Listen-Through/Discussion of Famous Five Audio Books

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db105
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Listen-Through/Discussion of Famous Five Audio Books

Post by db105 »

Split from 'What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!'


I want to listen to the Famous Five in audiobook format, and I recently finished the first one, Five on a Treasure Island (1942). I thought I might not be able to put myself in the right mindset to enjoy it. The wonder of childhood is impossible to replicate, but fortunately my inner child rose up to the challenge and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This one is special because it introduces the characters that will accompany us throughout the series, and it makes a good job of it.

Like what happened to me when reading the Harry Potter books, these books have two complementary sources of pleasure for me: the character/setting work and the adventure itself. The adventure provides the excitement, but I would not want it to start right away. The character/setting work is at least as important. I would not care about the action if I didn't care about the characters, and the setting is enjoyable on its own and it's necessary to establish the mood of the story and to give individual flavor to what could become too formulaic adventures.

The character work here is excellent. Yes, this is not Hamlet, but you can't ask more from a children's adventure series: I feel like I know each of the individual characters and I understand how they are likely to react in every situation. And they are likable. That's one of the things that makes Blyton stand above her peers.

Unlike later books where the friendship between the characters is taken for granted, here Julian, Dick and Anne have to befriend George, and it's not easy because she is fiercely independent and moody, used to be on her own. The patience and kindness the other children show and how they quickly get to understand her is a pleasure of this first entry in the series. And what child doesn't love how scary Uncle Quentin is, with his fierce moods and his absent-mindedness.

Random thoughts (spoilers):

While the adventure is perfectly adequate and exciting, it does depend on the incredible coincidence of the wreck being thrown up precisely when the children are there.

Also, there are a couple of moments when the children act weirdly because the plot requires it. For example, the rationale for making a copy of the map and leaving the original in the box that Uncle Quentin has confiscated, instead of just taking it, is rather weak. The plot required them to do this, though, because otherwise the bad guys wouldn't have learnt where the gold was. Another example is when the children try to block the door of the dungeons to prevent the escape of the bad guys. It's mentioned that they are not strong enough to carry big stones, so they just place three smaller ones and then go to the well to wait for Dick. However, they could have used that time more productively by carrying more small stones so that the total weight is enough to trap the bad guys. It was necessary to let the bad guys get out of the dungeon, though, to make the children's escape from the island more exciting.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

db105 wrote:The adventure provides the excitement, but I would not want it to start right away. The character/setting work is at least as important. I would not care about the action if I didn't care about the characters, and the setting is enjoyable on its own and it's necessary to establish the mood of the story and to give individual flavor to what could become too formulaic adventures...

...Unlike later books where the friendship between the characters is taken for granted, here Julian, Dick and Anne have to befriend George, and it's not easy because she is fiercely independent and moody, used to be on her own. The patience and kindness the other children show and how they quickly get to understand her is a pleasure of this first entry in the series. And what child doesn't love how scary Uncle Quentin is, with his fierce moods and his absent-mindedness.
Yes, the scene-setting and characterisation and build-up are all part of the pleasure of any Blyton book - and particularly the first title in a series. I love the freshness of Five on a Treasure Island, with the Five being brought together for the first time. The children are young (even Julian is only twelve) and full of energy. As for Eileen Soper, she's on top form in her depiction of them as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (well, only Timmy literally has a tail!)

Going back to this book after having read the rest of the series, a few incidents/features stand out. One is that it's Julian who upturns a table with a crash one day after tea, suggesting that they "play at wrecks". That kind of make-believe game doesn't feature much in the rest of the series - and Julian would be less likely to initiate such a game as he becomes more mature.

Anne is described as speaking "artfully" to her cousin in order to persuade George not to postpone a visit to Kirrin Island because it looks stormy. Anne remarks that if they don't go they won't be able to have Tim with them, knowing that that will tempt George to go. I don't think we see as much artfulness from Anne in the later books.

George excels at activities traditionally associated with boys, dislikes frocks and won't answer to her full name of Georgina. However, it's only gradually that Enid Blyton introduces the notion of people always taking her for a boy. In the second book, Five Go Adventuring Again, George wears a skirt (though that was changed to jeans in the Knight paperback).
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by db105 »

Anita Bensoussane wrote: George excels at activities traditionally associated with boys, dislikes frocks and won't answer to her full name of Georgina. However, it's only gradually that Enid Blyton introduces the notion of people always taking her for a boy. In the second book, Five Go Adventuring Again, George wears a skirt (though that was changed to jeans in the Knight paperback).
The idea that she wears a skirt is surprising to me (and I have just listened to that book). I just can't imagine her doing so willingly. :? You say that because of the illustrations, right? Nice as they are, I don't really consider the illustrations as canon, for me it's just an artist's interpretation of the story, and a different edition might have different illustrations or none at all...
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by db105 »

I finished listening to Five Go Adventuring Again. (Spoilers below. Probably the warning is unnecessary, but I prefer not to take for granted that everyone has read all the books, see the last paragraph of this post...).

