Carlotta Brown
Carlotta makes her first appearance in the third book of the St. Clare's
series, "Summer Term at St. Clare's".
Carlotta is certainly not the epitome of the English school girl genre. Blyton describes her as having the appearance of, "a fiery little gypsy with her black curls, deep-brown eyes and creamy-brown skin. Of her temperament, a fellow student observes, "She's half Spanish and has a fiercer temper than Mam'zelle's and that's saying something! She speaks very badly and has the most awful ideas - but she's pretty good fun."
Carlotta is portrayed as wild, prone to bursts of ill-temper and not very academically inclined, though quit-witted. She is nimble, agile, excels at gymnastics and is a competent horsewoman for reasons that become apparent later in the third book, when Prudence Arnold (who was christened by Bobby Ellis with the sobriquet, "Sour-Milk Prudence") spies her riding and performing all manner of daring stunts, bareback on a horse at a nearby visiting circus.
Having extracted the truth -- by means of deceit -- from an innocent circus worker with notably untidy hair, Prudence wastes no time in returning to school to reveal "Carlotta's Secret," (which incidentally is the title of the chapter in which Carlotta is "exposed"). "No one would want to know - a common little circus girl!" Prudence snarls in the presence of their classmates in the junior commonroom.
The girls' reaction is not quite as Prudence had expected. They are intrigued and pepper Carolotta with all manner of questions about her untraditional background. Carlotta frankly relates that her father married a Spanish circus-girl and fled, with Carlotta, shortly after her birth. Her mother died soon thereafter leaving her daughter to be raised by kindly circus folk who taught Carlotta the art of ring- riding before her natural father located her. Mr. Brown was appalled by his daughter's lack of formal education and arranged for her enrolment at St. Clares.
Contributed by: Ellen Kochan
Book(s)
Summer Term at St. Clare's
Claudine at St. Clare's
Fifth Formers at St. Clare's
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