The Chalet School
in the Oberland

HB/PB comparisons      Publishing history  

Click to see a larger image of the dustwrapper. On the right is the paperback edition.

A comparison between the 1952 Chambers hb edition and the 1989 Armada pb

This article first appeared in FOCS 22, published in November 1993.

I don't have the original dw of the hb, but I assume it is the familiar cheerful picture of Peggy skiing at full pelt. The Armada cover is in the current pointillism style and depicts three persons in various attitudes of rapture admiring a cascading waterfall. As one of the girls has blonde curls and a black ribbon, we can assume this is Peggy; the second has a black bun so is probably intended as Elma; the third has mousy curls and a drippy expression. She is admiring Peggy rather than the waterfall, so could really be anybody. The hb frontispiece shows Elma and Pamela walking in the woods and is captioned '"Listen Elma", she said, "Do leave the Purden girl alone."'

The plot of Oberland is relatively straightforward. A finishing branch of the Chalet School is opened in the Oberland headed by Miss Wilson with a supporting cast of Mlle Berne, Miss Nalder, Matron, new staff member Miss Norton and former 'much loved' head girl Gillian Culver as secretary. The pupils are drawn from the Chalet School in England, Red Gables, Dulverley High and Branscombe Park. They include Peggy Bettany et al, Miss Annersley's cousin Nell Randolph and chums and various new girls of whom the most prominent are Edna Purden (Eustacia Benson type prig, though not as well drawn); Elma Conroy (potential Bad Influence) and her chum Pamela Burton (Elma's admirer).

Elma has been seeing a young man of whom her parents disapprove and is continuing a correspondence with him without their knowledge. This is discovered by the Chalet authorities who have been forewarned and, after some friendly intervention by Peggy, Elma realises how foolish she has been, but not before she has offended Pamela. Peggy herself has been to England to visit her mother who has had a serious operation. The girls learn to ski, with varying results. Elma receives another letter and, after some persuasion by Peggy, takes it to Miss Wilson, thus proving her genuine reformation. The quarrel with Pamela is resolved after a frightening power failure on the train home from a visit to Interlaken when Pamela has hysterics. The term ends with a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, written and produced by the girls and played to patients at Mahlhausen.

Hardly the most gripping of plots and, unfortunately for pb owners, the editor seems bent on keeping the plot and editing out essential EBD vocabulary and snippets about our favourite characters. (Personally I'd have edited out the entire Feast of St. Nicholas chapter, as this is repeated with greater success in Mary-Lou.) Hardly a page goes by without some alteration and it would take several pages to detail the changes, so I have summarised instead.

The changes in vocabulary are probably the most pointless. 'Chums'='friends'; wizard'='smashing', 'super' or 'wonderful'; 'a Nazified country'='a country run by the Nazis'; 'queer'='strange' or 'peculiar'; 'hitherto'='previously'; 'the Trips'='the triplets'; 'prees'='prefects'; 'tyros'='novices'; 'glacier gemmed'='ice-encrusted'; 'Mother will go ravers'='Mother will be worried'; 'a crazy Puck'='a mischievous spirit'. Several 'my dears' are either deleted or replaced with the addressee's name, and Elma advises Valerie to 'make up to' the cook rather than 'make love to' her; but Gillian's offer to Daisy to share her bed is left in!

The pb editor does deserve commendation for tidying up one of Elinor's little oversights. Go on everybody - what's Miss Nalder's first name? You should all know - yes! lt's Grace! Except that EBD without exception refers, to her as 'Phyll' throughout Oberland. This is altered back to Grace in the pb. The editor is less successful with Matron. In the hb, EBD refers to her as Gertrude on p80 and thereafter as Gwyn (it defies belief sometimes!). The first pb reference is changed to Gwyn to bring some consistency to the nomenclature; and this is not unreasonable, considering that most of the Chalet matrons are called Gwyn(neth) regardless of what surname they are currently sporting.

But there was a matron, originating from St Scholastika's, called Gertrude Rider, and I think this is who EBD had in mind, as Matron Lloyd travels to the Oberland in Barbara and Matron Gould is later referred to as 'Matron in Carnbach'. Never mind, Madam Editor. At least by altering specific numbers to 'several' (as on p108 of the hb, 'ten or twelve had gone down the path to Lauterbach') potential pitfalls are avoided; and you are quite right to take this precaution, as Elinor evidently cannot count: she states on p47 that there are 18 girls in St Ursula's, lists them entering their class on p68 and concludes 'and the nineteen were complete'. If you count the names, there are, indeed, 18 - as corrected in the pb.

