Thoughts on Enid Blyton

[Lizita]

My and my sister were huge fans when we were young, but my mum always hated them, they are very un pc.

I have got a couple from the library for nostalgia's sake and it's so weird to read them again now! I always remember them as being pretty innocent stories, but I had forgotten how dramatic some of the adventures are (eg the Famous Five stuck in a cave with a man with a gun) and also how ridiculous some scenarios are (though I know it's partly cos they're so out of date now). Famous Five again - in the cave one of the boys went off to get the police and HE was leading the police (who were weilding guns too) back through the cave!! Made me chuckle.

I can sort of tolerate the sexism in them because it was the time Enid Blyton was living in. The classism is appalling though, and racism in a few, and all the stereotypes ! I hate to say I'm sure I was influenced a lot by her books (particularly the school ones) and I MUST have had a very odd view of what the world outside was like!
I must say I am so grateful to my mum for being so vehemently anti-Enid Blyton as i would've grown up completely unaware of the truth of it!

My favourites were the Famous Five, The Faraway Tree books, and The Wishing Chair. I also had a fondness for Malory Towers and St. Clare's - and the Naughtiest Girl in the School which I had completely forgotten about till I saw it in the library!

I wouldn't forbid dd from reading them, i enjoyed them so much as a kid and I've turned out oK! But like my mum did, I would make my opinions about the non-pc elements very plain!

Has started making me think about whether to buy DS the Magic Faraway Tree books for Christmas. Hmmm. Will see how we get on with the Roald Dahl ones first which we haven't yet started. I pretty much read them all - and most of them - Malory Towers especially - several times. Think as a child it was only the classism that ever struck me - things like having servants and nannies etc were totally outside of my world. But then maybe I am a bit sheltered - still to this day don't know anyone IRL with a nanny or even an au pair (although was one).

i think any sensible child will realise that this is a book, and that the real world isn't anything like that!
i remember wishing and wishing that i could join the circus (like in an EB book), but knowing that actually that was never going to happen!

I loved them as a child, but having read a few Famous Five ones to ds1 I have to say they are dreadfully dated now - I was quite shocked. I don't know if modern copies have been 'sanitized' but the ones I read to ds1 were dh's old copies (1970s) and I was gobsmacked to read the n word in one of them (as in the children were covered in soot and black as....) Bit of speedy aural editing took place there! They are horrendously sexist and class conscious. Ds1 seems to have gone off them now and I'm quite glad - there's a lot better stuff about for children these days.

Enid Blyton was one of my favourite authors as a child.

I agree with WWB comparing her to JK Rowling. Just cos JK writes in a more PC way doesn't mean that she's a better writer.

You need to read books with the time and context that were written in mind.

Would you say that Jacqueline Wilson was comparable to JKR? Or EB? Cos she's another very popular writer.

I didn't know until the other day that she was the author of the Famous Five. I did love that series as a child but I don't think that I have read any of her other books.

They are very hard to find in Canada and a friend told me recently that she buys one whenever she sees it in a second-hand bookshop or on ebay...

I would be perfectly happy to allow my childen to read her books because they seem to notice all of the sexist and racist parts that I might not have as a child. Perhaps it helps that I am similar in make-up to harpsichordcarrier?

Hey i wasn't saying JKR is better because she's more PC!

Yeah it's funny, as a child i never really thought about the sexist stuff. It was like it was just like that in Enid Blyton world but not in rl.
I think the really racist book(s) that my mum actually threw in the bin before we could read them twice were "The River of Adventure" and there was another one "something of adventure", when the kids actually went abroad to Africa or India or somewhere. Did anyone else read those? I remember nothing about them because as i said my mum binned them!

I can see what you mean about the sexism/racism/classism in series such as Famous Five but do you think it is as bad in the magical ones such as Wishing Chair, Faraway Tree etc?

Lizita they ring a very vague bell....

i read the circus of adventure, river of adventure, castle of adventure... probably a few more too

Probably not in the Wishing Chair, Faraway Tree etc, but those are a lot more brutal I think! There is a lot of cruelty in them! I guess with magical creatures such as goblins etc she felt more licensed to be cruel! She has a "they-deserve-it" attitude in all her books actually.

along with the Faraway Tree, bought dd1 EB White's Charlotte's Web, Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as she's just seen the film.

starlover, i didn't get to finish my post as the phone rang but they probably seemed twee when I read them and I am quite happy for dd to read something twee, at 3 I would rather she dealt with twee and fantasy than grim reality.

little house on the prairie! i have read ALL of laura ingalls wilders books and they are really, really fab!

I wanted to be Laura and I wanted to live on the prairie. I think my mother wanted me to as well...............

marslady.. me too! i cried when her sister went blind though that was very sad
in fact, isn't "little house in the big wood" the fdirst one of the series?

yes... and now you've made me all misty eyed thinking about it. Ma and Pa worked so hard!

but they had a lot of fun!

Oh I loved the Little House books. I also loved Willard Price's books (which were 'supposed' to be for boys). I thought they were old fashioned even when I was reading them but I got ds1 one in the library and they're actually early 1980s. And so dull...what a disappointment.

omg yes! willard price books were ace.

I wanted to marry a man like Manly! Ah well..............

Bundle how old is DD1?

Completely adored Enid Blyton and devoured them all nearly.
Laura IW!!! Oh starlover,I can't pass a children's bookshelf in a bookshop without pulling one out. I wept buckets at Anne's blindness too.
Keep on telling dh that we have to pay a visit to the museum in Ohio.Apparently they have Pa's violin!

Bizarrely read both on a tiny tropical island in the pacific. How I craved ginger beer and log cabins whilst surrounded by palm trees and pristine beaches.

OMG there's a museum! what a shame i am boycotting america! darn
i must must must buy the set of them so i can read them again! lol