Text modifications in Egmont editions and elsewhere

Raci · Post by **Raci** » 15 Jul 2006, 17:07

I can't believe they would print that!

All they need to do is compare an original book and any available in the shops today!
Their researchers need sacking!!!!!!!!

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 15 Jul 2006, 19:10

Hmmm - it makes me wonder what "facts" The Guardian get wrong in their other news stories. They could be constantly feeding their readers with seriously inaccurate information.

And could it be possible that Chorion are not aware of all the changes made by Egmont?

Raci wrote in an earlier post in this thread: "So far I've gone through the first 11 of the 17 chapters of Five on a Treasure Island to see how much has been changed. I've found 96 alterations to the text and in chapter 6 there were 16 alterations." That sounds like a lot more than just the odd currency update to me!

Anita

Moonraker · Post by **Moonraker** » 15 Jul 2006, 19:26

This just confirms my long-held belief, that the Guardian is a left-wing rag, beloved by lesbians and loonies.

This is a personal view by moonraker; not necessarily held by the Enid Blyton Society

Raci · Post by **Raci** » 15 Jul 2006, 22:27

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Raci wrote in an earlier post in this thread: "So far I've gone through the first 11 of the 17 chapters of Five on a Treasure Island to see how much has been changed. I've found 96 alterations to the text and in chapter 6 there were 16 alterations." That sounds like a lot more than just the odd currency update to me!

It was so depressing finding all the changes that I haven't yet gone through any more of the book. Maybe when I'v finished, all the changes should be emailed to Chorion. And this is only a count of the actual word changes if I tried to count all the punctuation changes as well it would take forever!

When I finish going through the book I will post the final count for all to see.

Post by **Keith Robinson** » 16 Jul 2006, 00:05

Anita Bensoussane wrote:And could it be possible that Chorion are not aware of all the changes made by Egmont?

What an alarming thought! I'm now imagining a movie-like scenario where this little unbelievable fact surfaces. Blyton fans storm the Chorion offices and slap piles of papers on their desks, initiated by Raci and signed by hundreds of fans from these forums... papers full of changes between old and new editions. The boss of Chorion stares at the papers, starts sifting through them... and then his face slowly turns white. He turns to his secretary and yells, "Get Egmont on the phone!"

One angry phone call later, the Chorion boss slams the phone down and, red-faced, reassures the legion of Blyton fans that all will be put right, that all the tiny textual changes through the years were unauthorized, the work of one opinionated editor at Egmont who happens to have a personal distaste for Blyton's "outdated" text. Heck, maybe even the bosses at Egmont don't know what's going on; it could be this one editor secretly making changes and saying, "Okay, all ready to print."

As the movie progresses, Chorion get on to Macmillan, and then Hodder's Children Books, and finds the situation is the same there. WHAT is going on? And then it all comes out... a small group of Hot-headed Blyton Saboteurs (aka Steaming BS) has infiltrated the publishing world and inserted their anti-Blyton campaigners to the appropriate proof-reading departments, whereupon they systematically butcher the author's works over a long period... first a couple of minor changes, then more major ones, and then, when no one at Chorion appears to notice, they start on the big stuff -- changing Dick to Rick and Fanny to Frannie, etc.

It transpires, by the end of the movie, that future plans include deleting all scenes where children are seen to be eating excessively, and all situations where children appear to be alone in dangerous places such as moors, woods, etc. Also, in these future editions, parents will be present throughout ALL the holidays regardless of whether their sisters or aunts are terribly ill, and children will not get to take three more weeks off school to get over the flu. These new editions, set to be published in 2020, will also have the name "Enid" subtly changed to "Gnid" just for a laugh.

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 16 Jul 2006, 08:29

Great stuff, Keith!

You forgot about the lift that was to be built up the Faraway Tree!

And yes, although this thread has the title "Text modifications in Egmont editions," Egmont are not the only culprits of course. Which edition of Five on a Treasure Island were you reading, Raci, when you found all those alterations?

Anita

Viv of Ginger Pop · Post by **Viv of Ginger Pop** » 16 Jul 2006, 10:19

Keith Robinson wrote:. Blyton fans storm the Chorion offices and slap piles of papers on their desks, initiated by Raci and signed by hundreds of fans from these forums....

Could be arranged.....

Raci - there are two current editions of FoaTI

The Pink one is a revised edition - and should be the one with all those horrid changes (Ginger Pop only stocks those in an emergency!)

The Centenary edition should be better, though it does still have jeans for shorts)

Best wishes

Viv

Post by **Tony Summerfield** » 16 Jul 2006, 11:21

I think it is just worth stressing the point, that much of the discussion in this thread has centred round the Famous Five books, which are of course published by Hodders and not Egmont. In the various articles that have been written (mostly taken straight from another paper without checking the accuracy of the source!) I have not seen any comments from Egmont at all, but Hodders have stated that changes have been 'minimal', such as alterations in currency.

Chorion have also been quoted in the article that I have just posted in saying that biscuits have not been changed to cookies - I believe this is your department Viv!!

Best wishes
Tony

Raci · Post by **Raci** » 16 Jul 2006, 13:07

Keith Robinson wrote:What an alarming thought! I'm now imagining a movie-like scenario where this little unbelievable fact surfaces. Blyton fans storm the Chorion offices and slap piles of papers on their desks, initiated by Raci and signed by hundreds of fans from these forums... papers full of changes between old and new editions. The boss of Chorion stares at the papers, starts sifting through them... and then his face slowly turns white. He turns to his secretary and yells, "Get Egmont on the phone!"