The largest omissions - and for a pb owner, this was an exciting discovery - concern those twin horrors SMOKING and MAKE-UP! These activities surely demonstrate how adult the girls at Welsen are (or think they are) - but all references are completely deleted. Of course, smoking is not something to be encouraged in the youth of today but (sorry to disappoint you pb readers) it wasn't exactly the angelic Peggy who was puffing away in the summerhouse. When Edna discovers the four contract-bridge players on that sunny Sunday afternoon, her opening line is in fact, '"Elma Conroy! You're smoking!"' and before sending her packing, Elma blows a neat smoke ring. The four are still smoking when Peggy and Daphne turn up:

'"Hello!" Elma said with supreme effrontery. "Have one?" And she held her case out to them.'

Peggy and Daphne (naturally) decline; Daphne says, '"I don't know how Bill feels about smoking. She may not mind an odd one or so. But I do know that she won't allow card-playing on Sundays"' which is a neat reversal of present day morality. Elma also smokes in Chapter 10, sitting on her windowsill reading Stuart Raynor's letter; the smoking is all part of her pretension to adulthood.

Make-up doesn't rate a mention until Chapter 15, but two earlier discussions about hair-dos are also deleted. Elma visits Pamela in her cubicle and we learn that Pam has had her hair permed (always a minus in EBD's estimation) while Elma has practised putting hers up in a thick knot at the nape of her neck. Later, Peggy and co are discussing how to do their hair before going on their first climb; Peggy is letting hers grow, although it 'only' goes to 'a couple of inches or so above your waist' ('I believe curly hair like yours is often on the short side' consoles Daphne).

Peggy advises Daphne to put her hair in ear-phones like her Aunt Jo - 'you never see Auntie with an untidy head - or not often, that is' Miss Nalder quickly puts them right on that score, reminiscing about the time (presumably in Jo Returns) when Joey was first growing her hair: 'Whenever anyone suggested that she looked as if she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, she used to groan loudly and ram in a few more pins until her head was a complete porcupine's back of hairpins!'

In Chapter 15, we learn that 'a certain amount of make-up was allowed ... so long as they don't overdo it.' Edna, the prig, is the only girl who doesn't use it; but on this occasion she seeks Peggy's advice and that young lady performs a complete transformation, having been 'drilled in the use of make-up by her mother, who had vowed she wasn't going to have any of her girls going round looking like trollops!' Edna is delighted and accepts Peggy's argument that it isn't fair on everybody else to go about looking like 'a freak' when one can easily look quite pretty - a belief which Joey Maynard evidently shares, as Margot reveals in Ruey.

Most of the other changes are relatively minor. Daisy will be staying with Joyce Linton in Devon at weekends while she and Dr Rosomon search for a home. Das Haus unter die Kiefern was donated by 'one of the first of the (old) girls'. A possible plot incident (the fact that some girls are there on scholarship, which is known only by Miss Wilson and Mlle) is never developed and a paragraph on it is deleted. The usual people skidding on the well polished floor incident is left out, as is Peggy's tasting of the continental sugar slabs during post-Abendessen coffee. We lose the aside that Miss Wilson is in evening dress and the information that the Staff smoke.

At the auberge, Miss Culver whistles at the echo. Miss Wilson's medical lecture on goitre is edited as is some of the conversation of Peggy's chums after she has had the bad news of her mother. Dick's comment that 'Sybil is a host in herself these days' is lost. The argument between Pamela and Elma loses some of its impact in the editing; it is clearer in the hb how much Elma has been admired by Pamela, who is prepared to go to great lengths to protect her chum from her own foolishness.

Peggy's 'tiresome journey' from Berne is described in some detail - diverted planes, held up trains, wires down, Gill Culver with a bilious attack - the usual EBD journey home (poor old Peggy - does she ever manage to get on at one end and off at the other without incident?). We also lose a discussion of Mrs Bettany's large figure, which is likely to diminish as a result of her illness, and the impact this will have on her wardrobe.

A trip to Interlaken before the snow comes is edited out (nothing exciting happens, for once) as is Dickie's use of the word 'Caramba!' and Miss Wilson's tart comments. Joey's two new novels are revealed as a school story ('a continuation of her Harbour School series') and a novel about the American War of Independence. Peggy's 'adventure' in the snow is termed a 'hair-raising escapade' in the pb, which is a bit of artistic licence. Dickie's rude but heartfelt comments on the difficulties of the French language are edited out, as are the sins of which St Nicholas accuses the girls and Hester's hiccoughs, produced as a result of the evenings hilarity.

