The Enid Blyton Society

Has anyone read this book? While away on holiday I took it with me and read two/three chapters a day - it's a bit too technical for me, I ought to keep a dictionary to hand!

Anyway, up till now, I have read 6 chapters - which I found VERY fascinating. I particularly liked Chapter 4 - The Pied Piper among the Crtics - it really shows how the critics have been misguided, and how Blyton still managed to remain popular.

In Appendix I, I found this line very interesting:

On the following pages are copies of Questionnaires sent out to potential respondents, predominantly in 1993. The first is the adult version, the second, the children's, which is slightly reworded and simplified. This said, many children got hold of the adult version, and completed this. Also, some parents were so keen to participate that thy filled out their children's questionnaires!



Will point out some more serious lines later - maybe after I've taken a shower! [goes off whistling]

I read that book a few years ago. It is rather a weighty, academic tome but, although the first few chapters are heavy going, it gets more "readable" as it goes on and it gave me plenty of food for thought.

David Rudd mentions, towards the end of Chapter 3, that The Circus of Adventure was read out on Jackanory. (For those who don't know, Jackanory was a long-running and popular BBC TV programme in which a different children's book was serialised each week. Every afternoon from Monday to Friday a few chapters of the book would be read out, accompanied by still pictures.) Rudd writes that The Circus of Adventure was the second most popular Jackanory reading ever, just behind Roald Dahl. Does anyone here remember seeing that? I'd be interested to know when The Circus of Adventure featured on the programme, who read the book and who did the illustrations. Also, did any other Enid Blyton books ever appear on Jackanory?

Anita

Yes, it really is very weighty in the beginning - particularly the Theory and Method chapter (for me). It soon got very readable though, so I am reading it happily!

By the way, I showed a passage of the book to my dad; he frowned and told me that it was too advanced/technical for me, and told me better not to read it. As I had taken only that book with me, he let me read it to pass the time, now that I have read hakf of it, he said I might as well read the rest...

Another by the way point: it's in the middle of Chapter 3, to be very accurate, it's on age 36.

One thing I really didn't like in the book was that when referring to people, only the surnames are mentioned, so if you aren't an expert like Tony or Anita (which I'm not!) it's pretty difficult to figure out who's who.

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I'd be interested to know when The Circus of Adventure featured on the programme, who read the book and who did the illustrations.

In 1986, and Joanna Munro read it, according to this.

British Film Institute

Sounds like an interesting (if "heavy") book to read. (Rudd's book I mean, though it could apply to Circus of Adventure too, literally!).

Ming wrote:One thing I really didn't like in the book was that when referring to people, only the surnames are mentioned, so if you aren't an expert like Tony or Anita (which I'm not!) it's pretty difficult to figure out who's who.

I'm afraid that referring to people by their surnames only is a particular trait of academic books, I think it is very impersonal and I don't like it either.

On the same subject, the authors of these books like to litter their work with obscure long words that no normal person would use in everyday conversation. I have had sufficient hot dinners to have reached an age where I prefer to read books and articles for pleasure and having to refer to a dictionary every two minutes is not my idea of fun!

It is a form of intellectual snobbery where the author is trying to point out that he is more intelligent than the reader. For example, if something is 'unclear' why not say so, instead of telling your reader that it is 'imperspicuous' - we can all use a thesaurus to spice up our work, but personally I prefer to use a dictionary to check spelling and try to use words that I would use in ordinary conversation.

I am not specifically criticising David Rudd's book (perhaps this should just be Rudd's book!), I read it too long ago to remember if what I am saying is applicable or not.

I'm afraid I have no idea what 'discourse' meant! (or means, for that matter!)

Thanks for the information, Lenoir. Is there anybody here who remembers the "Jackanorification" of The Circus of Adventure?

[Ming:] I'm afraid I have no idea what 'discourse' meant! (or means, for that matter!)

I'm not quite sure what Rudd means by the word either! It can mean "conversation" or "discussion" or "the way language is used to express things" so it's all a bit vague. Rudd appears to me to be using "discourse" to refer to the way readers and critics engage with the text while reading. When we read a book we are constantly commenting and asking questions in our minds, and we bring our individual experiences and our own understanding of language to bear on what we read.

[Tony:] On the same subject, the authors of these books like to litter their work with obscure long words that no normal person would use in everyday conversation. I have had sufficient hot dinners to have reached an age where I prefer to read books and articles for pleasure and having to refer to a dictionary every two minutes is not my idea of fun!

