The English Girls' School Story

Book excerpt: "The English girls' boarding school novel was staple reading for girls, not just in England, through the first half of the twentieth century. Generally dismissed as sentimental hack writing, these stories were immensely popular. Humphries, who had loved the books as a child, discovered in adulthood that she was still enamored of them. Her search for why the books still hold up turned into a dissertation. She concentrates on the genre as a whole, finding several important similarities. The most important ones involve the independence and strength of young women living in an all female environment. The chapters elucidate the positive messages that the books contain: a respect for intelligence and learning, women as self directed, women active in sports, women in authority and, importantly, the bonds of female friendship. Humphries makes it clear that although some attitudes have changed, too many girls still see themselves as incomplete without a boyfriend and always secondary to him."--GOOGLE BOOKS.