An end is tied up on p210 of the hb (p173 pb) as we are told that Stuart Raynor dogs indeed cease his attentions to Elma. The 'several other pieces enjoyed at the concert are in fact just one - Smetana's Vltava, and a white-haired lady explains that the beautiful young singer has had tragedy in her life (fiance wounded, does not make expected recovery and dies on wedding day) which enables her to sing with such sincerity. Miss Wilson's ponderings on Betty Wynne-Davies and Elizabeth Arnett are deleted. An example of Matron's medical efficiency (smelling salts applied to the hysterical Pamela) is also left on the printroom floor.

The pb often cheats, eg: 'But before Lesceline could explain the origins of their names the door opened and Matron appeared' (p36). Oh no it didn't - there is a very interesting discussion about the origins of these weird French names which inspires some of the English girls to read La Vie D'une Ame. Or later - 'All the girls, musical or otherwise, had questions to ask and Miss Nalder did her best to answer them' (p66). In fact the class had a most educational ten minutes discussing the earliest operas, and after Miss Nalder had gone, discussed the length of their essays and how difficult it would be to write in French.

(Incidentally, this discussion reveals some strange ideas EBD had about handwriting. Peggy says she once wrote an essay which turned out to have seventy to eighty words per page. On a forty line piece of foolscap/A4 this would be 2 words per line - or 4 on a twenty line exercise book page - and Dickie claims her handwriting is even bigger! One shudders to think how much deforestation resulted from such huge handwriting.)

Pages 132 to 135 of the hb are paraphrased with a simple 'All morning, Pamela avoided being alone with Elma' (p113 pb), and we miss out on the typical EBD details of early morning practice, Fruhst?ck and bedmaking (enlivened by the arrival of those famous plumeaux). Peggy's make-up session with Edna is replaced with 'within a short time all the girls were ready' (p159 pb).

I have personally always found EBD's descriptions of plays and pantomimes excruciatingly boring and unfortunately not much of this is edited in Oberland. We lose a list of the scenes and the fact that the girls didn't really need a prompter.. When Batwing jumps on Ripalong the horse nearly collapses under her weight. Two little girls have been press-ganged into carrying the royal robes. We learn as an aside that Elma's practising of her evil chuckles had frightened Karen the cook half to death. The 'baby' starts falling apart when the Queen hands it to the Fairy Queen, nearly causing some corpsing; and does fall apart as the curtain comes down at the end of the scene.

A scene 'lifted from Dorothy Sayers' Busman's Honeymoon is omitted (it appears to be a sweep performing some sort of strip tease, except that he has so many layers on that we never see any flesh. It lasts at least seven minutes) as is an 'hilarious' exchange between the King and Queen on the cost of importing material now that spinning wheels are banned. The King (Anthea) comes within an ace of dropping his daughter (Peggy). A technical description of how Ripalong managed to remove the landlady's friend's hat is deleted and it is not, in fact, Miss Wilson who moans with laughter, but Lady Aldis, who is completely edited out of the pb but is, in fact, the lady who requested that the pantomime be performed at Mahlhausen.

Oberland is interesting because EBD is dealing with girls nearing adulthood and there is a complete absence of many of the normal Chalet characters (Joey, Mary-Lou and nuisance middles)., but it is not one of her better books. I would guess EBD was desperate to get the School back to its original 'exotic' location as she was beginning to run short of plot ideas. Oberland repeats previous plot incidents (amalgamation of schools; Peggy disappears in a snowdrift (cf Lavender Laughs where a similar incident was used as a device to bring Joy Bird to her senses); major argument between two best chums resolved by near-tragedy (cf Betty and Elizabeth in Goes To It/Highland Twins, where the argument had more far-reaching consequences).

Oberland also foreshadows later incidents, for example the Feast of St Nicholas antics (Mary-Lou) and the problems with girls (principally Elma) with 'wrong' moral standards (cf Bride & Problem). Quite why the pb changes were made for the sake of 40 odd pages is frankly beyond me, because I don't believe for a moment the 1989 version would attract new Chalet readers - all the changes do is disappoint firm Chalet fans.

Molly Brown [now Molly Lofas]
 

Publishing history