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A World of Girls: The Story of a School — Context and Discussion
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Project Gutenberg
2008
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Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Boarding schools -- England -- Juvenile fiction; Friendship -- Juvenile fiction
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Edition facts
Words
86,834
Reading time
378 min
Text sections
11
The source record for A World of Girls: The Story of a School — Context and Discussion measures this digital text at 86,834 words, 6 hr 18 min estimated reading time, and 11 detected text sections.
The text analysis averages about 18.4 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.
Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Christian life -- Juvenile fiction,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.
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Project Gutenberg record #25870
L. T. Meade's boarding-school novel focuses on Hester's jealousy when her younger sister Nan bonds with the new girl Annie, whose gypsy-like appearance and soothing voice contrast with the school's orderly Christian conduct.
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4.8/5
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- Description quality20 pts
- Title & short description10 pts
- Source metadata20 pts
- Text length15 pts
- Chapters / structure15 pts
- EPUB file integrity20 pts
Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.
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CHAPTER II. Traveling Companions. 6
CHAPTER III. At Lavender House. 13
CHAPTER IV. Little Drawing-Rooms and Little Tiffs. 19
CHAPTER V. The Head-Mistress. 28
CHAPTER VI. "I am Unhappy." 32
CHAPTER VII. A Day at School. 35
CHAPTER VIII. "You have Waked me too Soon." 47
CHAPTER IX. Work and Play. 54
CHAPTER X. Varieties. 62
CHAPTER XI. What was Found in the School-Desk. 74
CHAPTER XII. In the Chapel. 88
CHAPTER XIII. Talking over the Mystery. 95
CHAPTER XIV. "Sent to Coventry." 102
CHAPTER XV. About Some People who Thought no Evil. 107
CHAPTER XVI. "An Enemy Hath Done This." 114
CHAPTER XVII. "The Sweets are Poisoned." 123
CHAPTER XVIII. In the Hammock. 129
CHAPTER XIX. Cup and Ball. 136
CHAPTER XX. In the South Parlor. 143
CHAPTER XXI. Stealing Hearts. 151
CHAPTER XXII. In Burn Castle Wood. 155
CHAPTER XXIII. "Humpty-Dumpty had a Great Fall." 168
CHAPTER XXIV. Annie to the Rescue. 173
CHAPTER XXV. A Spoiled Baby. 180
CHAPTER XXVI. Under the Laurel Bush. 188
CHAPTER XXVII. Truants. 193
CHAPTER XXVIII. In the Fairies' Field. 198
CHAPTER XXIX. Hester's Forgotten Book. 204
CHAPTER XXX. "A Muddy Stream." 212
CHAPTER XXXI. Good and Bad Angels. 218
CHAPTER XXXII. Fresh Suspicions. 221
CHAPTER XXXIII. Untrustworthy. 227
CHAPTER XXXIV. Betty Falls Ill at an Awkward Time. 233
CHAPTER XXXV. "You are Welcome to Tell." 241
CHAPTER XXXVI. How Moses Moore Kept His Appointment. 247
CHAPTER XXXVII. A Broken Trust. 252
CHAPTER XXXVIII. Is She Still Guilty? 259
CHAPTER XXXIX. Hester's Hour of Trial. 265
CHAPTER XL. A Gypsy Maid. 272
CHAPTER XLI. Disguised. 278
CHAPTER XLII. Hester. 284
CHAPTER XLIII. Susan. 289
CHAPTER XLIV. Under the Hedge. 293
CHAPTER XLV. Tiger. 297
CHAPTER XLVI. For Love of Nan. 303
CHAPTER XLVII. Rescued. 310
CHAPTER XLVIII. Dark Days. 313
CHAPTER XLIX. Two Confessions. 318
CHAPTER L. The Heart of Little Nan. 326
CHAPTER LI. The Prize Essay. 334
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"GOOD-BYE" TO THE OLD LIFE.
"Me want to see Hetty," said an imperious baby voice.
"No, no; not this morning, Miss Nan, dear."
"Me do want to see Hetty," was the quick, impatient reply. And a sturdy indignant little face looked up at Nurse, to watch the effect of the last decisive words.
Finding no affirmative reply on Nurse's placid face, the small lips closed firmly--two dimples came and went on two very round cheeks--the mischievous brown eyes grew full of laughter, and the next moment the little questioner had squeezed her way through a slightly open door, and was toddling down the broad stone stairs and across a landing to Hetty's room. The room-door was open, so the truant went in. A bed with the bed-clothes all tossed about, a half worn-out slipper on the floor, a very untidy dressing-table met her eyes, but no Hetty.
"Me want Hetty, me do," piped the treble voice, and then the little feet commenced a careful and watchful pilgrimage, the lips still firmly shut, the dimples coming and going, and the eyes throwing many upward glances in the direction of Nurse and the nursery.
