The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie vs The Professor: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Women teachers, Teachers, British and irish fiction, Fiction
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
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Muriel Spark’s timeless classic about a controversial teacher who deeply marks the lives of a select group of students in the years leading up to World War II "Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine…
The Professor
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The Professor was the first novel that Charlotte Bronte completed. Rejected by the publisher who took on the work of her sisters in 1846 - Anne's Agnes Grey and Emily's Wuthering Heights - it remained unpublished until…
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie has the widest readership — 63571 ratings behind its score.
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie runs the darker storyline; The Professor stays the lighter read.
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How to choose
Scores by source
| The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | The Professor | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.7 (63571) | 3.5 (31154) |
| Hardcover | 3.5 (88) | 3.0 (2) |
| Google Books | 3.0 (245) | — |
| Apple Books | 3.5 (42) | 4.0 (188) |
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Reception
| The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | The Professor | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 63571 | 31154 |
| Editions | 59 | 210 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 59545 | 53673 |
| Reading it now | 1978 | 1726 |
| Written reviews | 5380 | 2746 |
| Wikipedia attention | 4929 | 2291 |
| Pages | 179 | — |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie or The Professor?
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie has the higher combined reader rating across sources (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 3.7/5, The Professor 3.5/5).
Which is harder to read: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie or The Professor?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Moderate; The Professor: Demanding.
Have both books been made into films?
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: 5 film adaptations; The Professor: no film adaptation on record.