One angry phone call later, the Chorion boss slams the phone down and, red-faced, reassures the legion of Blyton fans that all will be put right, that all the tiny textual changes through the years were unauthorized, the work of one opinionated editor at Egmont who happens to have a personal distaste for Blyton's "outdated" text. Heck, maybe even the bosses at Egmont don't know what's going on; it could be this one editor secretly making changes and saying, "Okay, all ready to print."

If only this was possible, stopping the story here and finding out that from now on all publictions will be put back to the original - Perfect!!!!!!

Viv of Ginger Pop wrote:Raci - there are two current editions of FoaTI

The Pink one is a revised edition - and should be the one with all those horrid changes.
The Centenary edition should be better, though it does still have jeans for shorts)

Well that makes it even worse!

I bought the full set of centenary ones because I liked the covers, so yes all these changes are from the less altered editions

I dread to think how many changes there would be in the other then. I won't buy a copy from the shops to put money into the publishers pocket so they think its ok to ruin the books. However if I spot a cheap second hand copy I might have to start the whole process again to see how much worse it gets

Post by **Keith Robinson** » 16 Jul 2006, 16:07

Tony Summerfield wrote:I have not seen any comments from Egmont at all, but Hodders have stated that changes have been 'minimal', such as alterations in currency.

Snort! Well, that's clearly rubbish! And if Raci's recorded alterations to Treasure Island were in the less edited version... well, the mind boggles.

I'm not sure where Hodder gets off saying that changes are minimal, such as alterations in currency. That change alone would be unnecessary if they weren't so hell-bent on updating to a "modern" setting, and there are a whole slew of other changes that have nothing to do with currency OR the 1940-50s. Some changes, at first glance, seem to "make sense" -- for instance, in Five Go Off To Camp, where George drops down from the tunnel shaft "as black as a nigger with soot" has (in my opinion) quite rightly been edited. And you could argue, albeit feebly, that changing "Mrs Barnard" to "Mrs Kirrin" or simply "Julian's mother" is also a good thing, because this seems to be putting right one of Blyton's little factual errors. On the other hand, where does it stop? Perhaps that's the problem -- you make one correction, and then another, and while you're at it you might as well do this one too, and then that one, and so on...

I would LOVE to see a log of all the changes brought about through the years. I wonder if the publishers, or Chorion, have a complete log of every single alteration, with explanations alongside. How funny that would be to read! But you have to wonder if there is such a thing as a log. I mean, what's the process for suggesting alterations? Who initiates it, Chorion or the publisher? Does each individual change require permission? I'd love to know.

Topsy-Turvy · Post by **Topsy-Turvy** » 16 Jul 2006, 17:50

Yes I'm back (again!) and if you want an update of what I've been doing, see the General Natter forum. Agree with Keith, I'd love to know if anyone has a copy true to what Enid first wrote when she started writing. I'm more inclined to think that the publishers (any of them) won't have a copy of the orginal (before corrections of any sort were done), which makes me wonder how would they ever be able to do a reprint of the originals?

Of course I do agree with you Keith, that factual corrections to her books would be good to avoid confusion! On the "nigger" term, wasn't the same thing done to Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Niggers" (title-wise at least)? Can't say I've noticed any modifications being done to her books!

And someone enlighten me...is Charles Dickens seen as an adult writer these days...(Admittedly, some of his books are!)? I just have an impression of reading his books around the same time as Enid in my childhood (but I read everything at that stage). Not sure about that with all these articles are talking about books for adults/children, hence justifying the alterations in text.

A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett) is one of my favourite stories and I'm really surprised it hasn't been banned from the shelves as servants and foreign stereotypes are littered throughout the story. Therein lies its charms though, I think.

katherinef · Post by **katherinef** » 04 Aug 2006, 23:39

The changes to Blyton texts is one of my pet hates; on that basis I will not buy new texts and have replaced new ones with second hand copies.

As examples, in Demons Rocks Julian no longer buys Jeremiah tobacco but sweets. In First Term at Malory Gwendoline is scolded by Darrell not slapped. This distorts the sequence of events following.

Repeatedly "how queer" becomes "how strange."

THere is no need for any of this alteration. The books should be kept in their original format.

Steve Alpe · Post by **Steve Alpe** » 08 Aug 2006, 15:39

Totally agree - nobody makes any changes to other old books such as dickens, doyle, etc to bring them up to date so why do it to Blyton!

Viv of Ginger Pop · Post by **Viv of Ginger Pop** » 09 Aug 2006, 00:13

Is anybody here a member of the Consumers Association?

I'd be interested to know how many changes you can make to an authors work and still put their name on the cover?

In the shop, it is noticeable how many people are asking about Original Texts, making rude comments about publishers, and then walking out to explore E-Bay. The Ginger Beer is authentic though!

Best wishes

Viv

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 09 Aug 2006, 07:30

[Viv:] "I'd be interested to know how many changes you can make to an authors work and still put their name on the cover?"

I'm not a member of the Consumers' Association but, in the case of Blyton, I think her signature is defined by Chorion as a trademark or logo or something so perhaps that's how they get away with splashing Enid Blyton's name over badly bowdlerized books (including film-based books like The Woods of Adventure, which is so poorly-written that it's a real insult to Enid Blyton to have her name - and her name only - on the front cover.) The idea of the author's name being a trademark/logo obviously wouldn't apply to most other authors and it sounds a bit dodgy to me anyway. I'm also surprised that most revised editions don't even carry a note at the front to say they've been revised.

Anita

Text modifications in Egmont editions and elsewhere

Text Alterations

Re: Text Alterations