Which Blyton Brer Rabbit stories are translations?

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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Which Blyton Brer Rabbit stories are translations?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Courtenay wrote:Out of interest, does anyone know when and how Enid came to start writing Brer Rabbit stories? Obviously she was familiar with Joel Chandler Harris's originals, but what got her started writing her own versions? It would be tempting to think maybe she was looking for something to appeal to an American audience, but she's never really been popular in America. Or was she just wanting to offer her British and Commonwealth readers something a bit "different"?

I read somewhere — in the Cave, I think — that Enid in fact wrote more stories about Brer Rabbit than about any other character, which intrigues me further. He must really have sparked her imagination, especially as I can't think of any other cases where she takes an existing character from folklore (even English folklore, let alone African-American) and writes story after story about him. She certainly did retell stories of Robin Hood and King Arthur and other legendary characters, but nowhere near as prolifically as she did with Brer Rabbit!
Enid Blyton started re-telling the Brer Rabbit tales early in her writing career, at a time when she was regularly re-telling all sorts of folk-tales, fairy-tales, myths, legends and fables. They were published in magazines like Sunny Stories for Little Folks, Sunny Stories and The Teachers World and I can only assume her readers loved Brer Rabbit and kept on asking for more stories about him, prompting Enid to invent her own tales as well as re-telling the originals.

Obviously, a scamp of a character like Brer Rabbit would have appealed to Enid Blyton enormously as she herself was mischievous and loved practical jokes as a schoolgirl. Her own bunnies Binkle and Flip (particularly Binkle, who is naughtier than Flip) hark back to Brer Rabbit but the stories have an English setting.
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Re: Which Blyton Brer Rabbit stories are translations?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:
Obviously, a scamp of a character like Brer Rabbit would have appealed to Enid Blyton enormously as she herself was mischievous and loved practical jokes as a schoolgirl. Her own bunnies Binkle and Flip (particularly Binkle, who is naughtier than Flip) hark back to Brer Rabbit but the stories have an English setting.
Yes - I think this is the reason I was never very keen on Brer Rabbit as a child. I didn't like the different style Enid adopted to tell these stories - the sort of flippant chatty American style. Maybe it was because I came to Brer rabbit fairly late (aged about 8 or 9) and by then I'd read a lot of EB books and got used to her style.

I much preferred the Binkle and Flip stories because they were set in Britain. As a child I was very 'xenophobic' and preferred stories set in England and Wales (wasn't even really keen on Scottish set stories at the time!). I disliked books like The Secret of Killimoon or the Valley of Adventure or The River of Adventure because they weren't set in England!
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Re: Which Blyton Brer Rabbit stories are translations?

Post by Courtenay »

Anita Bensoussane wrote: Enid Blyton started re-telling the Brer Rabbit tales early in her writing career, at a time when she was regularly re-telling all sorts of folk-tales, fairy-tales, myths, legends and fables. They were published in magazines like Sunny Stories for Little Folks, Sunny Stories and The Teachers World and I can only assume her readers loved Brer Rabbit and kept on asking for more stories about him, prompting Enid to invent her own tales as well as re-telling the originals.

Obviously, a scamp of a character like Brer Rabbit would have appealed to Enid Blyton enormously as she herself was mischievous and loved practical jokes as a schoolgirl. Her own bunnies Binkle and Flip (particularly Binkle, who is naughtier than Flip) hark back to Brer Rabbit but the stories have an English setting.
That's very interesting, Anita — thanks. :D
Rob Houghton wrote: I much preferred the Binkle and Flip stories because they were set in Britain. As a child I was very 'xenophobic' and preferred stories set in England and Wales (wasn't even really keen on Scottish set stories at the time!). I disliked books like The Secret of Killimoon or the Valley of Adventure or The River of Adventure because they weren't set in England!
:shock: Now it all comes out... :wink: :wink:

I remember noticing Enid's "chatty American" style of storytelling in the Brer Rabbit stories and it irritated me a little occasionally, perhaps because I knew that's not how Enid usually wrote, but I was also at least vaguely aware the stories were set in America and weren't original to Enid, so that was a good enough excuse. I just enjoyed the tales of Brer Rabbit and all his rascally tricks and how he (almost) always gets the better of his enemies, regardless of where the stories came from and how they were told.

Also, I remember when I was little my gran had an old book of Brer Rabbit stories that weren't by Enid Blyton — I don't know who did write them, but they were still in pretty much standard English, not dialect, so they weren't Harris's originals either. I think they were what made me aware that Enid didn't invent Brer Rabbit herself, but they were certainly as much fun as hers, whoever wrote them.

I remember mentioning elsewhere that Joel Chandler Harris's house in Atlanta is now a museum dedicated to him and the African-American folk culture he helped to preserve — here on their website you can hear a few of their own storytellers telling Brer Rabbit tales in the traditional way (scroll down for the recordings). I've had a listen to Akbar Imhotep doing the story of How Brer Bear Lost his Tail, which of course is one Enid also retold. Heaps of fun, although you have to listen closely, as he talks pretty fast at times! :D :wink:
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Re: Which Blyton Brer Rabbit stories are translations?

Post by IceMaiden »

Thiss thread has been a bit of an eye-opener! I loved Brer Rabbit as a child, I had (and still have) the three Deans books and assumed Enid originally wrote them, so of course I liked them. It wasn't until I got older that I realised they were originally by someone else, but oddly it doesn't bother me - I'm normally a stickler for the original - as its Enid's versions I loved and them being by someone else doesn't affect that. I never knew Brer Rabbit was American though, nor did I think the books sounded different to the other series :oops: , next time I read them I'm going to see if I notice it this time :P .
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Re: Which Blyton Brer Rabbit stories are translations?

Post by Moonraker »

I only read the "Uncle Remus" Brer Rabbit books, as a child.
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