The Adventurous Four Series

[Chrissie777]

One thing that never occurred to me though on previous reads is how long the children are on the island for in the first book. As most EB adventures generally seem to last a week or two, I assumed this one did too, but on reading it it must be a lot longer.

"The Secret Island" takes place within 5 months (I believe it's July and summer vacations when the kids run away from their nasty aunt).

In the 1980's I typed a statistic for the Adventure series with the age of the children and where it was set:

1. The Island of Adventure
duration: 43 days

2. The Castle of Adventure
duration: 18 days

3. The Valley of Adventure
duration: 15 days (although it feels much longer)

4. The Sea of Adventure
duration: 17 days (felt much longer to me)

5. The Mountain of Adventure
duration: 19 days

6. The Ship of Adventure
duration: 44 days (longer than "Island of Adventure")

7. The Circus of Adventure
duration: 17 days (again, this always feels much longer to me when I re-read it)

8. The River of Adventure
duration: 18 days

I had the same statistic for the Famous Five, but it got lost.

[Chrissie777]

The Cave will tell you all, Chrissie!:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/boo ... Four+Again" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you, Anita.

[Rob Houghton]

While I'm here, does anyone know if the Dean editions are abridged / edited at all from the originals? I will probably read ours anyway, if I can find them, but if I find I like the books enough now to add them to my relatively restricted collection, I'd prefer early editions if they are significantly different from the Deans.

I'm not 100% sure - but my perception is that all 'Dean' books are a little abridged - though I don't know if this applies to The Adventurous Four' books.

In the front of the Dean books I have it says 'Copyright Enid Blyton 1941. This edition published by Dean & Son LTD 1972' (n The Adventurous Four - and copyright Enid Blyton 1947 in Adv 4 again) - which I guess could be read both ways - its copyrighted to Enid 1941 or 1947 (no other Dean books say that, as far as I'm aware - so maybe its the full unabridged version...or else 'this edition published by Dean' might mean its a new edition!!

Briefly comparing the first couple of pages of The Adventurous Four - I can't see any changes at all. Even Andy has still 'just left school' aged 14 - which wouldn't have been the case in UK in 1972 -- so it looks as if things are pretty much unabridged.

[Daisy]

The undersea secret passage was first used in 1942 (FOATI).

I'm not sure about this... didn't the children only go as far as the room where the ingots were found? Even in "Run Away Together" that is as far as they explored and it wasn't until Uncle Quentin needed "Water above him" etc. that further passages are mentioned, which was in "Five on Kirrin Island Again."

[Chrissie777]

Daisy, you are right.
I think it's time for me to re-read FOATI.

[Rob Houghton]

Rob, my old hardcover version of "The Adventurous Four" has E. H. Davie illustrations, my "The Adventurous Four Again" has Jesse Land illustrations.
Is there another version out there of "The Adventurous Four Again" with E. H. Davie illustrations?

The Cave will tell you all, Chrissie!:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/boo ... Four+Again" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No - there's no version of The Adventurous Four Again with E.H Davie illustrations - I just meant I prefer (his?) illustrations to those of Jesse Land.

[Anita Bensoussane]

"The Secret Island" takes place within 5 months (I believe it's July and summer vacations when the kids run away from their nasty aunt).

It's slightly longer as the children go to the island in June, so they're there for about six months.

In the 1980's I typed a statistic for the Adventure series with the age of the children and where it was set:

1. The Island of Adventure
duration: 43 days

2. The Castle of Adventure
duration: 18 days

3. The Valley of Adventure
duration: 15 days (although it feels much longer)

4. The Sea of Adventure
duration: 17 days (felt much longer to me)

5. The Mountain of Adventure
duration: 19 days

6. The Ship of Adventure
duration: 44 days (longer than "Island of Adventure")

7. The Circus of Adventure
duration: 17 days (again, this always feels much longer to me when I re-read it)

8. The River of Adventure
duration: 18 days

Great stuff, Chrissie! I find details like that very interesting.

[Courtenay]

While I'm here, does anyone know if the Dean editions are abridged / edited at all from the originals? I will probably read ours anyway, if I can find them, but if I find I like the books enough now to add them to my relatively restricted collection, I'd prefer early editions if they are significantly different from the Deans.