So... the Famous Five are back with their second adventure. They are back at Kirrin Cottage for their Christmas holidays. The winter conditions do not allow them to row to Kirrin Island, but it doesn't matter, they'll find their adventure in the cottage itself. If their tutor Mr. Roland lets them, of course, because the boys need some extra classes to compensate for the time they were ill at school (there's always a convenient illness in Enid Blyton's world when the plot requires it, although usually it's to get parents out of the way), and George also needs some help, since she is new at school and is behind in some areas. So Uncle Quentin hires a tutor for them, and what could go wrong with that? We all know how good Quentin is as a judge of character.

Now, this book has several problems. To begin with, as a mystery it does not work well because it's evident from the first moment that Mr. Roland is a bad guy. We have, among other things, Tim's divine judgment. If Tim doesn't like you when he sees you, then you are evil. :D

Then we have Tim and George alone in their dislike of their tutor. Even the other children like him. We are told that he is funny and interesting, but we readers are just told, we are barely allowed to see that aspect of him, and mostly see him being horrid to poor Tim and George. Therefore, we are firmly in George's camp from the beginning and hoping that the others will come around, and wondering why they are so insensitive when they continue liking their tutor even when it's evident he's not treating George nicely. It would have been easy for the author to paint a more ambiguous picture, because George's habit of being hostile towards anyone who doesn't like dogs and calls her Georgina is not that reasonable, but she chose not to. I wonder if the reason that the other children are so willing to excuse Mr. Roland's faults is that at that time adult authority was much stronger, and a teacher refusing to call a pupil as she wanted to be called and making disparaging remarks of Tim when it's obvious she adores that dog could be seen as him being firm and refusing to humor a child's whims, rather than as him being a jerk. Of course, at the end I wondered why Mr. Roland, whose job as a spy is easier if he is not suspected, doesn't bother being a bit kinder and less rigid with George in order to have a good relationship with everyone. I guess he underestimated George and didn't think it mattered.

I ask my inner child whether it bothers him that the culprit is so obvious, and he tells me that not at all. On the contrary, isn't it cool how good Tim is at judging people? Don't I wish I had a dog like that? Also, he enjoys it when George is willing to go against everyone because she knows she is right and everyone else is wrong, and he loves hating Mr. Roland with her.

Another thing is that the adventure part of the novel is surprisingly short. We spend most of the time with life at Kirrin Cottage and with George's feud with Mr. Roland where he, as the adult and authority figure, has all the advantages, and George and Tim keep getting punished. I felt bad for George. She is so proud and brave, but she is forced to swallow all her pride and surrender because Tim is the one who is suffering, and she loves him much more than she hates Mr. Roland. Even then the awful Mr. Roland insists she keeps being punished (although to be fair he had his own good reasons for insisting on that, as he didn't want Tim barking while he went through Quentin's office).

The adventure, when it finally comes, is quite gripping, though. I love those secret passages, even if it's not clear at all for what purpose they built such a complex structure originally. When the children reach the end of the secret passage and try to find out where they are it's a thrilling moment.

I don't mind that the adventure content is so short. I love the exploration of the characters and the relationships between them, and the setting-up part of the mystery, and there's a lot of that here.

George really shone in this adventure, both in the beginning, in her conflict with Mr. Roland, and then later when Tim and she face the spies alone in the passage to buy the others time to escape. I liked how Julian and Dick praised her for that. (By the way, what a hopeless gang of spies, defeated by a single dog, even if it's such a wonderful dog as Timmy).

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, in spite of its faults. My inner child is happy, so it gets 5 stars out of five.

By the way, I started book 3 (Five Run Away Together) and was surprised to notice that this one was new to me. I guess my Famous Five collection as a boy was not complete!
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by pete9012S »

db105 wrote:
The idea that she wears a skirt is surprising to me (and I have just listened to that book). I just can't imagine her doing so willingly. :? You say that because of the illustrations, right? Nice as they are, I don't really consider the illustrations as canon, for me it's just an artist's interpretation of the story, and a different edition might have different illustrations or none at all...
I did a quick check in both the original and edited text:

Chapter Ten
A SHOCK FOR GEORGE AND TIM


Image

Image



Image

Image



There are more pictures from the original book of George wearing a skirt in the cave:

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

Next I checked the 1974 Knight paperback Betty Maxey illustrated version.
The Betty Maxey artwork is faithful to the edited text.


Image


"In the morning Anne was most amazed to find that George had on vest,knickers,jeans and jersey,when she got out of bed to dress."

http://share.pho.to/4v5JK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by db105 »

Fascinating, thanks, I had missed that. So it seems that at this point in the series George does wear skirts willingly. So if she doesn't in later books, is that character development or just that Enid Blyton had not thought about that yet?

