, who was from a very prestigious background, was unpopular for being so uptight and bitchy. Elsie wanted to be a dictator, but everyone overthrew her easily and then she just sulked.

* TeenGenius: Felicity at music and Lucy Oriell at pretty much everything, especially art.

* TwinSwitch: Pat and Isabel try this to get around one of them being punished by being forbidden to go into town.

* UnstoppableRage: Carlotta, especially in ''Summer Term at St. Clare's''.
* WeatherReportOpening: The first book starts:
--> One sunny summer afternoon four girls sat on the grass by a tennis-court, drinking lemonade.