Listen-Through/Discussion of Famous Five Audio Books

[Rob Houghton]

Yes, those parts were very interesting for me too, along with the exploration of George's character. But I can understand that those who are mainly interested in the adventure will consider Go Adventuring Again a weaker book.

Yes - I've never read mystery or adventure stories just for the adventure - I enjoy every facet of the books, even the small details!

[Courtenay]

Like the kid who falls into the chocolate river and presumably drowns in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

No he doesn't — he gets sucked up one of the pipes and emerges, at the end of the book, considerably thinner than he was before.

I've always enjoyed Five Run Away Together, despite the various contrived elements of the plot. As a kid you don't really notice, and even as an adult I find I can usually overlook the weak spots. The whole premise of four children and a dog having fantastic adventures and uncovering criminal plots every single "hols" requires a certain suspension of disbelief in the first place, so what does it matter if various further details of the plot aren't 100% realistic?

Thanks for your reviews, db105 — I'm enjoying reading them.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, those parts were very interesting for me too, along with the exploration of George's character. But I can understand that those who are mainly interested in the adventure will consider Go Adventuring Again a weaker book.

Yes - I've never read mystery or adventure stories just for the adventure - I enjoy every facet of the books, even the small details!

Same here. The everyday lives of the characters, the interaction between them and all the little details are fascinating. It's lovely when things start off dreamy and jolly, as in Five Go Off in a Caravan. I enjoy the ambience and don't feel in any particular hurry to get to the actual adventure. However, I find the tense situations interesting too, with the introduction of characters like Mr. Roland or the Sticks.

Despite my misgivings about the treatment of Tinker, I prefer Five Run Away Together to Five Go Adventuring Again because I like the fact that the Five are united in coping with the oppressive Stick regime and worrying about George's mother. We feel the strain but we also see the Five operating very much as a team - even though George is so used to doing things independently that she initially makes plans to run off to her island alone.

It's heartening the way Julian takes charge, lightens the atmosphere with his witty remarks and buoys George up when she's feeling worried and miserable. All these things are every bit as interesting as the adventure itself.

[Wolfgang]

It's heartening the way Julian takes charge, lightens the atmosphere with his witty remarks and buoys George up when she's feeling worried and miserable. All these things are every bit as interesting as the adventure itself.

Quite a contrast to the Julian in "Five go off to camp", when he's being absolutely bossy and unfair to George.

[Machupicchu14]

I Iove the overall plot of Five Go off to camp, but I absolutely hate the way the Famous Five behave, especially Julian and Dick. I also find annoying that in this particular book, George lacks personality to fight back the boys when they said the girls were not allowed to participate in the most exciting parts of the story. And then Anne acts as a "scared little mouse"

[db105]

I finished listening to Five Go to Smuggler's Top (1945)

(Spoilers ahead)

The Five go to Kirrin Cottage for their Easter holidays. Unfortunately, all the gold they found in their first adventure has not been used for home and garden repairs, because during a storm an unstable tree falls on the house and would have killed the girls if the family hadn't escaped from the building just in time.

With Kirrin Cottage having to undergo extensive repairs, it seems the children will have to be sent back to school, since Julian, Dick and Anne's parents are away (they seem to have a relaxed attitude about seeing their children when they are on school holidays).

Fortunately, Mr Lenoir, a scientist who has invited Uncle Quentin to collaborate, invites them to their house, Smuggler's Top, with George's parents to follow soon. Mr Lenoir's stepson, Sooty, is Dick's classmate at school. Both Dick and Julian like him. Not so fortunately, Mr Lenoir warns them that he hates dogs, so do not even think about bringing one.

Of course George rebels and brings Timmy anyway, and the attempts to keep him hidden from the adults, with Sooty's and his sister Marybelle's help, takes a lot of the children's efforts and ingenuity during the book. Thankfully Smuggler's Top turn out to be an atmospheric mansion full of secret passages, which comes handy when it comes to hiding a dog. The mansion is on the top of an hill surrounded by a small town and dangerous and foggy marshes near the sea.

