Ron Peters's Reviews > The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a lovely short novel. Its size is at the border between a novel and a novella, but the length feels just right for the story.

It’s been years since I saw Maggie Smith in the movie, but it’s impossible to not hear her voice while you read. I watched the film preview on the Internet Movie Database and, even from a one-minute clip, you can tell that the film is more melodramatic. My recollection is that the movie also has an ending more acceptable to a Hollywood audience.

What I liked best is the moral ambiguity of the story and the associated complexity of the key characters. Many minor characters are undeveloped, but the major characters can’t be easily categorized as good or bad, just as very human. I’d recommend the book to anyone.