The Enid Blyton Society

I find reading Enid Blyton enjoyable and undemanding so I was a little surprised that I had to look up a word whilst reading Five are Together Again. "The children raced after him - and then a stentorian voice suddenly roared at them from one side of the drive." STENTORIAN??? Oh good the dictionary is here. Stentorian - very loud. Has anybody else had to resort to the dictionary when reading EB

I started to read "Le mystère de l'île aux mouettes" (The Island of Adventure) and it makes me frequently use my French-German dictionary .

Very seldom, but maybe a couple of times in the past. This is mainly because I read a LOT of EB as a child and asked my parents what any words meant that I didn't know, so it happened only rarely since.

I'm the same Rob. Any words I didn't know, I asked about, or got the meaning from the context. And they say Enid's works were too simply written!

I had to look up the word 'contritely' when Bill says it in River of Adventure after teasing everyone that Tala's cooking sauce might have been made of insects. It means to show remorse, so Bill was saying "Sorry" contritely because he obviously felt guilty for putting everyone off their dinner!
Although knowing Bill I'm sure he had an amused twinkle in his eye when he said sorry!

I was quite surprised by the definition of 'stentorian' above - as I would say it was more 'commanding' than 'loud'. Maybe that's my misinterpretation, but I always think of it as a very commanding severe voice, rather than just 'loud' - rather like a sergeant major voice would be - a 'voice to be obeyed'.

No I have never required a dictionary to decipher Enid's words. Many modern words I come across online however have me needing to look them up - and in some cases really wishing I hadn't .

Rob Houghton wrote:I was quite surprised by the definition of 'stentorian' above - as I would say it was more 'commanding' than 'loud'. Maybe that's my misinterpretation, but I always think of it as a very commanding severe voice, rather than just 'loud' - rather like a sergeant major voice would be - a 'voice to be obeyed'.

My old Collins dictionary defines Stentorian as very loud but some online source's define it as Loud and Powerful, which seems to fit the context better than simply very loud.

I agree Rob... there is certainly an element of command in the meaning of the word, to me anyway, but yes, loud too... the sort of voice that carries.

I don't think I've ever had to look up a word from Enid Blyton's books, but like Rob, I grew up reading them, so any words that I might have struggled with, I'd have learned as a child. I must admit I've never looked up or asked the word 'stentorian', but I'd a rough idea of what it meant from the context. I've always known what contrite means, but I think it must be a word that's used regularly in church - as soon as I read it the phrase 'with humble and contrite hearts' popped into my head. I shall now spend the rest of the afternoon trying to recall whether that phrase is from a prayer or hymn.

Although I did eventually clarify with my mother a year or two ago as to what exactly galoshes were - I'd always assumed they were a bit like a wellington boot, that only covered as far as the ankles.

Ignoramus in one Five Find-Outer book that I reread 2-3 years ago. Who could tell me the word ignoramus is in what book because I have forgotten yet again!

"Ignoramus" is in The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters but the character pronounces it "hignoramus".

Like Rob, Daisy and Katharine, I read most of the books as a child and quite a few words were new to me back then - e.g. I learnt the words "Seccotine", "monitor" and "feeble" when I read The Naughtiest Girl in the School at the age of five. However, I didn't consult a dictionary (I'm not sure I was even aware of dictionaries at the time) because it was clear from the context what was meant.

One word which was a bit of a mystery came in The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies - "switchback":

The three brownies sat down suddenly, as the engine started tearing downhill.
"It's like a switchback!" groaned Hop. "Oh dear! It's climbing up another hill now!"

It was years before I found out precisely what a switchback was, but the idea of speeding uphill and down was all that was needed to understand the story.

Thank you! You are a walking encyclopedia of anything Blyton, Anita!

Rob Houghton wrote:I was quite surprised by the definition of 'stentorian' above - as I would say it was more 'commanding' than 'loud'. Maybe that's my misinterpretation, but I always think of it as a very commanding severe voice, rather than just 'loud' - rather like a sergeant major voice would be - a 'voice to be obeyed'.

I've never looked up stentorian myself, but from context I always assumed it meant commanding too. Maybe that's just the way she used it - the baddies never had stentorian voices it was always the policemen etc.

I remember being puzzled by the word spasms which described a noise that Barney heard in the middle of the night in The Ring O' Bells Mystery. Enid wrote the noise as coming and going in spasms. Later in the chapter, she used the word spasmodic and then spasmodically. I didn't have a clue to its meaning and I had to look it up. I think that was the only time I was stumped by a word in Enid's books.