I'm not 100% sure - but my perception is that all 'Dean' books are a little abridged - though I don't know if this applies to The Adventurous Four' books.

In the front of the Dean books I have it says 'Copyright Enid Blyton 1941. This edition published by Dean & Son LTD 1972' (n The Adventurous Four - and copyright Enid Blyton 1947 in Adv 4 again) - which I guess could be read both ways - its copyrighted to Enid 1941 or 1947 (no other Dean books say that, as far as I'm aware - so maybe its the full unabridged version...or else 'this edition published by Dean' might mean its a new edition!!

Briefly comparing the first couple of pages of The Adventurous Four - I can't see any changes at all. Even Andy has still 'just left school' aged 14 - which wouldn't have been the case in UK in 1972 -- so it looks as if things are pretty much unabridged.

Thanks, Rob. I still haven't had time to go looking for our copies, but I will get to it in the next couple of days!

No - there's no version of The Adventurous Four Again with E.H Davie illustrations - I just meant I prefer (his?) illustrations to those of Jesse Land.

It's definitely "his" — there was a discussion here a while ago where someone did some research and found out the mysterious illustrator was almost certainly one Emile Henry Davie: https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/for ... 23#p356923" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Irene Malory Towers]

My Adventure 4 series are illustrated by Trevor Parkins - first two and the last by Gavin Rowe. The illustrations are OK but not great. The first two are in a "3 books in one" with The Adventure of the Strange Ruby, a slightly eerie story about a ruby which is deemed to bring bad luck on the owners. EB has re-used loads of ideas, kids stuck on island for a long time, escape from a castle etc etc. All the usual ploys, but it still makes for a good book but not a very good book.

[Courtenay]

Adventure of the Strange Ruby is one of Enid's later books and, going by discussions here, it's possibly about the last one she published that's still completely coherent in its plot and pacing and so on, though it's not one of her most original or exciting. After that one, much of what she wrote (except for earlier stories that were being re-issued in new collections) showed noticeable signs of mental deterioration — as you may know, she suffered from dementia in her later years and eventually had to give up writing entirely. Even apart from that, I would guess she was already starting to find it hard to come up with new and different ideas, after so many years of writing so many hundreds of stories! It's remarkable that she kept up her career as long as she did, and for most of that time kept up the quality of her writing in general, until the last few years.

I remember some of us discussing in another thread how one interesting thing about Strange Ruby is that the girl character, Tessa, wears jeans and takes just about as active a role in the adventure as her brother — maybe Enid was starting to respond to changes in society's ideas about gender roles, now that it was the 1960s! It would have been interesting to see how this might have developed if she'd continued her writing career well beyond that, but unfortunately she wasn't able.

[Irene Malory Towers]

Thanks for your comments, Courtenay, about the Adventure of the Strange Ruby. Given that I don't have the creativity or imagination to write one single book I shouldn't really have a go at EB for re-using parts of her plots. I knew that EB had dementia but wasn't sure when it developed. Dementia can develop much earlier than when is diagnosed, however, so it may be that she had it for longer than officially recognized.

[jubei]

Adventurous Four Book #1 and Book #2 in Bahasa Indonesia cover book :



I can't find the same cover book looks like those in English language.





mostly are like those , similar scene but not the same.

btw, the translation of the book mean :
Pangkalan Rahasia = Secret (aircraft) Base
Gua Penyelundup = Smuggler Cave

[pete9012S]

Lovely covers Jubei.
I found these two covers in the cave:


1980 Beaver, illustrations by Trevor Parkin, cover by David Barnett
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/adv ... s-four.php

[jubei]

Yes Pete. The 2nd cover book is quite ordinary to English edition.

The 1st book, based on artistic style, I guess the two illustrations are drawn by same illustrator.

[Irene Malory Towers]

I have just reread most of the Adventurous Four series and was trying to work out the duration of the stories as it struck me that they are much longer than other adventurous stories like the famous five etc. But I kept losing track of the days so I am so glad that Chrissie had already worked that out. Thank you so much.