What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Fiona1986 wrote:... the big question has to be how you rank The Rhubarb Mystery :lol:
Depends whether it comes with custard!

Regarding the relatively few adult characters - besides Bill Smugs - who are memorable and strongly-drawn (though not necessarily strong in character), I think two of the best are Rose Longfield (Six Cousins books) and Aunt Grace (House-at-the-Corner).
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Regarding the relatively few adult characters - besides Bill Smugs - who are memorable and strongly-drawn (though not necessarily strong in character), I think two of the best are Rose Longfield (Six Cousins books) and Aunt Grace (House-at-the-Corner).
totally agree - they are very well drawn adult characters. Another one from the Six Cousins books who I think is well depicted and a strong character is the preacher/hermit, Benedict. He is one of the hardest characters to fathom - and on a first reading we are as easily taken in by him as Cyril is.

There are several very well developed adult characters in 'Come To The Circus' also - especially Uncle Ursie and Aunt Lou.
'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.'

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

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Benedict is certainly hard to fathom. Not having read the Six Cousins books for years, I'm not sure how convincing I find him. I'll have to pay closer attention to him next time I read Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm.

I feel the same as you about Uncle Ursie and Aunt Lou in Come to the Circus! They've been through such a lot and we witness their struggle and come to understand how they've been affected (Lou in particular). It's all rather sombre but very real and moving.

What about Tammylan in The Children of Cherry Tree Farm (and, to a lesser extent, the two sequels)? He becomes a firm friend of Benjy and the others, sharing his love of the natural world with them and emphasising values and skills such as patience, economy, observation, self-reliance, craftsmanship and enjoyment of simple pleasures. He spends a great deal of time with the children, teaches them a lot and makes a huge impression on them. Although he's memorable and strongly-drawn, is he perhaps just a little too like a figure from folklore to ring entirely true? Characters like Zacky, Uncle Nat and Uncle Merry from various nature books are similar but I think we get to know Tammylan more intimately.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Darrell71 »

Starting a reread of MT, I always wonder why I like the series so much even though it's what I normally would consider childish... never quite found an answer to that. :)
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by timv »

Aunt Linnie (presumably short for LIndsey or Linda?) is another strong character in the Six Cousins series, who like Aunt Grace in 'House At The Corner' is an 'authority figure' who tells the more selfish and spoilt youngsters off on occasion and demands hard work and common sense but has a softer side. in her case, she is not just a stereotypical 'farmer's wife' of the 1940s-50s variety who looks after the poultry but has an unexpected fondness for music and poetry. She 'bonds' with her sensitive nephew Cyril over this and admits to listening to concerts on the radio, usually on her own - implicitly her family would not understand or appreciate classical music. Her telling the weak and self-indulgent Rose off is also shown as coming from her own experience of having to be 'strong' , face up to things and run the farm, not just from a 'grown up' and 'sensible' superior standpoint as with Enid's Headmistresses in the MT and St Clares books.

I was lucky to read some of Enid's books with more 'in depth' adults early on, as with the Six Cousins books (where it is the women who are the striking characters, ie strong Linnie and weak Rose, not stolid and unsympathetic farmer Peter and his weak if well-meaning brother David). Also House At The Corner and Come To The Circus (where the cold and hard-nosed Lou's 'damaged' character is explained as due to her daughter's death and you can understand why Ursie has retreated to the company of his bears). As a result I always found it odd that people tended to criticise Enid for a lack of depth in her books. I think this latter criticism is only fair if applied to some of the villains or the later books in her longer series (eg the Famous Five and the Find Outers) where characters have already been established and Enid's main concern was for the plot.

It would be interesting to examine the responsibility of publishers for creating this perception of Enid and other leading post-War authors as lacking in 'depth'. As with other long-standing 1940s-50s authors who were known for very long series, eg Elinor Brent Dyer and her 'Chalet School' books or Elsie Jeanette 'Oxenham' (Dunkerley) and the 'Abbey' books or Anthony Buckeridge and 'Jennings' , did they get pushed into continuing a series longer than they had intended to provide a 'reliable and proven success' cash cow - and so began to run short of new things to say about their main characters? Hence George and Julian behaving a bit predictably in later Five books - though Enid did create new developments for Anne?
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

timv wrote:Aunt Linnie (presumably short for LIndsey or Linda?)...
Or possibly Linnette (also spelt "Lynette") or Lavinia?

