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Enid Blyton - THE SECRET OF MOON CASTLE - 1st HC 1953
First Edition/First printing. published by Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1953.
VG clean and tight condition. No marks or inscriptions.
Slightly grubby page edges.
Very clean Oatmeal cloth covers
I know it's not looked on as one of the better Secret books but I really like Moon Castle. I find it quite creepy and unnerving with all the weird goings on and the sinister sounding servants. It reminds me of a mix between an Avengers episode and a Scooby-Doo one plot wise (in a good way!).
My copy hasn't got a dust jacket and it was £10 four years ago so I suppose £20-30 is cheap now given everything has gone up. Actually looking at the prices of books makes me realise how much the costs have increased, even the cheap 2nd class post isn't that cheap anymore.
I'm also seeing less and less books with dust jackets too. Could it be that as more time goes on there are fewer of them surviving?
Society Member
I'm just an old fashioned girl with an old fashioned mind
Not sophisticated, I'm the sweet and simple kind
I want an old fashioned house, with an old fashioned fence
And A̶n̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶f̶a̶s̶h̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶a̶i̶r̶e̶
I too love Moon Castle IceMaiden, in both the original and 1970's paperback version.
I'm not sure how may copies were printed? Could that what makes it hard to track down.
I know it took me a good few years to get an affordable copy.
I think I paid around £10 for a 1st edition with a dustjacket.
" A kind heart always brings its own reward," said Mrs. Lee.
- The Christmas Tree Aeroplane - Society Member
Like IceMaiden and Pete, Moon Castle is also one of my favourites (although obviously not top of my list), as the strange events at the castle made a huge impression on me when I first read it as a child, especially the eyes in Lord Moon's portrait!!! "The River of Adventure" is another of my favourite books that most people seem to disregard and consider weak in comparison to the other books in the series.
That's an excellent price for a copy with a jacket Pete! I wonder why Moon Castle has a totally different style jacket to the others in this series? The book itself is smaller too (or mine is at least).
The eyes in Lord Moon's portrait is one of Enid's most spine tingling scenes in my opinion. Gave me the creeps when I first read it! I'm sure there's a similar moving eye picture in Circus of Adventure though for some reason that doesn't seem as eerie. Maybe because it doesn't seem as out of place in a castle full of people we already know are sneaky and underhand?!
Society Member
I'm just an old fashioned girl with an old fashioned mind
Not sophisticated, I'm the sweet and simple kind
I want an old fashioned house, with an old fashioned fence
And A̶n̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶f̶a̶s̶h̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶a̶i̶r̶e̶
IceMaiden wrote: ↑24 Jan 2022, 21:32
The eyes in Lord Moon's portrait is one of Enid's most spine tingling scenes in my opinion. Gave me the creeps when I first read it! I'm sure there's a similar moving eye picture in Circus of Adventure though for some reason that doesn't seem as eerie.
I don't remember such a scene in "Circus", but in the film "The Woods of adventure" it fetaures it. In "Circus" Bill is spying through a little hole in the secret tunnel.
IceMaiden, the difference in format and illustration is probably attributable to the 10-year gap between the publications of the first editions of 'The Secret of Killimooin' (1943) and 'The Secret of Moon Castle' (1953). In 1953 the format of the books and style of the jackets of the previous titles would have appeared 'old-fashioned' and Enid Blyton was always up-to-date in such matters as the appearance of her titles.
Judith Crabb wrote: ↑25 Jan 2022, 22:38
IceMaiden, the difference in format and illustration is probably attributable to the 10-year gap between the publications of the first editions of 'The Secret of Killimooin' (1943) and 'The Secret of Moon Castle' (1953). In 1953 the format of the books and style of the jackets of the previous titles would have appeared 'old-fashioned' and Enid Blyton was always up-to-date in such matters as the appearance of her titles.
If that's the case though, how come all of the Famous Fives, Secret Sevens, Find Outers and Adventure series are all the same style through those same years? Though none of the Secret books really match properly in size, on the shelf if you weren't aware of it you wouldn't know they were from the same series which seems a bit odd when all the other titles quite clearly look like the set they are part of. Even Ragamuffin, despite being slightly taller, still looks like the other Barney books.
