Bobbsey Twins

[Paul Austin]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbsey_Twins" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's interesting to note that, like Enid, the Bobbsey Twins books were re-edited and re-written to eliminate things that were perceived as racist/sexist or were simply dated. Some Bobbsey Twins books were felt to be so dated that they didn't even get the re-write treatment and were not reprinted at all.

[Anita Bensoussane]

From the Wikipedia article:

The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May received what is regarded as the most extreme rewrite; it is a story about the Bobbsey family's adventures trying to find the parents of a foundling baby. Since, by the 1960s, modern social services had rendered the original story utterly implausible, an entirely new novel was written about the twins' adventures with a baseball-playing baby elephant (The Bobbsey Twins' Adventures with Baby May).

That reminds me of Enid Blyton's The Very Big Secret (1952), in which sister and brother Penny and Peter find a baby and care for it in secret (the baby had been popped into Penny's toy pram by its mother, who was feeling ill and wanted to lie down in the bracken for a rest). In a more recent edition of the book, the children find and care for a puppy instead.

Going back to the Bobbsey Twins, these days I expect the baseball-playing baby elephant would also be considered politically incorrect.

[Kate Mary]

Several Bobbsey Twins books (and other works by Laura Lee Hope; (probably the most famous author who never existed) are freely available on Project Gutenberg, but I wouldn't advise anyone of a nervous, PC disposition to read them as they are the original text:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search ... bsey+twins" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[pete9012S]

Thanks Kate Mary.I was able to download the original 1904 edition of a Bobbsey Twins book.
I love old books like these much more than the sanitized pc books of today.

Praise and thanks to Paul also for providing information about them.

[Moonraker]

Praise and thanks to Paul also for providing information about them.

We are indeed fortunate to have such knowledgeable people contributing to these fora. I second your sentiment, Pete.

Incidentally, I loved reading The Bobbsey Twins as a child, and the alleged racism went over the top of my head. However, on a recent attempt at a re-read, it had lost its magic.

[Daisy]

My children read some of the Bobbsey Twins and at that time I also read a few but they didn't really appeal. They seem to be very much the kind of book one does grow out of! Unlike Blyton of course.

[Moonraker]

You've hit the nail on the head there, Daisy. Why don't we grow out of Blyton?

Paul starts many threads. Isn't it a shame he doesn't add some comments? They would be most welcome.

[pete9012S]

I think Paul has clearly stated on numerous occasions that he likes to start an exciting Enid Blyton based topic off and then read everyone's else's opinions.

In this he reminds me very much of Henry Kissinger who said: "The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been."

[Paul Austin]

I first met a Bobbsey Twins book as a child in a time and a place that is long ago and far away. I really don't have much to say as it's been so long and i've been told most fans of the Bobbsey Twins are now in nursing homes and retirement villages.

[Daisy]

Well I doubt being a Bobbsey Twin fan has contributed to that sorry state Paul! I guess you said that tongue in cheek though.
And Nigel, there are other authors I return to with pleasure - Malcolm Saville for example, but some do really just belong to childhood, I think.

[John Pickup]

I read quite a few Bobbsey Twins books as a child but I cannot remember anything about them. I suppose I'm ready for the nursing home, not because I read the books but because of my memory loss.

[Courtenay]

I wouldn't know the Bobbsey Twins from a bar of soap, as they say where I come from, but it doesn't sound like I've missed that much.

Nice avatar from Paul for Australia Day there, I see, by the way. I hope that's authentic Aboriginal art on the map of Oz and not a cheap rip-off of Indigenous Australian culture.

[Daisy]

I read a few as an adult John but have no recollection of any plot or adventure at all. As long as you can remember your Blyton stories I wouldn't worry too much!

[Daisy]

I thought the Australia map was attractive too - but the patterns remind me of Roman mosaics.

[John Pickup]

Very true, Daisy. Regarding Enid's, and Malcolm Saville's, books, my memory is excellent.