What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

The books! Over seven hundred of them and still counting...
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Courtenay
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Courtenay »

Oh no. :shock: :x Well, at least I spent less than £20 on it! If it turns out it's been lopped at the end, I'll just donate it to a charity shop and have done with it.
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Oh, crumbs! :( These loppers of Blyton had no idea how much confusion their actions would still be causing decades later.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Courtenay
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Courtenay »

As I've said, even if they decided the book was too long, could they not have cut out those three or so chapters directly after the Snoogle but left the last one in?! :shock: It stands to reason that if Enid originally ended a book with a chapter called "The Last Adventure of All", then there was something significant about that chapter as far as actually finishing the story was concerned... :roll: :x :evil:
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Courtenay
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Courtenay »

Well, I've got the Wishing-Chair book now, and yes, it has the curtailed ending. :roll: :roll: :roll: What's more, something I don't believe the eBay listing mentioned is that the dust jacket has been covered over with... what do you call adhesive plastic coating in this country? I only know the Aussie term for it, Contact, which is a brand name we have there. Anyway, that stuff — not the removable coverings that libraries use, but the stick-on sort, which is OK for protecting one's school textbooks (that's what I've always used it for), but for what's supposed to be a collector's item, it's all wrong. :evil:

Oh well, could've been worse as far as the price was concerned, as I said! :mrgreen:

Now here's some detective work that maybe others here could help me with: from which edition onwards did Adventures of the Wishing-Chair lose those last four chapters? I'd like to know for future reference, if I find another good copy, what year does it have to be published before for me to get the ending? (Yeah, a first edition with ALL the chapters would be nice, but I'm not hanging out for that. :wink: )

Problem was, I was thinking of saving the "good condition" dust jacket from this copy and putting it on an older copy if I find one — yeah, I know that's cheating and no real collector would do that :P — but I don't want this horrid plasticky one!! So it's back to square one entirely.

On a much much happier note, the copy of The Magic Faraway Tree with dust jacket that I recently bought has also arrived, in beautiful condition, so I'm more than happy enough with that! :D
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Maybe if everyone checks their copies of 'The Adventures of the Wishing Chair' we can discover when they took those other five chapters out - or four chapters, I think it was? I think 'The Old Old Man' should still be in your copy?

So - Daisy's and my copy are both 1950 I think - and have all five chapters still intact! Anyone else?

I'm currently selling a 1950 copy with no dust wrapper on eBay...but I know you really would rather have a dust wrapper version. :wink:
'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 have you recently bought?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Sorry you're disappointed with your copy of Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, Courtenay. I'm afraid I don't have a Newnes edition so I can't help work out at which date the second batch of five chapters was removed. It would be interesting to know when it was done though!
"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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Courtenay
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Courtenay »

I'd happily buy yours, Rob, if I had a non-plastic-coated dust jacket to put on it!! :twisted:
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Courtenay wrote:I'd happily buy yours, Rob, if I had a non-plastic-coated dust jacket to put on it!! :twisted:
Can't help you there, lol! ;-)
'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 have you recently bought?

Post by Wolfgang »

So you haven't printed out one you could supply Courtenay with, Rob?
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Courtenay
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Courtenay »

Dunno about Rob, but I don't do reproduction dust jackets — it's genuine or nothing for me.
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Wolfgang wrote:So you haven't printed out one you could supply Courtenay with, Rob?
I could - but I think she wants a proper one, rather than a glued-together copy! ;-)

I've done a few in the past and they have been on books I've sold (marked clearly as a COPY wrapper and I never charge any more for them than a book with no wrapper) - but I wouldn't buy a book with a copy wrapper. The only time I did that was in a bookshop - it was covered with plastic so I couldn't tell. I wasn't very happy! :-(
'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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Tony Summerfield
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I am just not sure what everyone is getting so muddled about here as I thought we had straightened this out. I have four Newnes editions of Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (Newnes never put 'The' in front). As we have said before the first edition had 36 chapters. From then on all Newnes editions had 31 chapters and the contents of the other three books that I have are all identical with exactly the same chapters in them, and exactly the same layout throughout and all with 216 pages. The final chapter in all of them is 'The Last Adventure of All'. My latest edition is the 10th from 1960 and there were four further editions after this with the last Newnes edition being the 14th in 1968. I see no reason why Newnes would have changed the contents at all for those last four editions. Dean of course are a law unto themselves!
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Tony Summerfield wrote:I am just not sure what everyone is getting so muddled about here as I thought we had straightened this out. I have four Newnes editions of Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (Newnes never put 'The' in front). As we have said before the first edition had 36 chapters. From then on all Newnes editions had 31 chapters and the contents of the other three books that I have are all identical with exactly the same chapters in them, and exactly the same layout throughout and all with 216 pages. The final chapter in all of them is 'The Last Adventure of All'. My latest edition is the 10th from 1960 and there were four further editions after this with the last Newnes edition being the 14th in 1968. I see no reason why Newnes would have changed the contents at all for those last four editions. Dean of course are a law unto themselves!
But Courtenay's seems to be a lopped Newnes version! :?
'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 have you recently bought?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

IceMaiden's 1964 Newnes edition and Courtenay's 1968 Newnes edition are both missing the second batch of five chapters (or four of the chapters, as 'The Old, Old Man' is present). That means they have the lopped ending.
"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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Courtenay
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Re: What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

Post by Courtenay »

Courtenay's IS a lopped Newnes version, Tony. I'm not confused at all — I have it here in my room and it ends with "The Snoogle's Castle". :evil:

I'm as surprised as you, since I assumed the removal of the final four chapters (plus one in the middle) was done by Dean. But clearly it was actually Newnes — presumably in the 1960s, or at least some time after 1950.

EDIT: Just looked at the publishing details page and it says "First published 1937", then goes straight to "Eleventh (Abridged) Impression 1963" and lists three other "(Abridged) Impressions" after that (mine is the fourteenth). So it appears the tenth impression of 1960 WAS the last one that was published with the final chapters, and then those four last impressions were cut short.

I'm likewise wondering why on earth they would do that, but clearly they did!!! :shock:
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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