What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

[sixret]

I have gone through your list, Ice Maiden and you have quite a number of titles that could fetch good price if you decided to sell them.

The Caravan Family (7th imp in dustwrapper)
The Saucy Jane Family (4th imp)
The Pole Star Family (2nd imp)
The Buttercup Farm Family (3rd imp)
The Family at Red Roofs (4th imp)
Hollow Tree House (1st ed)- very hard to find even without dw!
The Put-Em Rights (4th imp)
House at the Corner (1st ed)
Those Dreadful Children (2nd imp)- hard to find earlier editions
The Six Bad Boys (1st ed)- quite hard to find
The Children at Green Meadows (1st ed)
The Very Big Secret (4th imp)- again even 4th imp, this title is hard to find than other titles in the series somehow!
Snowball the Pony (3rd imp in dustwrapper)
The Adventure of the Secret Necklace (3rd imp)
Run-About's Holiday (1st ed)
The Hidey-Hole (1st ed)
Smuggler Ben (4th imp in dustwrapper)- nice!
Summer Term at St Clare's (11th imp)
The Secret of Spiggy Holes (1949 7th imp)

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sorry if I had you worried for a moment, Courtenay. I didn't mean to - I just got in a muddle! I'd forgotten that two lots of five chapters had been removed from Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (one lot after the first edition, and another lot much later).

[Rob Houghton]

Yes - I think we all got a bit confused there!

[sixret]

Thank you so much, Tony for the further info on this issue. In the nutshell, just buy the edition below published by Dean aka Mammoth and you will get all the complete stories.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... Collection" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[sixret]

Don't worry, Courtenay, you are not likely to find a 1st edition in a hurry as they are extremely rare. Newnes must have found that the book was too fat and too expensive to produce as all subsequent editions were abridged - I think this is the only Blyton book where the 1st edition was the only edition to contain the complete version.

You are absolutely right, Tony! I have lost hope in finding the first edition of Adventures of Wishing Chair. I have been buying books online since 2001 and I know every little trick/way to find obscure/scarce books but I have not been successful to find this particular title since 2009-2010!

[Courtenay]

I am probably repeating what was in the earlier thread, but just to clear things up, the 1st edition had 36 chapters, which were reduced to 31 in all further Newnes editions. These chapters did not appear again until 2000 when Mammoth brought them back to life after 63 years! Just to confuse things further, Dean removed a further five chapters and only had 26 chapters in their books, so these editions were actually missing ten of the original chapters and not just five as some people believed.

Right, glad that's been cleared up! Thanks, Tony. I see there was a post by Raci in that earlier thread which details all the Wishing-Chair stories and which books they were published in or removed from: http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... shing#p726" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As I said, it doesn't matter much to me if I don't have the first edition (nice though it'd be) — just so long as I have the original ending to the first book! Which it seems I will have.

[Rob Houghton]

I don't mind the original five chapters being missing - but I do object to the fact Dean removed another five! After all, the first five removed chapters were removed in Blyton's lifetime, so their removal somehow seems more legitimate than those done after her death.

[sixret]

I think this is the only Blyton book where the 1st edition was the only edition to contain the complete version.

There's another book where the first edition was the only edition to contain the complete version of the story, Tony.

The Yellow Fairy Book. All the subsequent editions were revised. The first three chapters were rewritten and the last two chapters including the ending were completely rewritten!

I have 1952 Staples edition and the first edition. I prefer the first edition's ending.

This rewritten happened in Enid's lifetime as well! Why did she allow it to happen was anyone's guess?!

[sixret]

These two books, Adventures of The Wishing Chair and The Yellow Fairy Book you would find the original texts only in the first edition! And all other subsequent editions have totally been revised/butchered. Unnecessary!

[shadow]

There's a thread somewhere about the yellow fairy book which lists all the changes that where made over the years. Currently on the pad and can't link to it but I know it exists because I started it! It also goes on to mention changes to green goblin book as well which I found interesting.

I bought a copy of adventures of the wishing chair about 6 years ago as I don't have a copy and had never read it. I bid on a copy without dustwrapper on eBay and 99p later with a bit of postage added on it arrived. Only later did I realise it has 36 chapters! Sometimes you're just lucky.

[sixret]

Super lucky, Su! Knowing that you have an ultra rare edition for 99p is wonderful!

Here's your thread:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... fairy+book" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tony Summerfield]

Thank you for putting me right on this, Sixret, but I think I probably realised that as I put all the changed and missing chapters into the Cave a few years ago. It is however slightly different to the position of the Wishing-Chair as that was the original publishers that abridged it from the second impression onwards. This is a completely new edition with both a changed title and publisher.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... ustrations" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[sixret]

You're welcome, Tony. I, myself sometimes forget too.

[Courtenay]

I don't mind the original five chapters being missing - but I do object to the fact Dean removed another five! After all, the first five removed chapters were removed in Blyton's lifetime, so their removal somehow seems more legitimate than those done after her death.

I agree. I expect the original five chapters that were removed, being from the early-to-mid point of the story, were individual episodes that don't make much difference to the development of the plot as a whole. Whereas apart from The Old, Old Man, the Dean edition basically lopped off the whole end of the story. Why would they do that?? Removing non-essential "padding" chapters is one thing (and I don't mind so much), but I was quite upset when I reached the end of my Dean edition as a young reader and it stopped so abruptly. Very unlike Enid, as I said, who knew how to finish off a story satisfyingly so you know for sure it's the end.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing it for myself when I get back to Britain!

[Anita Bensoussane]

It is a pity to cut out parts of the story simply to reduce the number of pages, especially when it isn't done sensitively. Thank goodness The Wishing-Chair Again only had 25 chapters, all of which my Dean edition managed to accommodate!