Even the more minor characters in the Six Cousins books are exceptionally well-drawn, such as Twigg and Dorcas. I love all the surnames suggestive of the countryside - Longfield, Twigg and Lane.
timv wrote:I was lucky to read some of Enid's books with more 'in depth' adults early on... As a result I always found it odd that people tended to criticise Enid for a lack of depth in her books.
Same here, Tim. I also came across the Naughtiest Girl books early on, which dealt with some quite complex moral situations, and numerous short stories which taught about consequences and justice. They widened my horizons and I was surprised when I realised that some people dismissed Enid Blyton as "lightweight". I felt that her books gave me plenty of food for thought - not only regarding character, but also issues and ideas.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Machupicchu14 »

Darrell71 wrote:Starting a reread of MT, I always wonder why I like the series so much even though it's what I normally would consider childish... never quite found an answer to that. :)
I really don't think they are childish, as a teenager, I enjoy them more than any series, due to the fact that it is about secondary school and (perfect) ;) school life
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by IceMaiden »

I have to say I'm a bit surprised at how low most rate the Rockingdown Mystery, as it's actually my favourite! Whether that's because I always tend to be the opposite to most people's thoughts aka the awkward one who goes against the grain :P , or because I never look too deeply into them but just enjoy them for what they are or not I don't know. I also tend to read them still through the eyes of my child self not my adult mind, I don't look at them differently now, I still see them in exactly the same way as I did when I first read them and things like Barney changing or his father staying home with him never bothered me then so it doesn't now. I know you look at things differently as an adult but EB books are one thing that has never changed or applied to :D .

This would be my list of preferance in the Barney books:

Rockingdown
Rubadub
Ring o bells
Rilloby fair
Ragamuffin
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Carlotta King »

I agree with you. I don't look too deeply into things either, and I don't look for theories in things such as the much debated 'was Enid trying to make some kind of statement about feminism, lesbians, women, genders, etc' with George - I just think she was writing about a girl who liked pretending to be a boy, no issues, no hidden meanings. :)
I just enjoy all the books for what they are.

I never bother about anything that seems 'contrived' or convenient, or an amazing coincidence, or things that don't add up, or plot holes, I just love reading them so much that nothing bothers me.

There's debate about how convenient it was that Prince Paul was given an aeroplane in Secret Mountain, just when they needed a plane, but that has never bothered me at all and I don't think I even thought anything of it until I read the discussion here (I first read the book at about age 8, so that's almost 30 years of not being bothered!). Who cares, its a fantastic adventure.

The only reason I rate Rockingdown a bit lower than the others is Diana and Roger seeming a bit mean and spoilt at the start, because we know from the rest of the series that they're not actually like that at all.
I love the creepy old house and the mysterious happenings, I like Mr King (hence the surname of my username!) and I like the plotline.

I think my order would be

Rilloby Fair
Rubadub
Ragamuffin
Ring O Bells
Rat A Tat
Rockingdown

but I could easily interchange Ring O Bells and Rat A Tat, and possibly sometimes Rilloby and Rubadub too, my favourites change all the time depending on which one I'm reading.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Darrell71 »

Machupicchu14 wrote:
Darrell71 wrote:Starting a reread of MT, I always wonder why I like the series so much even though it's what I normally would consider childish... never quite found an answer to that. :)
I really don't think they are childish, as a teenager, I enjoy them more than any series, due to the fact that it is about secondary school and (perfect) ;) school life
I enjoy them too but it's the kind of thing I'd normally consider childish.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

IceMaiden wrote:I have to say I'm a bit surprised at how low most rate the Rockingdown Mystery, as it's actually my favourite! Whether that's because I always tend to be the opposite to most people's thoughts aka the awkward one who goes against the grain :P , or because I never look too deeply into them but just enjoy them for what they are or not I don't know. I also tend to read them still through the eyes of my child self not my adult mind, I don't look at them differently now, I still see them in exactly the same way as I did when I first read them and things like Barney changing or his father staying home with him never bothered me then so it doesn't now.
Carlotta King wrote:I agree with you. I don't look too deeply into things either, and I don't look for theories in things such as the much debated 'was Enid trying to make some kind of statement about feminism, lesbians, women, genders, etc' with George - I just think she was writing about a girl who liked pretending to be a boy, no issues, no hidden meanings. :)
I just enjoy all the books for what they are.

I never bother about anything that seems 'contrived' or convenient, or an amazing coincidence, or things that don't add up, or plot holes, I just love reading them so much that nothing bothers me.
Even as a child, I noticed quite a few incongruities and coincidences while reading Enid Blyton. My sister, two of our friends and I used to keep a list of "mistakes" in a notebook! :lol: We weren't killjoys though - we thoroughly enjoyed the books and formed a club inspired by the Secret Seven and Find-Outers. As well as discussing "mistakes" we compared favourite titles, wrote reviews, acted stories out, made up our own stories and poems based on the books, created Blyton-related board games and jigsaws, played at being "the Famous Five" in the garden (there were only four of us but we had an imaginary Timmy!), practised detective skills and (when our friends stayed the night) had midnight feasts like the children in the school series. I must admit I enjoyed thinking about the inconsistencies and seeing whether it was possible to make everything fit. Little things like that didn't prevent me loving the stories and getting swept into the world of the characters. As an adult I've become aware of yet more anomalies (largely through reading the Journal and taking part in discussions on here), but again they don't bother me. Usually, they're mentioned as part of a lively discussion covering many aspects of a book. It's fascinating to read people's thoughts and opinions and to take a fresh look at things, discrepancies included!
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I'm very similar to you, Anita, in that I enjoy the anomalies and discrepancies, and for me they are part of what makes me love the books - they are human and real, rather than being perfect creations that are beyond reproach. I think even as a child I felt this - somehow Enid Blyton felt like 'one of us' as a child - that was why I liked her work better than other authors, like Roald Dahl and other authors I was exposed to. I always felt Blyton was a friend and she made me feel it was possible to write stories just like hers and be a famous author just like she was. I never thought 'I want to write like Roald Dahl' (for example) but always 'I want to write like Enid Blyton!'

