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Upper Fourth at Malory Towers

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Wikipedia article




'Upper Fourth at Malory Towers' is the fourth in the Malory Towers series of school stories by Enid Blyton, following the adventures of Darrell Rivers and her friends at the eponymous girls' school.

Plot summary



It is the School Certificate year for Darrell and her schoolfellows in the Upper Fourth form. The girls face a tough year of hard work before the demanding examination.

Felicity, Darrell's younger sister, arrives at Malory Towers for her first term. Darrell is looking forward to taking Felicity under her wing and showing her round the school. She is annoyed when Felicity disappears, having been befriended by June, Alicia's brazen and confident younger cousin.

Connie and Ruth Batten join Malory Towers from Abbey School, in Yorkshire. Although they are twins, they are unalike in appearance, and their relationship is unsettling. It soon becomes evident that Ruth is being dominated by her sister, who rarely allows her to get a word in edgeways and routinely performs domestic tasks for her.

Another new girl is the Honourable Clarissa Carter. Gwendoline, impressed by the new girl's title, immediately decides to befriend her, but almost gets off to a bad start when Clarissa turns out to be unimpressive at first appearance - a slight and sickly girl with thick-lensed glasses and braces. When Clarissa slips by the side of the pool and accidentally pushes Gwendoline into the water, a furious Gwen is disbelieving that her friend could have been so mean to her.

Darrell is very proud when she is appointed Head Girl of the Form, a position she takes very seriously. On noticing that Gwendoline seems to be having an unhealthy influence on Clarissa, Darrell asks first Mavis and then Daphne to intervene by befriending Clarissa. Gwen responds by recounting the stories of Mavis' and Daphne's past misdeeds, leaving Clarissa unhappy and shocked. At half term, Gwen sees Clarissa meet a dowdy woman who arrives in a battered old car and is derisive at what she assumes to be Clarissa's mother.

Later in the term, when it is proposed that the North Tower Fourth Form girls should take a break from their hard work with a midnight feast, Darrell is at first reluctant, but relents. Things go wrong however, when girls from West Tower and from the First Form join the midnight feast, breaking strict rules, and the event ends in disarray when Miss Potts is heard approaching. When Darrell soon afterwards learns that June plans to own up to attending the feast to spite her cousin, she loses her temper and shakes June violently. Miss Potts walks in, shocked, and Darrell is forced to resign as Head Girl. As June gloats at her success, Felicity sees her in her true colours and their friendship comes to an abrupt end.

Gwendoline discovers that Clarissa suffers from a heart murmur, which has excused her from much of her schooling. Knowing that she will not perform well in the exam, Gwen devises a plan whereby she too has a weak heart and, with the help of a credulous Mam'zelle, persuades her mother to remove her from school. But after seeing a doctor and a London specialist, her father learns the truth and, furious at Gwen's cruel deception, has scornful and bitter words with her. A chastened Gwen returns to school and is made to sit the examination.

Alicia's quick mind is the envy of the other girls, but as the School Certificate exams begin, she notices that she cannot think clearly and is struggling with the questions. During the last paper, she faints, and is later diagnosed with measles. She feels shame at her past behaviour of sneering and sarcasm at others who are slower than her.

A curious series of events, known as the Connie Affair, begins to happen. Various items belonging to Connie go missing, such as schoolbooks and a page torn from her essay. Her riding whip is deliberately slashed. Remembering similar behaviour in the past, the girls briefly suspect Gwendoline, before Darrell suddenly realises who the culprit must be. She confronts Ruth, Connie's twin sister, and Ruth confesses, explaining that Connie was struggling academically and had pressured Ruth to fail her School Certificate exam deliberately so that the two would not be separated. Ruth tells Darrell that she loves her sister, but hates her too. Disturbed, Darrell recounts the story to an astonished Miss Williams, who reveals that Ruth had not performed as badly in the exam as she had feared. Impressed by Darrell's actions, Miss Williams reinstates her as Head Girl.

On the last day of term, Gwen is amazed to see Clarissa's parents arrive in a magnificent gleaming Bentley. Clarissa explains that the woman Gwen saw at half term was her governess, not her mother. Meanwhile, Clarissa has discovered a shared love of horses with Bill and her friendship with Gwen is at an end.

Characters



North Tower Upper Fourth Form girls

*Darrell Rivers - the main protagonist of the stories

*Sally Hope - Darrell's best friend, solid and dependable

*Gwendoline Mary Lacey - spoiled, lazy, boastful and conceited

*Alicia Johns - lively and quick-witted, always ready with an sharp-tongued opinion

*Mary-Lou - now taller, but still timid

*Wilhelmina (Bill) Robinson - still obsessed with horses and particularly her own horse, "Thunder"

*Clarissa Carter - new girl, befriended by Gwendoline

*Irene - a scatterbrained girl who excels at music and mathematics

*Belinda Morris - Irene's best friend, equally scatterbrained, a talented artist

*Mavis - a highly talented singer, much improved since her earlier appearances

*Daphne Millicent Turner - pretty, graceful and charming, now much more subdued than when she first arrived

*Connie Batten - new girl, twin sister of Ruth

*Ruth Batten - new girl, twin sister of Connie

Other girls

*Betty Hill - Alicia's friend in West Tower

*Felicity Rivers - Darrell's younger sister in the First Form

*June - Alicia's younger cousin in the First Form

*Hilda - Head Girl of the First Form

*Susan - First Form girl

*Eileen - Fourth Form West Tower girl

*Winnie - Fourth Form West Tower girl

Mistresses and Staff

*Miss Grayling - Headmistress of Malory Towers.

*Miss Potts - House Mistress of North Tower and mistress of the First Form.

*Miss Williams - Fourth Form mistress

*Mam'zelle Dupont - French mistress, described as "short, fat and round," with a jolly temperament

*Mam'zelle Rougier - French mistress, described as "thin and sour," with an ill-humoured temperament

*Matron - North Tower Matron, responsible for the well-being of the girls boarding in North Tower

Other characters

*Mr Rivers - Darrell's father, a surgeon

*Mrs Rivers - Darrell's mother

*Mr Lacey Gwendoline's father

*Mrs Lacey - Gwendoline's mother

*Miss Winter - Gwendoline's former governess

*Miss Cherry - Clarissa's former governess

References



Category:Enid Blyton series

Category:1949 novels

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