While the Lenoir children are likable, Mr Lenoir and his deaf manservant Block seem sinister and threatening, and soon it becomes evident that something strange is going on. There are mysterious signals through the window towards the marshes at night, and equally spooky lights from the marshes. Busy as they are hiding Tim, taking him for walks and everything, there is not much time to enjoy the location before the adventure begins.

Some thoughts:

What's up with scientists in Enid Blyton's world? Instead of working at universities where they can have adequate facilities, libraries and the presence of qualified colleagues, they tend to be crazy scientists types who work at their old, eerie and isolated mansions full of hidden trapdoors and secret passages, and who can barely tolerate the presence of children. And what kind of scientist is Uncle Quentin anyway? We had him in the past working on a very secret formula that would help the country, and now he is coming up with a clever plan to drain the marshes. Isn't that a matter for engineers rather than for scientists?

I loved how Mr. Lenoir's nose turned white when he got angry, and how fascinating Anne found that.

I really liked Sooty: irrepressible, friendly and ready for any scrape. His sister was incredibly shy. You almost never noticed she was in the story. Anne is a green beret compared to her.

It was great how threatening and sinister Block was, and the fact that he was not deaf at all, but just pretending. That idea captured my imagination reading this as a kid and I remembered that detail very well. As a child, I did not see it coming, but I did guess early that he was not really in bed but was using a dummy to pretend so.

Also, as a kid I was disappointed that Mr. Lenoir turned out to be innocent. If he had been guilty like he seemed then Sooty would be rid of the stepfather who beat him when he brought a stray dog home. Of course, that impressed me more than it would have readers when this was originally published (1945). Corporal punishment for disobedient children would seem perfectly ordinary then. But in any case, Mr. Lenoir seems even fiercer than Uncle Quentin. It was good that EB misdirected us a bit, though, making him seem guilty when he wasn't. The villains so far in this series had been rather evident.

And let's talk about Mr Barling. He seems a really interesting character, the half mad smuggler who is in it more for the joy than for the money, a romantic of the smuggling business. It's a pity we saw little of him. But his evil plan was more than half mad. It was completely absurd. He kidnapped Uncle Quentin to tell him he was a smuggler who didn't want the marshes drained and try to force him to sell him his plans instead of selling them to Mr. Lenoir. How does that even work once Quentin returns and tells the police? It doesn't make much sense. But maybe he was really getting crazy.

This is the first adventure that takes place away from Kirrin Island or Kirrin Cottage. Much as I love those places, I was ready for this. One of my favorite things about these books is the discovery of new atmospheric locations, and the first three books were on the same place. When I read the books as a boy I was not following the publication order, so never noticed that. Smuggler's Top is a great location, although the house and the tunnels below are used much more than the town and the marshes.

Tim was magnificent in this book (yeah, he usually is). He moped the floor with the bad guys, and much of the plot before that revolved around keeping him hidden. That means George was on the spotlight a lot too, even though we have the first example of Julian protecting her from a dangerous activity because she is a girl, taking only Dick to check on Mr Barling's house. At least he admitted that she is as good as any boy and convinced her to stay saying that someone had to look after Anne and Marybelle! :p

Aunt Fanny did not go to Smuggler's Top because she had to go look after a sick relative. EB sure loved using illnesses to get unnecessary adults out of the way!

All in all, a quite satisfactory entry in the Famous Five series.

Next up: Five Go Off in a Caravan (1946)

[Courtenay]

What's up with scientists in Enid Blyton's world? Instead of working at universities where they can have adequate facilities, libraries and the presence of qualified colleagues, they tend to be crazy scientists types who work at their old, eerie and isolated mansions full of hidden trapdoors and secret passages, and who can barely tolerate the presence of children. And what kind of scientist is Uncle Quentin anyway? We had him in the past working on a very secret formula that would help the country, and now he is coming up with a clever plan to drain the marshes. Isn't that a matter for engineers rather than for scientists?

Because if they were normal people who worked at universities with qualified colleagues on sensible and reasonable endeavours, they wouldn't be intriguing and mysterious and creepy enough for a good old-fashioned adventure story.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I agree with Courtenay that these old-style scientists are simply more fun to read about, holing themselves up in studies crammed with all kinds of intriguing apparatus and dabbling in anything and everything that sparks their interest.

