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Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School
(The Chalet School #6)
by
"A rotten little sneak!" "A smug prig!" That's how the girls at the Chalet School describe Eustacia, and she's only been there a day! Somehow they'll have to take her down a peg or two. Nursing a bitter grudge, Eustacia plans her revenge - a revenge that will have dire consequences for the school.
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Paperback, 300 pages
Published
January 1st 1969
by HarperCollins
(first published 1930)
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Start your review of Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School

It's odd to say so, but re-reading Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's most enduring series really makes very clear that EUSTACIA GOES TO THE CHALET SCHOOL is where a great deal of it really falls into place. The first five books were all about the school finding its feet and identity - from being founded, to growing, developing, and brushing up against a rival school. With EUSTACIA, the school has settled into itself, and the template for many of the remaining books in the series - a girl arrives at the Cha
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Poor Eustacia. "Arrant little prig" she may be, but I defy any girl who has spent the first fourteen years of her life living with elderly parents in Oxford and reading erudite books, to relish being told by her nearest remaining relative that she is unlovable, and then being sent away, not just to boarding school, but to a boarding school as far away as humanly possible, where she is forced to take part in physical activity that she loathes, has no time to herself, and is told that every value
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I only have access to one more of the Chalet School books and for now, I'm just as glad. They're getting awfully repetitive. Even when the authoress tries to ring a few changes she not only finds herself repeating paragraphs from previous books on how "delicate" Joey and the Robin are, she actually repeats herself about the Robin twice in this book, almost word for word!! Yes we know her mom died of TB. You've told us that every time she appears. We know everyone's afraid she has "inherited" the
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It was... challenging. It pushed a lot of my buttons in the bad way. This is not to say that I hated it, just that, well, it was challenging.
I really don't think it's such a dreadful personality flaw to hate (or even simultaneously hate and have a crush on) Joey Bettany. Bill and Charlie are still my favourite characters.
I prefer the prig to the reformed girl. One of the tropes I really really hate in school stories, especially the Chalet School, is when a girl can redeem herself and become acce ...more
I really don't think it's such a dreadful personality flaw to hate (or even simultaneously hate and have a crush on) Joey Bettany. Bill and Charlie are still my favourite characters.
I prefer the prig to the reformed girl. One of the tropes I really really hate in school stories, especially the Chalet School, is when a girl can redeem herself and become acce ...more

Book 6 of the Chalet School series, and we meet Eustacia, probably the worst student ever (so far, at least). To give you a sample, the first sentence of this book - "There is no disguising the fact that Eustacia Benson was the most arrant little prig that ever existed." (Which is an awesome insult, by the way - I have been waiting for the opportunity to call someone an arrant little prig.)
(Also, I love that the synopsis on the book page makes it sound like Eustacia is plotting to firebomb the C ...more
(Also, I love that the synopsis on the book page makes it sound like Eustacia is plotting to firebomb the C ...more

The sixth in the series, rich with the gorgeous detail of the Tyrol and the sheer thrill of the early titles, Eustacia Goes To The Chalet School is spectacular. It's sort of a blueprint of everything the Chalet School series could be when it was on form.
Following the now traditional concept of new term, new girls, this term sees Eustacia join the Chalet School. Eustacia is sort of different. She's an 'arrant little prig'. It took me a long time to actually figure out what that means but it's not ...more
Following the now traditional concept of new term, new girls, this term sees Eustacia join the Chalet School. Eustacia is sort of different. She's an 'arrant little prig'. It took me a long time to actually figure out what that means but it's not ...more

What a horrid little girl! I wondered what it was going to take to turn things around. As per usual all comes right in the end.
I was really shocked at one sentence though - and I suppose it shows the age the book was written - Mary says "we'll have to work like niggers" - terrible. ...more
I was really shocked at one sentence though - and I suppose it shows the age the book was written - Mary says "we'll have to work like niggers" - terrible. ...more

Chambers hardback edition. Review to come.

Fun, but not my favorite I accidentally caught sight of the last paragraph and that completely spoiled the ending for me. (I had been between two thoughts.)

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I'm calling this a reread as I have read the paperback version of Eustacia before. All the same, it's kind of a new read as well.
While I've known for a long time that many of the Chalet school paperpacks were abridged, I didn't always realise how drastic some of those abridgements had been. This is one that was chopped to pieces. Reading this new, Girls Gone By edition, I occasionally went and pulled my old Armada paperback of the shelf to discover that a long chapter in the one I was reading ha ...more
While I've known for a long time that many of the Chalet school paperpacks were abridged, I didn't always realise how drastic some of those abridgements had been. This is one that was chopped to pieces. Reading this new, Girls Gone By edition, I occasionally went and pulled my old Armada paperback of the shelf to discover that a long chapter in the one I was reading ha ...more