The 'mistakes' I pick out in articles and in forum discussions are all a big part of my love for Enid Blyton - I find the mistakes fascinating - and they make me love her work even more, not less. Its never a criticism when I discuss these things - its a mark of my affection. And also, you usually only notice the mistakes on a second, third or fourth reading. I wouldn't notice mistakes in other author's works because I never read other authors work as often as I reread Enid Blyton.

I also think, personally, that there's quite a lot of evidence that sometimes Enid was trying to 'push the boundaries' with George, as I've said before, even if only in her own subtle way. As I see it, suggesting that she created George as a reflection of her own feelings about being a woman in a world of men is to strengthen Enid's writing and make it of greater importance than simply suggesting she just wrote about a girl wanting to be a boy for the fun of it. Yes, I think she saw the fun in it, but I also believe she was making her own personal statement and had her own personal reasons for creating her. She was expressing an opinion but without causing too much controversy. After all, she understood how much of a struggle it was to be recognised on an equal footing with men because she was in the position that she had reached because of struggle and hard work, and she herself had been as headstrong as George growing up - not many girls of Enid's generation left home and trained to be teachers and lived independently before marriage. Girls were expected to stay at home and wait for a man to support them. They certainly weren't expected to be business-women, and this in effect was what Enid became. She must have found certain aspects of her life a struggle, in a world where women didn't even have the vote. So the fact I believe Enid had herself in mind when creating George, in my opinion, makes the books (and Enid as a writer) much stronger than if I believed she was 'just a writer' who created George as just a girl who wanted to be a boy.

8)

However, I hasten to add that this is just a differing way of enjoying the books - both sides of the 'argument' are relevant and it's just a matter of opinion. There's no 'right' or 'wrong' - as long as we all enjoy Enid Blyton books in our own various ways, that's what counts! 8)
'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 Carlotta King »

Yeah I probably should have been a bit more detailed in my post - it was after 1am!

I do see the little flaws and inconsistencies and coincidences, I don't mean that I don't even notice them, what I was trying to say is that I see them, and I think "oh, yeah, that's a bit convenient" etc but they don't bother me or ruin the books for me. I definitely notice they're there and its interesting to spot them, but then I don't think any more about them.

I know some people (not fans!) would say "oh that's ridiculous that that happened right at the time they needed it, I can't take this story seriously" but I never let anything bother me like that at all. I just think "who cares!" :)

Also, with George, yes I agree that maybe Enid was making a statement about how girls can be as good as boys etc, again I wasn't very clear really, what I meant was that I don't agree with any of the more ridiculous statements that have been put forward before - such as George having gender issues or issues with sexuality etc.

I shouldn't post in the early hours! :lol:
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Rob Houghton wrote:... somehow Enid Blyton felt like 'one of us' as a child - that was why I liked her work better than other authors, like Roald Dahl and other authors I was exposed to. I always felt Blyton was a friend and she made me feel it was possible to write stories just like hers and be a famous author just like she was. I never thought 'I want to write like Roald Dahl' (for example) but always 'I want to write like Enid Blyton!'
I felt exactly the same as a child. The stories I wrote (but sadly rarely finished) were invariably influenced by Enid Blyton and tended to be about children running away to an island, going off to camp, solving a mystery or attending boarding-school.
Rob Houghton wrote:... you usually only notice the mistakes on a second, third or fourth reading. I wouldn't notice mistakes in other author's works because I never read other authors work as often as I reread Enid Blyton.
Good point!
Carlotta King wrote:I do see the little flaws and inconsistencies and coincidences, I don't mean that I don't even notice them, what I was trying to say is that I see them, and I think "oh, yeah, that's a bit convenient" etc but they don't bother me or ruin the books for me. I definitely notice they're there and its interesting to spot them, but then I don't think any more about them.
I must confess I do sometimes spend a moment reflecting on things that don't quite fit - even checking back to see exactly what Enid wrote previously - but only out of fun and curiosity. I've never been exasperated by any inconsistencies to the point where they spoil the story.
Carlotta King wrote:I know some people (not fans!) would say "oh that's ridiculous that that happened right at the time they needed it, I can't take this story seriously" but I never let anything bother me like that at all. I just think "who cares!" :)
Same here!
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Anita Bensoussane wrote: I must confess I do sometimes spend a moment reflecting on things that don't quite fit - even checking back to see exactly what Enid wrote previously - but only out of fun and curiosity. I've never been exasperated by any inconsistencies to the point where they spoil the story.
The only time I've ever felt really exasperated reading an Enid Blyton story was all the mentions of blackberries in 'The Hidey Hole'!! :wink: Even then, I still enjoyed the story for what it was, but its not one I would be likely to read again.

Given the vast amount of books Enid wrote, it's quite amazing to think I've read all her other books (even Fun for the Secret Seven, Five are Together Again and Mystery of Banshee Towers) more than once, and often more than twice!
'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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