Old-style smugglers are also appealing and I enjoy reading about the eccentric Barling. Like him, I don't like the idea of those wonderful misty marshes being drained! Think how the atmosphere of the place would change once rows of bungalows were built there, and how the wildlife would be affected. It's funny that we're never told what the smuggled goods are. Barling seems to fit the days of tea, brandy and old lace - but he's operating in 1945 (although the first few Famous Five books appear to take place in a parallel 1940s with no war)!

I really liked Sooty: irrepressible, friendly and ready for any scrape. His sister was incredibly shy. You almost never noticed she was in the story.

Sooty is one of my favourite "extra" child characters in the Famous Five series. I agree that Marybelle is just a shadow really. Perhaps growing up amid mists, Gothicness and quirkiness has made her nervy and withdrawn. Personally I love the quirky, Gothic elements and feel sad when we're told that Sooty's family are to sell Smuggler's Top.

It was great how threatening and sinister Block was, and the fact that he was not deaf at all, but just pretending.

Gosh yes - Block loomed large and terrifying when I was a child. He was something of a Frankenstein's monster in my imagination.

Also, as a kid I was disappointed that Mr. Lenoir turned out to be innocent... It was good that EB misdirected us a bit, though, making him seem guilty when he wasn't. The villains so far in this series had been rather evident.

Yes, I like it that we're never quite sure about Mr. Lenoir until the end.

This is the first adventure that takes place away from Kirrin Island or Kirrin Cottage. Much as I love those places, I was ready for this. One of my favorite things about these books is the discovery of new atmospheric locations, and the first three books were on the same place. When I read the books as a boy I was not following the publication order, so never noticed that. Smuggler's Top is a great location, although the house and the tunnels below are used much more than the town and the marshes.

Thinking about it, it's notable how tense and even (to some extent) claustrophobic the first four books are - or at least parts of them. Five Go Adventuring Again has few outdoor scenes. Although the other books have more, they contain oppressive indoor scenes which have a far-reaching effect on the narrative. The Five have to deal with Uncle Quentin in the first book, Uncle Quentin and Mr. Roland in the second, and the Sticks in the third. As for the fourth book, the Five are surrounded by characters who make them feel uneasy - Block, Mr. Lenoir and Barling - and they find themselves in a landscape which oozes mystery and danger. It's refreshing to see them set off in caravans to the countryside by themselves in Five Go Off in a Caravan.

All in all, a quite satisfactory entry in the Famous Five series.

It's one of my favourites - definitely in my top 3 of the 21 titles!

[Rob Houghton]

Smuggler's Top was the first Famous Five I ever read (in the annual version rather than the novel, but I read the novel shortly afterwards). I loved it, and I still think its one of the best of the Five books today - though I'm never sure what order to put them in! Smuggler's Top, Hike, Trouble, Mystery Moor and Caravan are always around the top of my list!

[db105]

Personally I love the quirky, Gothic elements and feel sad when we're told that Sooty's family are to sell Smuggler's Top.

Yes. Who wouldn't want to live in a house filled with secret passages? But since Marybelle and her mother did not like it I can't really argue with that decision. Nevertheless, if they were not happy I'd say it had more to do with Mr. Lenoir's aloofness than with the house.

Thinking about it, it's notable how tense and even (to some extent) claustrophobic the first four books are - or at least parts of them. Five Go Adventuring Again has few outdoor scenes. Although the other books have more, they contain oppressive indoor scenes which have a far-reaching effect on the narrative. The Five have to deal with Uncle Quentin in the first book, Uncle Quentin and Mr. Roland in the second, and the Sticks in the third. As for the fourth book, the Five are surrounded by characters who make them feel uneasy - Block, Mr. Lenoir and Barling - and they find themselves in a landscape which oozes mystery and danger. It's refreshing to see them set off in caravans to the countryside by themselves in Five Go Off in a Caravan.

