The Enid Blyton Society

I don't remember much about Rat-a-Tat except a vague feeling that the plot was pretty weak/unbelievable. I was quite happy to read Ragamuffin continuing with Barney and his father, I didn't feel that spoilt the series at all. My disappointment was in the book in general. I'm not sure how long it is compared to the others, but I was left with the feeling that it was shorter, and therefore didn't have time to build up the atmosphere of the previous one.

IceMaiden wrote:I must be the only one who likes Rat-A-Tat and Ragamuffin because they continue after 'the happy ending' in Rubadub! With few exceptions, I find it annoying when a book or film or TV show ends as soon as the main characters have wrapped up the loose ends, saved the world and got their happy ever after, I want to see an aftermath . I like happy ever endings but I want to see a bit more after it, the last two Barney books are a rare case of being able to do just that.

I've always preferred the 'happily ever after' endings...I hate to imagine what became of Cinderella after she married Prince Charming...maybe he was less Charming than she thought! perhaps,as she was used to hard work, her husband put her to work as his slave...spent the rest of her married life tied to the kitchen sink, giving birth to several babies, doing all the washing, and generally being made to feel neglected while he had a succession of mistresses!

Katharine wrote:I don't remember much about Rat-a-Tat except a vague feeling that the plot was pretty weak/unbelievable. I was quite happy to read Ragamuffin continuing with Barney and his father, I didn't feel that spoilt the series at all. My disappointment was in the book in general. I'm not sure how long it is compared to the others, but I was left with the feeling that it was shorter, and therefore didn't have time to build up the atmosphere of the previous one.

I've just checked, Rockingdown has 29, Rilloby 31, Ring o Bells 29, Rubadub 30, Rat-a-tat 24 and Ragamuffin 21. No wonder it feels shorter being practically 10 chapters less than all the others expect RAT, which is the second weakest! Those extra chapters in the other books are the padding that is missing in Ragamuffin, it's a diet book, there's nothing there to bulk it out so it doesn't satisfy the appetite .

Rob Houghton wrote: I've always preferred the 'happily ever after' endings...I hate to imagine what became of Cinderella after she married Prince Charming...maybe he was less Charming than she thought! perhaps,as she was used to hard work, her husband put her to work as his slave...spent the rest of her married life tied to the kitchen sink, giving birth to several babies, doing all the washing, and generally being made to feel neglected while he had a succession of mistresses!

Goodness, that actually sounds more like how Cinderella would have panned out in the original story, given fairy tales were in reality not so pretty as Disney painted them and more like gruesome horror stories!

I think the shortness of Rat-a-tat and Ragamuffin sort of proves Enid was just going through the motions to please her fans, rather than really relishing the story. You can always tell when she relishes a story and is enjoying writing it - books like Rubadub and Rilloby, or Valley of Adventure or Five Fall Into Adventure all have quite high chapter counts and are all very good books!

Yes it's almost like books with loads of chapters were ones she was relishing writing to a point she couldn't stop as she almost didn't want them to end and ones with less the complete opposite, she wanted then over and done with as soon as possible.

Thanks Icemaiden for the info about the length of the books. An extra 8 or 9 chapters could have made a big improvement to the final book.

As Tony mentioned in another thread, Rilloby Fair is around 51,000 words and Ragamuffin is only around 32,000

Here are the word counts -

Rockingdown - 52,690
Rilloby - 51,740
Ring o'Bells - 52,660
Rubadub - 50,590
Rat-a-Tat - 37,530
Ragamuffin - 32,450

Thanks Rob. Interesting that Rockingdown is actually then the longest book in the series and Rubadub is the shortest of the first four. It just goes to prove that quantity does not equal quality.

I find it puzzling that Rilloby has a shorter word count than Rockingdown and yet has two more chapters!

The number of chapters doesn't say anything about how long the chapters are. You get the best comparison with the adventure series. The books of the Piper edition have no illustration inside. While castle has usually all 6 pages starting a new chapter, it's only 5 in River despite the fact that the number of lines, font and size of font are identical.

Katharine wrote:Thanks Icemaiden for the info about the length of the books. An extra 8 or 9 chapters could have made a big improvement to the final book.

I think it would have made quite a difference, given it's around a third of the chapters in the other books! I'm trying to imagine what Rubadub or Rilloby would be like if they were 8/9 chapters shorter and I think they wouldn't be half as strong as they are. On the other hand, if Ragamuffin had had an extra 8 chapters would that have made it as strong as the others?

I guess it depends whether some more plot was written to fill the extra chapters!

Meanwhile, in the book I've not long finished writing, 'The Rawlins' Reach Mystery' - there are 32 chapters...but that doesn't mean its any better than ragamuffin Mystery!

Not just that, in the first four books some chapters could be almost solely about Barney either in whatever fair/circus he was in at the time, joining the others (hitch-hiking to Ring O'Bells), finding somewhere to stay (the night in Rockingdown manor), his new job (Marvel's new assistant in Rubadub) etc.Once he stopped being a circus boy none of that was needed so I suppose it's invitable the two last books would have been a bit shorter regardless of plot.

Split from another topic.

I'm reading The Rubadub Mystery. This is the first time I've read it in over thirty years, but I do remember liking it very much. Interestingly, a few pages in I've already spotted an intriguing point. It was first published in 1951, but my edition is from 1983 - and Snubby has referred to the Queen as opposed to the King. I presume that was changed from the original text?

Is that where Mr Linton asks Snubby why he doesn't speak 'The King's English' and then Snubby says 'I bet the king uses the word 'smashing' sometimes!' ? yes - even in my 1954 edition, it still says 'king' rather than queen.