Poetics
I wasn’t even sure if it should be filed under The Author, as only parts of it deal with Enid Blyton but it is in the same vein as the thesis posted earlier.
I haven’t read all of it in full because it is a lot to get through and I was more interested in the Blyton part. It takes a bit of digesting I thought.
I found that a bit strange but I suppose she means Blyton was unpopular with the critics and therefore not highly regarded, but despite that she still sold lots of books.Surveys of reading habits and publishers' reports show that the more lowly regarded writers are, the better their books sell (Enid Blyton's books and the Nancy Drew series illustrate the matter.
She compares Enid Blyton characters / plot lines to Nancy Drew books, see chapter 4 page 93. Chapter 4 is the chapter that deals with Enid Blyton.
Some good points are made. I suppose some of them have been made before but this is another view.
I liked this comment on the Famous Five, it's a bit of light relief from the more serious writing:
Moreover, the texts stress their obedience in a typical English manner: they are never late for their meals unless they have some extraordinary reasons! In Five on Finniston Farm, they are trapped underground and thus cannot come to tea on time -- a lesser excuse than that will not do!