Agreed, although in the first book I did not have a strong feeling of oppression, even though Uncle Quentin was occasionally scary. The children ran around freely and did what they wanted. However, Five Go Adventuring Again was all indoors, and it was oppressive because of Mr Roland and how unhappy George was. Five Run Away Together was very oppressive in the first part, when they were with the Sticks at Kirrin Cottage, but once they run away to the island it becomes joyful. And Smuggler's Top is claustrophobic again. The children have to spend a lot of time hiding Timmy and fearing he would be found. Now I'm listening to Five Go Off in a Caravan and I'm loving it. Apart from the danger/adventure, the holidays are just joyful and full of freedom.

[pete9012S]

I've been enjoying the reviews by db105 of the Famous Five books in audio edition.
It would be great if all the reviews could be listed together in one thread for future reference.

Do the audio versions stick to to printed editions word for word (text updates included of course) ?

[Anita Bensoussane]

I was thinking it would be good to have a dedicated thread too, Pete. The start of the discussion is interspersed with posts on other books like the Galliano's Circus series and The Yellow Fairy Book, so I'll have to do a bit of to-ing and fro-ing as I split the thread and then move some posts back again.

Edit: I've split the discussion and managed to move the posts about the Galliano's Circus series and The Yellow Fairy Book back to the other thread. Unfortunately, the brief discussion of The Rat-a-Tat Mystery has had to stay in this thread because quite a few posts contain comments on the Famous Five and The Rat-a-Tat Mystery.

[pete9012S]

Thank you for your work in making this a dedicated thread Anita.

[Katharine]

I've been listening to the audio book of Five Go Adventuring Again. One point really struck me that I don't think I've noticed before. It was when the children are questioned about the bottle in the study. George isn't there at time, and the two boys deny putting it there, however one of the adults notices that Anne looks as if she knows something. Julian turns round and tells the grown-ups to stop hassling her (not those words exactly) as they are upsetting her. Firstly, would a child in the 1940s really have refused to answer an adult, even if it did mean 'telling tales on someone'? I know loyalty was considered very important, but surely being rude to an adult was worse? Secondly, although I normally like Julian, I do think he was extremely rude on this occasion. It was nice to see him being protective of his little sister, but to speak to his aunt and uncle like that is pretty rude I think.

[db105]

I've been listening to the audio book of Five Go Adventuring Again. One point really struck me that I don't think I've noticed before. It was when the children are questioned about the bottle in the study. George isn't there at time, and the two boys deny putting it there, however one of the adults notices that Anne looks as if she knows something. Julian turns round and tells the grown-ups to stop hassling her (not those words exactly) as they are upsetting her. Firstly, would a child in the 1940s really have refused to answer an adult, even if it did mean 'telling tales on someone'? I know loyalty was considered very important, but surely being rude to an adult was worse? Secondly, although I normally like Julian, I do think he was extremely rude on this occasion. It was nice to see him being protective of his little sister, but to speak to his aunt and uncle like that is pretty rude I think.

Admittedly, I was not alive in the 40s, and I'm not English, but that scene did not strike me as Julian being overly rude to the adults. In fact, as I listened to it I was thinking it was another example of Anne's habit of giving away secrets inadvertently. Here, she refuses to incriminate George, but it was her expression in the first place that led the adults to conclude that she knew something about the bottle and that she was shielding George. If she had been able to keep an innocent expression no one would have questioned her.

Anyway, let's see what Julian says:

Still Anne said nothing. Her eyes filled with tears. Julian squeezed her arm.

‘Don’t bother Anne,’ he said to the grown-ups. ‘If she thinks she can’t tell you, she’s got some very good reason.’

‘I think she’s shielding George,’ said Mr. Roland. ‘Is that it, Anne?’

Anne burst into tears. Julian put his arms round his little sister, and spoke again to the three grown-ups.

‘Don’t bother Anne! Can’t you see she’s upset?’

‘We’ll let George speak for herself, when she thinks she will come in,’ said Mr. Roland. ‘I’m sure she knows how that bottle got there - and if she put it there herself she must have been into the study - and she’s the only person that has been there.’

I don't really think he was out of line here. Yes, I'm sure talking back to adults was not encouraged at all (although Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin must have been kind of used to it, with George), but here Julian is just being protective, and an upset little girl crying is a powerful argument.