I wonder why they changed that to jeans in the edited version. To keep the character more consistent throughout the series?
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Yes - as Pete says, the fact George wears a skirt is mentioned in the text a few times, so Eileen Soper was adhering to the text when she draws George in a skirt. :D

I'd always presumed this has something to do with it being winter (shorts for George were maybe only 'allowed' in the summer at this point?) Or maybe because Mr Roland refers to George repeatedly as 'Georgina' perhaps he insisted she wear a skirt...or maybe her father did...but I don't think this is shown in the text.

Its odd in a way because in the first book George wears shorts, but as I say, maybe its a winter/summer thing? 8)
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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 Daisy »

db105 wrote: I wonder why they changed that to jeans in the edited version. To keep the character more consistent throughout the series?
More to bring the books into the 1970s, as the preceived idea then was that children would not be so drawn to "old fashioned" illustrations! At least I assume that is the reason!
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Also, in the 1970's it was incredibly unusual for children to wear shorts, even in the summer. I didn't wear shorts after the age of about 4, until I was 12 or 13 in the early 1980's, when they became slightly more popular. Most kids wouldn't be seen dead wearing shorts in the 1970's. I have some photos featuring a grass fire by the canal where I live, which happened in 1976 - the year of the big drought - and all the kids standing around watching the firemen put the fire out are wearing long trousers and jeans! 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.'

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

Post by pete9012S »

Staying with the original text,George is described as wearing shorts in all the following books.

Here is an interesting little interchange between Jo and George in 1952's Five Have A Wonderful Time:

Image




However,we do read about George wearing a skirt in 1954's Five Go To Mystery Moor.
In the original text,this is the last ever mention of George wearing a skirt.

Image
Last edited by pete9012S on 16 Jan 2017, 13:58, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I know I'm in the minority here, but I love Mystery Moor - and I love the word-play, rivalry and general dislike that exists between George and Henry. Brilliant stuff! 8)
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I like Five Go to Mystery Moor too - but mainly for the appealing setting with its mysterious atmosphere, gypsies and old legends.
db105 wrote:So it seems that at this point in the series George does wear skirts willingly. So if she doesn't in later books, is that character development or just that Enid Blyton had not thought about that yet?
I think the characters are still evolving in the early books, and certain characteristics only become established as time goes on. In Five on a Treasure Island we're told that Georgina wishes she was a boy and that she has cut her hair short, dislikes dolls and pretty frocks, and will only answer to George. In spite of all that, she seems (pleasantly) surprised when Anne remarks, "...you look like a boy." George says, "Do I really?", as though she isn't accustomed to people thinking that. Although she's a tomboy, it appears that she doesn't yet pass herself off as a boy to all and sundry and that she still sometimes wears skirts even if she turns up her nose at "pretty frocks".

Putting on a skirt in Five Go to Mystery Moor is different, I think. George is away from home and expected to dress more formally for supper - which in those days would have meant a skirt and blouse or a dress for a female. She has no choice in the matter and Enid Blyton makes quite a thing of it, comparing George with Henry.

The mentions of a skirt in Five Go Adventuring Again are more casual, as though a skirt is simply something George sometimes wears at that stage. There's no suggestion that her parents or Mr. Roland make her wear it against her will.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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Rob Houghton wrote:I love the word-play, rivalry and general dislike that exists between George and Henry. Brilliant stuff! 8)
I like that too. It always seemed to me quite perceptive of Enid Blyton. On first thought, it would seem that George should be happy to meet a like-minded girl, but when you stop to think about it it makes perfect sense. Being the ultimate tomboy is her thing. For all the trouble it causes her, it's what makes her special. Having another one like her around in some way dilutes her identity and she becomes jealous.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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Anita Bensoussane wrote:In Five on a Treasure Island we're told that Georgina wishes she was a boy and that she has cut her hair short, dislikes dolls and pretty frocks, and will only answer to George. In spite of all that, she seems (pleasantly) surprised when Anne remarks, "...you look like a boy." George says, "Do I really?", as though she isn't accustomed to people thinking that.
Or maybe she's just fishing for compliments. She wants to hear Anne say again "yes, you look like a boy" :mrgreen:

Just joking, though. I agree that in those first books Enid probably had not completely established the "canonical" version of the character.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I'm not sure I'm convinced by the fact that George's Tomboy nature hasn't evolved much in the early books - after all, although presumably she has cut her hair short fairly recently, she already has the fisher boy calling her 'Master George' and in the second book she is regularly being called 'Master George' by those who are below her in social standing. Strange that she wears a skirt and yet is referred to as 'Master George' lol! Maybe she was more modern-thinking than we realise!! ;-)
'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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