The nice the naughty and the nasty: the tiny world of Enid Blyton

[pete9012S]

The nice the naughty and the nasty: the tiny world of Enid Blyton

This pdf article can be read for a short time here:
https://www.docdroid.net/GpFU2nn/the-ni ... blyton-pdf

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Pete. That looks interesting. I'll read it in a few days when I've got a bit more time.

[timv]

I'm not sure how old this article is, but the case-study by Bob Dixon of the description of the Five's meeting with Jo in Fall Into Adventure as an example of Enid's 'good' characters ( as 'nice' and clean middle-class children with respectable values) patronising a 'ruffian-like' 'gypsy' (and working-class) girl' is one which I recognise from reading his book on 'Race and Class (and Sexism?) in Children's Fiction' when I was a student c. 1978-9. It was then a paperback. The chapter which he wrote on Enid, I remember, focussed on the Famous Five and the example of their attitude to Jo - and the fact that Dick's first response to her is to fight her when he thinks she's a boy - was one which I noted then. He also stressed the way that Enid 'looked down on' non-middle-class and 'scruffy' characters, eg 'gypsies' - presumably presenting her as promoting 'suburban' values- which I noted did not take the example of Galliano's circus with its variety of characters from all backgrounds and its working-class hero Jimmy (with an initially unemployed carpenter father) into account.

The article may be directly from the book, which was called I think 'Catching Them Young', or else from a magazine article which the author later used in his book - the latter also has a go at school story authors like Elinor Brent Dyer for apparent snobbery and at boarding school stories in general for promoting conformism - though his point about authors like Enid not getting very much into the characters' own thoughts and some modern writers doing that better and at a far longer length is fair enough. (But cf Antonia Forest, who was writing 'in depth' about characters' thoughts and highlighting conformism and the feelings of 'outsiders' in school stories in the late 1940s and 1950s.) The school stories and the Five stories were regarded by his argument as designed to promote conformism . But I thought at the time I read the book that it was quoting storylines and social attitudes in them selectively, did not have a very wide frame of reference , and regarded using conventional social attitudes as explicitly designed to encourage not just reflect them. It did not explore the fact that the authors were writing on the basis of current social attitudes of their eras and were writing what would appeal to the readers (eg adventure and dramatic incidents first, not in-depth characterization). Nor were all the authors necessarily writing 'propaganda' , which seemed to be the gist of the book and the argument - though no doubt 1950s publishers would look askance at anything that might put off parents and teachers from buying such books so the authors who had good business brains knew what would sell. The sketchiness of characterization and the conformist 1940s/1950s type social attitudes were a good deal worse in stories in children's magazines and comics, right from the Edwardian era to the early 1970s!

[dsr]

Interesting, but full of prejudice. The gist of the article is that the author knows that tens of millions of people love Enid Blyton books, and he's going to explain why they're all wrong. He seems to be from the "sixties librarian" school that says children shouldn't read what they want to read, they should read what is good for them.

It's interesting that the magazine editor (is it a magazine) puts in a footnote that says, in the nicest possible way, that he doesn't agree!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Heh - Bob Dixon certainly had a tendency to exaggerate! As you say, Tim, if he'd picked out other travelling folk or working-class characters he could have made the opposite point and shown how middle-class protagonists mixed with them and liked and trusted them - even admired them, e.g. Barney, Joan/Joanna, Alf/James, Lotta (Galliano's Circus) and Andy (Adventurous Four).

I had a chuckle at the backhanded compliment about The Six Bad Boys:

In a wider social context, it is perhaps only fair to mention a story [The Six Bad Boys] which seems to me to represent the most advanced stage Enid Blyton achieved in her writing, even though it is a stage which most writers of a reasonable degree of social awareness might well start from.

[IceMaiden]

What a load of... I had to stop reading as it was winding me up . All I'll say is that this "author" Mr Heyve-Been-To-Huniversity-So-Am-Far-Learned-And-Supherior-Husing-My-Hintellectually-Advanced-Vochabulary is simply green as a cucumber set in lime jelly with envy that Enid Blyton's books are so beloved and succesful while what he's written is only fit to line the cat's litter tray. When it's eaten bad food.

[Boodi 2]

What a load of drivel! I would have been furious with myself for wasting my time reading it were it not for the editor's comment at the end, with which I fully agree.

[Moonraker]

What a load of... I had to stop reading as it was winding me up . All I'll say is that this "author" Mr Heyve-Been-To-Huniversity-So-Am-Far-Learned-And-Supherior-Husing-My-Hintellectually-Advanced-Vochabulary is simply green as a cucumber set in lime jelly with envy that Enid Blyton's books are so beloved and succesful what he's written is only fit to line the cat's litter tray. When it's eaten bad food.

Great post, IceMaiden!

[Katharine]

I'm currently reading Bob Dixon's two books for research for an essay. I've also got David Rudd's book ready to give counterpoints to Bob's comments.

I'm not sure if Bob's books can be truly classed as 'academic' works, but I did spot what appears to be a flaw. He states that there are 22 Famous Five books! Only a tiny slip perhaps, but it instantly makes me question the accuracy of everything else he's written.

He really seems to be anti Enid Blyton, as his second book has a whole chapter devoted to her! I'm reading the books in the reverse order, but certainly in the second book there doesn't appear to be any other author who has been singled out for criticism.

[GloomyGraham]

He states that there are 22 Famous Five books!

I guess there are 22 if you include 'Five Have A Puzzling Time'.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Five Have a Puzzling Time didn't come out until 1995 (as we know, the short stories had originally been published separately in various books, strip books and magazines). Bob Dixon was writing in 1977, so no wonder his mention of 22 books is giving Katharine "a puzzling time"!

[Wolfgang]

Maybe a Voilier continuation story? As far as I know they started in the 70s.

[Anita Bensoussane]

About fourteen of the French Claude Voiler books had been published by 1977, but there were no English translations until 1981 onwards.

The first Purnell Famous Five Annual came out in 1977 but I wouldn't call it the 22nd book. It was Famous Five Go on a Hike Together - a retelling of Five on a Hike together as a mixture of picture-strips and text, with related articles.