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The ''St. Clare's'' novels are a series of six books by [[Enid Blyton]] following twins Pat and Isobel through the titular British [[Boarding School]]. A lot of the characters are very similar to those in the ''[[Malory Towers]]'' series.
The original books were written from 1941 to 1945, but recently [[Outlived Its Creator|three additions to the series]] have been made by Pamela Cox -- ''The Third Form at St. Clare's'' and ''The Sixth Form at St. Clare's'' in 2000, and ''Kitty at St. Clare's'' in 2007. However, they aren't particularly convincing as authentic portrayals of Fifties life.
** ''The Twins at St Clare's''▼
The original books are as follows:
* ''Fifth Formers at St. Clare's''
Excellent summaries and other information can be found [http://www.enidblyton.net/st-clares/ here].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Alpha Bitch]]: Angela.
* [[Always Identical Twins]]: The titular twins, although they're not identical in personality and their classmates can easily tell them apart by the end of the series.
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* [[Big Brother Worship]]: Ellen.
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: {{spoiler|Carlotta riding off to rescue Sadie, calling her circus friends to help and then getting Sadie back to school.}}
* [[Boarding School]]: The titular school, as well as the preparatory school (Redroofs) the twins attended before that and the posh, exclusive Ringmere School that the twins wanted to go to instead of St. Clare's.
* Bookworm
* [[Bowdlerize]]: The latest versions to be released have all been abridged in some way.
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** Almost leads to scandal when Angela learns that Ellen has been meeting with a boy outside the grounds, until Angela learns that he's actually Ellen's out-of-work brother.
* [[Cheaters Never Prosper]]: In one book, Isobel accidentally comes across the answers to a prescribed test and ends up reading them. She ends up wracked by guilt, but it turns out the test was actually for another class, so she was fine (but she ended up being so relieved she screwed up some of the questions.)
* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]: Angela's many "admirers" in ''Fifth Formers at St. Clare's''
* [[Circus Brat]]: Carlotta
* [[Class Clown]]: Doris
* [[Drunk with Power]]: Angela exploits her fifth-form privileges to have first-formers do chores for her, something which is discussed and disapproved of a lot by the other characters..
{{quote|
...
''Hilary knew that Antoinette was being very naughty about coming when she was sent for - but she knew too that Angela used the younger girls far too much. She used her prettiness and charm to make them into little slaves.''
...
Angela gets told off for it, but it doesn't seem to help: ''"You're not given power to play about with and get pleasure from, Angela, as'' you ''seem to think. You're given it to use in the right way."'' }}
** And then there's Mirabel. She gets a bit of this after becoming sports captain, working the younger girls way too hard and forcing them to attend constant practices, {{spoiler|until they eventually get sick enough of her to literally go on strike and it's only Mary-Lou's advice that stops her resigning completely.}}
{{quote|
* [[Establishing Character Moment]]
* [[Even the Girls Want Her]]: Angela. Even the characters without outright [[Les Yay]] for her and who recognise her shallow and often nasty nature think Angela's so beautiful she looks like a literal angel, especially her friend Alison (although she tones the open devotion down after a book or so).
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* [[Fear of Thunder]]: Several girls turn out to have this at the culmination of an outdoor midnight feast spoiled by rain.
* [[Female Gaze]]: A few mild lesbian examples.
{{quote|
* [[Food Porn]]: All those midnight feasts!
* [[Funny Foreigner]]: Several characters. Mam'zelle, the French mistress; Claudine, her niece, who comes to the school in ''Claudine at St. Clare's''; Sadie, the American girl, and to some degree, Carlotta, who has ambiguously [[Romani|"gypsy"]] or Spanish background and knew another language, all in ways so stereotypical as to be borderline racist.
** Averted slightly with Claudine, though -- she gradually drops the accent and has her English improve during her time at the school (unlike Mam'zelle), and on first meeting her the girls are surprised to hear her using Americanisms ("that is very okay").
* [[Good Is Not Dumb]]: Pat, Isobel and Hilary, for a start.
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* [[Gym Class Rope Climb]]: This trope gets a positive portrayal as the girls are awed by Carlotta's ability to swarm up the rope.
* [[Hair of Gold]]: Angela.
* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: The blurb for the Dragon edition of ''Fifth Formers at St. Clare's'' says that for "Antoinette...The final straw was having to fag for Angela." In this context, it refers to performing menial tasks for an older girl. There's also plenty of use of "queer" to mean "strange".
** Not forgetting a sixth-form girl's reaction to finding out the twins don't know how to make a fire or clean boots in the original text first book - "Goodness gracious, Pam, did you ever see such a pair of boobs?" Unsurprisingly, this was changed in later editions.
* [[Hero Worshipper]]: Many younger girls (first and second form) towards older girls (fifth and sixth forms) and some students towards some teachers.
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* [[Thunder Equals Downpour]]
* [[Twin Switch]]: Pat and Isobel try this to get around one of them being punished by being forbidden to go into town.
* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]: In ''Claudine At St. Clare's'' the normal kindly matron goes off sick and is replaced by a thin, bitter woman who punishes kids she doesn't like by tearing their clothes, blaming them for it, and making them miss Games to stay in and mend them.
* [[Unequal Pairing]]: Angela and the many, many first-formers that idolize her.
* [[Unstoppable Rage]]: Carlotta.
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