Haha!! What a holy terror of a girl Eustacia is! This was a re-read, but it's been so long since my first (and I think only) read that I didn't recognise much of it, if any, really.
Eustacia is awesome to read about. She's just plain awful! An uppity little sneak who looks down on everyone and doesn't care who she is rude to. Older students, prefects, even teachers! Certainly makes for fun reading! I was laughing out loud more than once at her antics.
Interesting to re-read a very early book in th ...more
Eustacia is awesome to read about. She's just plain awful! An uppity little sneak who looks down on everyone and doesn't care who she is rude to. Older students, prefects, even teachers! Certainly makes for fun reading! I was laughing out loud more than once at her antics.
Interesting to re-read a very early book in th ...more

Eustacia is the daughter of an eminent professor who dies at the start of the book. Left with an aunt and five lively boy cousins, she becomes upset and is quite obnoxious. Then she is sent to the Chalet School. She considers herself superior to the other girls, which inevitably leads to some clashes and - eventually - high drama.
This is sixth in the lengthy series, and I'm delighted to have it in hardback now. Although apparently not much was cut, I found it much better than the abridged paperb ...more
This is sixth in the lengthy series, and I'm delighted to have it in hardback now. Although apparently not much was cut, I found it much better than the abridged paperb ...more

This is the second of the books I bought yesterday, although it's a few books further on. I love these books; they're a different world, being as they're set in the 1920/30's, yet they're still accessible.
I enjoyed this book, though I felt it ended a little sooner than it should have. It's your basic "new, disagreeable girl joins the school, but comes good in the end" story, but still enjoyable. ...more
I enjoyed this book, though I felt it ended a little sooner than it should have. It's your basic "new, disagreeable girl joins the school, but comes good in the end" story, but still enjoyable. ...more

I really like this one. The details are well done, starting with Mrs. Cochrane (a chillingly realistic evil stepmother type), all the way through the prefects' handling the library situation, especially Deira; she's never been noted for good sense, but I thought this was spectacular:
"I did not see that [the library rule] need apply to me. I have been accustomed to have access to any book in my father's library, and I should not mark or harm them as an ordinary girl might do. I dare say many of...more

I shall probably shut about this after this book (or perhaps not) but Robin isn't a baby. If she's at school, she doesn't need a cot!
I know she's delicate and I have found that Mother-to-child transmission of TB is a serious matter even today, let alone then. I just don't think that staying up beyond 7pm is a high trigger factor in itself. And poor old Eustacia having months of bed rest just because of a pulled muscle in her back.
Silliness aside, if you're an adult reading Chalet School Books, y ...more
I know she's delicate and I have found that Mother-to-child transmission of TB is a serious matter even today, let alone then. I just don't think that staying up beyond 7pm is a high trigger factor in itself. And poor old Eustacia having months of bed rest just because of a pulled muscle in her back.
Silliness aside, if you're an adult reading Chalet School Books, y ...more

Really? Stacie?

Ah, who can forget Eustacia, the conceited, smug new girl who is so bad she has to injure her back in order to become a nice person. EBD doesn't dwell on this - it's more of a magic wand type transformation (pouf! You shall be a proper Chalet girl!) - and actually it's everything that comes before it which makes this such a good Chalet book. Joey is at the stroppy teenager stage, the school is still small enough that you feel you know everybody, all the best teachers are on the staff, and Madge
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Mar 18, 2016
Jane Irish Nelson
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
childen-s,
contemporary
Previously only read the abridged Armada edition, so it was very nice to be able to read the new unabridged edition from Girls Gone By Publishers.
When Eustacia's parents die, her father's will states that she should be sent to school, much to her aunt's relief. At the suggestion of Grizel Cochrane's stepmother, the Chalet School is chosen, in hopes that she will find her place amongst its students, many of whom have experienced more rigid upbringings than the average English girl. Unfortunately, ...more
When Eustacia's parents die, her father's will states that she should be sent to school, much to her aunt's relief. At the suggestion of Grizel Cochrane's stepmother, the Chalet School is chosen, in hopes that she will find her place amongst its students, many of whom have experienced more rigid upbringings than the average English girl. Unfortunately, ...more

Book 7 of my Chalet School rereads. I’ve not read them since before I went to Pertisau and now they’re even more wonderful as I can picture the settings in my head.
Upgraded Eustacia to 4 stars as this time round I really enjoyed it. Eustacia’s journey to “Chalet Girl” is torturous but there’s some fun moments.
Upgraded Eustacia to 4 stars as this time round I really enjoyed it. Eustacia’s journey to “Chalet Girl” is torturous but there’s some fun moments.
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Elinor M. Brent-Dyer was born as Gladys Eleanor May Dyer on 6th April 1894, in South Shields in the industrial northeast of England, and grew up in a terraced house which had no garden or inside toilet. She was the only daughter of Eleanor Watson Rutherford and Charles Morris Brent Dyer. Her father, who had been married before, left home when she was three years old. In 1912, her brother Henzell d
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