I must admit I never reach for a dictionary. I just try to guess from the context what the author means. If I get it wrong, so be it!

Anita

According to Sheila Ray's book, The Enid Blyton Phenomenon (1982), The Island of Adventure was also read out on Jackanory in 1974. Does anyone remember seeing it?

Anita

I found Rudd's book very helpful - and there is a summary of his theories towards the end of the book, so you may skip the academic stuff. It explains, to me anyway, why EB is completely different to , say, Ransome for similar child fiction. I didn't agree with everything but the main idea that EB was a storyteller first, and a traditional novel-writer second struck me as correct.

I could never see the sense in Jackanory. Television is vision after all - why would you want to watch someone reading a book? To me it's a bit like showing a film on the wireless.

Well, that depends on who it is that's reading the book Now, if it was Enid Blyton reading, I certainly would want to watch

Or if it was announced that "Adventure" was reading the book, I would take a sick-day off from work to watch

Yes, so would I! Then I'd know whether it was a boy or a girl. It's intensely irritating to call Adventure "it"!

Moonraker wrote:o me it's a bit like showing a film on the wireless.

Bah humbug! What about Under Milk Wood (I love Thomas' use of Llareggub!) and Journey's End? Case rested!

This list of reviews about this very hard to come by book leaves me positively drooling to read it.
Is it possible it could ever be produced in electronic format or re-released?
It would be fantastic to read a book as good as this.....Pricey-yes-(although at £176 its actually cheaper than going to see Madonna!)


Enid Blyton and the Mystery of Children's Literature
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enid-Blyton-Mys ... 0333747186" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Product Description
Review
'That it is possible to work out a subtle, interdisciplinary, lightly empiric study of what children's reading experience feels like from the inside has been demonstrated brilliantly in Rudd's remarkable book, which combines attention to historical, social, ideological, psychoanalytical matters, uniting them in a basically discursive perspective.' - Professor Susan R. Gannon, Signal

'Not only is [this book] a spectacularly knowledgeable study of Blyton, but it is also an excellent handbook on some of the most knotty issues of children's literature criticism...This book represents what many people think children's literature criticism should be: impeccably scholarly and deeply knowledgeable about its subject, engaging with both theorists and child readers, treating them with equal respect (or skepticism), and accessible to the intelligent reader, specialist or not.' - Children's Literature Association Quarterly

'In the decades to come, this book will take its place as a courageous study that faces the uncomfortable facts squarely, refuses to accept the literary put-downs of the past, gives a fair hearing to the voices of children, and (rightly, in my view) seeks in Blyton's own inner life the key to the magic spell she was able to weave over so many child readers.' - Signal

'The survey alone was a mammoth undertaking, but it is matched in scale by Rudd's mastery of critical theory in general and of Blyton criticism in particular and, of course, by his knowledge of Blyton's vast oeuvre.' - Children's Books History Society Newsletter

'A thorough, sensible and balanced defence of Blyton. This is a work of judicious advocacy. Some of its best sections demonstrate the blatant misreadings, contradictions and emotional animus which have characterised so many attacks on Blyton...Overall this is a timely and competent corrective study.' - Books For Keeps

'...if 'academic' is associated with boring, then this book will come as a surprise. Rudd's enthusiasm for his subject makes a riveting read...David Rudd clearly has a brilliant mind, which together with an infectious enthusiasm, and a dislike of poor scholarship, has helped to produce a book that is one of the most important contributions to the study of children's literature ever published.' - Brian Stewart, Antiques & Collectables

'It is a fresh and very exciting approach to Blyton that is likely to re-ignite (let alone kindle) interest in her work...The book is an enormously innovative study of Blyton...David Rudd has re-evaluated Blyton and her work in a much more sensitive light than previous critics...In doing so he has provided a fresh approach for the study of children's literature in general.' - Sophie Smallwood, The Enid Blyton Society Journal

'His study, witty as well as scholarly, is the best book written about British children's literature for some time.' - Nicolas Tucker, Times Educational Supplement
Product Description
Blyton has captivated children worldwide for almost eighty years, but there has been very little serious critical attention paid to her. This book remedies this, looking particularly at her three most popular and well-known series, Noddy, the Famous Five and Malory Towers. It is the first study to draw extensively on the view of her readership, past and present, and to use a variety of critical approaches to show how adult criticism has consistently missed the secret of her appeal.