What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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Carlotta King
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Carlotta King »

Yeah, Philip says "we might see eagles, like we did at that castle in Scotland" - I think it was in Mountain that he said it?
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Thanks, Cathy. I'm sure you're right that it's in Mountain that we're told the castle was in Scotland.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Courtenay »

Very interesting posts about everyone's childhood memories of particular books!

Funnily enough, I can't think of anything very similar — I read many, many Blyton books when I was little, but only rarely can I remember the exact setting at the time. Many of them were read at bedtime (Mum and I would take turns in reading a chapter each), or just wherever I happened to be at the time.

One of the few where I do remember the exact place was Hurrah for the Circus!, which I bought at a book exchange in Queensland — Tugun, I think it was, on the Gold Coast, while we were on holiday visiting my dad's aunt. I'd read Mr Galliano's Circus a few years earlier and absolutely loved it, but I hadn't realised there was a sequel, so when I picked up this book (it was a Dean edition) and realised it was another one about Jimmy and Lotta, I was rapt and devoured the whole book (not literally :P ) within a few days during our trip. Mind you, there was nothing in particular about the setting that fitted with the book, since although Enid is sketchy with her place descriptions, they generally don't sound like the Australian sub-tropics... :wink:

Very few of our Blyton books were ever bought new or handed down from my parents — nearly all ours were second hand from charity shops ("op shops" in Aussie English) or local fetes, back in the days when you could easily pick up even a old hardcover Blyton, let alone a paperback, for 10 or 20 cents. They sometimes had previous owners' names in them, though not that often. So almost none of our copies had a special "patina" to them; I was always more interested in the contents than in the physical book anyway.

I do remember we had Dad's childhood copy of The Big Noddy Book (No. 2), which was a present from his cousin and had a little rhyming dedication to him written on her behalf (she was only 5) by her mother — incidentally, the same great-aunt I mentioned earlier. That's quite special and I'm sure we've still got it somewhere. But we didn't have many other books that had our own inscriptions or other special markings. My parents taught us from a very early age never to write or draw on books! :wink:
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Wolfgang »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Thanks, Cathy. I'm sure you're right that it's in Mountain that we're told the castle was in Scotland.
Taken from Mountain of adventure:
„We might see eagles again,“ said Jack. „Do you remember the eagle’s nest we found near that old castle in Scotland once, Philip? We might see buzzards too.“

So yes, Cathy is right.
Interestingly enough this kind of information is missing in the editions with the first German translation and its reprints and updates so I didn't knew it as a child. Only with the second translation that was published at the beginning of this millenium Scotland is mentioned as the location of the "Castle of adventure" in German.
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

That's interesting, Wolfgang. It's heartening to hear that little details like that have been reinstated. :D
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

It sounds like the translations, whatever language, have some important bits missing - or did have - which is a real shame. :-(
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

It makes me wonder whether the English translations of books like Heidi, Bambi, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Pippi Longstocking, Hans Andersen's Fairy-Tales and the series about the Moomins are complete.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Courtenay »

It's strange, really, isn't it? I would have thought, too, that the point of translating a book was simply to convey what the original author wrote, as closely as possible, in another language (and hopefully capture the spirit of that author's work and writing style while you're at it). But it seems not all translators take it that way.

I remember once at uni, while doing a subject on children's literature (no, Enid Blyton didn't come into it :roll: ), I read an article about translations of some classic children's books — either from English to other languages or other languages into English — and how in some cases, the translator had virtually rewritten the book and come up with something very different from the original. There were a couple of examples of picture books where it was as if the translator had just looked at the illustrations, disregarded the text, and invented his/her own story that completely missed the point of what the original author was trying to do! :shock:

Or another example — I recently got hold of a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in Welsh, just out of curiosity. I don't know very much Welsh, but I could make out enough to tell, comparing it to the original, that there were heaps of places where the translator had veered off C.S. Lewis's text and left parts out or phrased something completely differently, for no apparent reason. (And it's a book that's written in very straightforward English, so it's not as if there would be many passages where a translator would have to paraphrase because there was no equivalent expression!)