No pursuit as yet, and great, great hope of finding Hetty somewhere in the down-stair regions. Ah, now, how good! those dangerous stairs had been descended, and the little voice calling in shrill tones for Hetty rang out in the wide hall.
"Let her come to me," suddenly said an answering voice, and a girl of about twelve, dressed in deep mourning, suddenly opened the door of a small study and clasped the little one in her arms.
"So you have found me, my precious, my dearest! Brave, plucky little Nan, you have got away from Nurse and found me out! Come into the study now, darling, and you shall have some breakfast."
"Me want a bicky, Hetty," said the baby voice; the round arms clasped Hester's neck, but the brown eyes were already traveling eagerly over the breakfast table in quest of spoil for those rosy little lips.
"Here are two biscuits, Nan. Nan, look me in the face--here, sit steady on my knee; you love me, don't you, Nan?"
"Course me do," said the child.
"And I'm going away from you, Nan, darling. For months and months I won't see anything of you. My heart will be always with you, and I shall think of you morning, noon and night. I love no one as I love you, Nan. You will think of me and love me too; won't you, Nan?"
"Me will," said Nan; "me want more bicky, Hetty."
"Yes, yes," answered Hester; "put your arms tight round my neck, and you shall have sugar, too. Tighter than that, Nan, and you shall have two lumps of sugar--oh, yes, you shall--I don't care if it makes you sick--you shall have just what you want the last moment we are together."
Baby Nan was only too pleased to crumple up a crape frill and to smear a black dress with sticky little fingers for the sake of the sugar which Hetty plied her with.
"More, Hetty," she said; "me'll skeeze 'oo vedy tight for more."
In A World of Girls, L. T. Meade opens not in a classroom but with a toddler named Nan insisting, “Me want to see Hetty.” The story quickly centers on Hester, a schoolgirl whose jealousy over her sister’s attachment to the new pupil Annie drives much of the early tension. Annie is described as having a “charming gypsy face” and a “wild luxuriant, curly hair,” a physical description that sets her apart from the other girls. The catalog subjects list Christian life, conduct, boarding schools, and friendship, but the excerpts show that the moral framework is tested by raw emotions like envy and possessiveness, not simply modeled.
Jealousy as a Central Force
The excerpts reveal that Hester’s jealousy is not a minor flaw but a sustained emotional thread. When Nan falls ill after an accident, Annie soothes her by singing nursery rhymes for hours, and Nan declares, “Me like ’oo.” Hester, who had been Nan’s favorite, finds herself displaced: “Hester loathed it, for Hester thought during these wretched days that her heart would break.” The narrative does not moralize abstractly; it shows Hester’s bitterness in concrete scenes, such as when Nan strokes Annie’s cheek and says, “Poor Annie; poor tibby Annie!” The catalog subject “Christian life” may imply a gentle moral lesson, but the excerpts emphasize the painful, unresolved nature of Hester’s feelings.
The Role of Physical Description and Voice
Meade uses distinctive physical details to differentiate characters. Annie is repeatedly associated with a “gypsy” appearance: her “wild luxuriant, curly hair” and “sauciness and unrest” are contrasted with Nan’s “faint, wild-rose color” and “sunshiny golden hair.” Annie’s voice is described as “strangely melodious,” and her singing is a plot device—she sings “Four-and-twenty blackbirds” and “Baby Bunting” to calm Nan. The text lingers on sensory details: the “burning skin” cooling, the “deep and sound sleep” that follows. These descriptions ground the story in the body, not just in moral abstractions.
Structure and Chapter Titles as Clues
The chapter titles in the contents page offer a roadmap of the plot’s emotional beats. Early chapters like “Little Drawing-Rooms and Little Tiffs” and “I am Unhappy” signal interpersonal conflict, while later ones such as “An Enemy Hath Done This” and “Sent to Coventry” suggest escalating drama. The title “A Spoiled Baby” (Chapter XXV) refers to Nan, but the excerpts show that Nan’s imperiousness is tempered by her vulnerability. The structure moves from domestic scenes (the opening with Nurse) to school life, then to a crisis involving illness and rescue. The catalog subject “Boarding schools” is present, but the excerpts focus more on the home-like setting of Lavender House and the sickroom than on formal lessons.
Readers should pay attention to how Meade uses the sickroom as a stage for emotional power struggles. The excerpts do not reveal whether Hester overcomes her jealousy or how the school community responds to the accident. The catalog subjects suggest a didactic Christian framework, but the text itself dwells on the messiness of affection and rivalry. Approach the novel as a study in how children navigate intense feelings within a structured environment, rather than as a straightforward moral tale.
There’s something about school stories that keeps returning to the quiet ache of being left out, isn’t there? Hester’s jealousy of Annie’s easy charm still lingers with me, that particular loneliness of watching a sister drift. It reminds me, oddly, of the steadier courage in The Red Cross Girls with the Russian Army — Context and Discussion—how both worlds ask girls to find themselves when familiar bonds shift.
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