Society Member
I'm just an old fashioned girl with an old fashioned mind
Not sophisticated, I'm the sweet and simple kind
I want an old fashioned house, with an old fashioned fence
And A̶n̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶f̶a̶s̶h̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶a̶i̶r̶e̶
IceMaiden wrote: ↑24 Jan 2022, 21:32
..I wonder why Moon Castle has a totally different style jacket to the others in this series? The book itself is smaller too (or mine is at least)...
Good points IceMaiden.
David Cook in the review of the book in the cave does also acknowledge these changes:
REVIEW BY DAVID COOK
The fifth and final story appeared just over ten years after its predecessor, written by Enid to please her readers' demands. In her foreword to the book she explains... "You have asked me so often for this one that at last I have written it for you."
Consequently it is quite different in appearance to the previous books sporting a look very similar to the Adventure Series of which seven of the eight volumes had been written in the intervening years. Dorothy Hall supplies a full colour all round dustwrapper of the four children in the foreground looking up and back at Moon Castle very much in the vein of Stuart Tresilian's work for the Adventure books. Even the contents listing reflects the later series with the chapter headings being spread over three pages in the way of the first four Adventure books.
There is also a nod to the Famous Five Series with Hall's colour dustwrapper also being used for front and rear endpapers. With such a significant nod to marketing techniques I'm surprised the previous four books were not relaunched in similar fashion.
Yes, IceMaiden, I tend to agree with you that it is a little odd, the complete change in appearance. After all, the other books in the series were being reprinted in the 1950s, so children would have been aware of the discrepancy even though they were not the same children as those clamoring for more in the 1940s. Pete's quote from David Cook suggests the publishers could have been capitalizing on the even more popular 'Adventure' series.
"What a lot of trouble one avoids if one refuses to have anything to do with the common herd. To have no job, to devote ones life to literature, is the most wonderful thing in the world. - Cicero
Judith Crabb wrote: ↑02 Feb 2022, 06:20
Yes, IceMaiden, I tend to agree with you that it is a little odd, the complete change in appearance. After all, the other books in the series were being reprinted in the 1950s, so children would have been aware of the discrepancy even though they were not the same children as those clamoring for more in the 1940s. Pete's quote from David Cook suggests the publishers could have been capitalizing on the even more popular 'Adventure' series.
It does look very much like the wrapper off an Adventure book right down to the colour style, and yes that's a good suggestion on why it looks so similar. Though you'd think if the idea was to capitalize on the success of the Adventure series they'd have really taken advantage and had the others reprinted in the same style!
Lucky Star wrote: ↑03 Feb 2022, 20:20
It's a beautiful cover anyway.
It is indeed, and personally I think it's also the most exciting and enticing looking one too.
Society Member
I'm just an old fashioned girl with an old fashioned mind
Not sophisticated, I'm the sweet and simple kind
I want an old fashioned house, with an old fashioned fence
And A̶n̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶f̶a̶s̶h̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶a̶i̶r̶e̶
That's very true Moonraker and I learnt that lesson a long time ago. When I was younger my grandmother gave me a load of Enid Blyton books and I read all but one. A copy of Mr Galliano's circus, which had a rather dull (for me) cover and despite it being by EB, to my shame I overlooked it. One Sunday afternoon I spotted it on the shelf and with nothing else to do I started reading it. I read the whole book that afternoon! It was so enjoyable I could not put it down, wanting to read 'just one more chapter' and the next minute I'd finished it! The book I'd overlooked turned out to be the only one ever I literally couldn't stop reading!
Society Member
I'm just an old fashioned girl with an old fashioned mind
Not sophisticated, I'm the sweet and simple kind
I want an old fashioned house, with an old fashioned fence
And A̶n̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶f̶a̶s̶h̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶a̶i̶r̶e̶
I agree icemaiden mr galliano’s circus is my favourite Blyton book followed by the willow farm series. But like them all I find it hard to put down once I’ve started