Things like this, and all these omissions from the translated Adventure series, do make me wonder if these translators are there to translate what the author wrote, or to simply write what they (the translators) think the author should have written... :x Anyway — rant over!
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I always foolishly presumed that a translation was just that - a straight translation from one language to another (as closely as possible, anyway!) but on the other hand I've always had a suspicion of translated books, and I've actually rarely written any, because I had a hunch they weren't the 'real thing' and as I couldn't read a book competently in another language, I just relied on TV adaptations of books like Heidi and The Moomins...although I have read Hans Anderson translations, but most of these stories are so well known that I know how they go anyway!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Courtenay »

There are good translations, of course. I remember reading a book about the Asterix comics and how they were translated from French into English — it went into a lot of detail about how the translators made a point of having exactly as many jokes in the translation as in the original, even though of course most puns and plays on words in one language won't convert directly into another. So they had to come up with lines in English that were just as funny, and if they had a joke in one place that simply wouldn't translate, they made sure to fit in another one somewhere else to make up for it. (An example I remember is when a bunch of the Roman soldiers get drunk and all start hiccupping. In French the sound for a hiccup is "Hips!", but because English speakers would say it as "Hic!", the translators were inspired to have the Romans hiccup in Latin: "Hic!" "Haec!" "Hoc!" :lol: )

That's one case where the translators have pretty obviously captured the spirit of the original — and the translation wouldn't be worth reading if they didn't — but obviously not all translators are so meticulous...
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by IceMaiden »

I have just finished Five Are Together Again and once again I honestly enjoyed it as much as the other 20! I know many here don't particularly rate it or Banshee Towers but I truly love both and can't see why their thought of as 'weak' at all! Maybe it's just me though, as I firmly believe there is no such thing as a bad EB book and I've yet to have that thought proved wrong :D .

A couple of thoughts on finishing it:

At the start George is impatiently waiting to get home from school to see Timmy. Tim goes to school with her through all the other books as in Treasure Island George only agrees to go to school as she can take him with her and in Kirrin Island Again she barely allows him to stay with her father because she can't bear to be parted from him for a day. So the idea that she's suddenly ok with him staying at Kirrin Cottage for an entire term without her means either she's either changed or Enid's memory wasn't what it once was by then. Sadly I suspect it's the latter :( .

Julian is going to cycle to Kirrin Island. I think it's a misprint and meant to say 'Kirrin village' but the thought of him riding a bike over the sea is rather funny and made me giggle :lol: .

When the five are nice and polite in other books, circus/fair folk are rude and unwelcoming. When Tinker is rude and unwelcoming here, the circus/fair folk are nice and polite! :P

George being back to her headstrong independent self for the last book is brilliant. She had sort of lost it a bit in the last few books so to see she's still the same fiercely impossible, obstinate, determined, quick tempered character who isn't afraid of turfing strangers off her island or defying Julian to do the task herself because she's 'as good as any boy' is lovely and a fine way to end the series.

I am rather saddened that I have now finished my (at least!) 20th reading of the Famous Five, but there are plenty of other books to get started on, and I will return back to them once I have finished the others as that's the beauty of books. They don't have any parts in them to seize up and stop working whether their sat on the shelf for six days, six months or six years :) .
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

IceMaiden wrote: I will return back to them once I have finished the others as that's the beauty of books. They don't have any parts in them to seize up and stop working whether their sat on the shelf for six days, six months or six years :) .
What a brilliant way of describing books! I love it! :D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I agree! And you never have to do an update before you can use them (though some editors may think otherwise!), or wait for them to charge. What constant, reliable, uncomplicated friends they are! :D
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Francis »

Which is why we love and nurture them so much.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Machupicchu14 »

I've found this wonderful collection of Mr. Galliano's Circus stories in the library!! :D I am so thrilled to be able to read it. Just started on the second book. It's excellent like the others!!

I am also reading another Secret Seven book. Well, actually, I have already finished it. I love the adventure, but I still think they are was too short! And Susie is a real nuisance. She really gets on my nerves. :?
I was thinking about John Pickup's article on the Secret Seven and it's true. Pam and Barbara play nothing in the books. The main characters are clearly Peter, Janet, Scamper, Susie and Jack.

Also, I was very surprised to find out the Secret Seven actually existed!!!
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(все, что я понимаю, я понимаю только потому, что люблю)
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