The Mystery of the Vanished Prince

[Green Hedges]

This was my favourite Find-Outers book, because of the humour.

Have now gone through it with a fine-tooth comb, and its true that colonialist attitudes and class prejudice are present.

What a superb book though! The imagery and the complexity and the buzz! (The pram, the button and the State Umbrella.)

See here: https://bit.ly/3oHwcrX" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Splodj]

One aspect that nagged at me is that Enid does not set up how Fatty could be expected to speak Princess Bongawee's language, beyond the vague notion that he is very clever. So when Ern, then Goon, turned to him for a translation I thought: "Why are they doing that?"

[Boodi 2]

Thanks "Dunc-ern", another excellent review of one of my favourite Find-Outer's books, despite the colonialist attitudes and class prejudice. I had no problem with Ern and Goon expecting Fatty to be able to understand "Princess Bongawee's" language, as in those far-off days they would have imagined that his education and superior social status enabled him to master many things of which they were ignorant.
Cheers,
"MoniquErn" (alias Boodi...or should that be the other way around?)

[Eddie Muir]

Thanks for another great review, Duncan. The Mystery of the Vanished Prince was the first book I read in the great series and it kick-started my lifelong love of the Five Find-Outers and Dog.

[Green Hedges]

Eddie, it's interesting that this was your intro to the Find-Outers, but sad if - as I think is the case - the series never quite reached the same heights of hilarity again.

I wonder how important is the order in which we read Enid Blyton books. And whether we read them in our childhoods or later. I thought that was important. But what re-reading them recently has done - re-reading them in order to come up with these chapter-by-chapter summaries - is allow me to have a much more objective attitude. One almost reluctantly moves from the subjectivity of a casual reader - where one can pick up on what attracts one, sometimes quite narrow facets - to the realisation of the more complete idea of what the author, Enid Blyton, was after.

I can't stop now and will have to complete the revision of my existing essays. Though I will try not to throw the first-loved baby out with the vintage bathwater!

I sign myself (for Boodi's appreciation)

Dunc-ern

[Anita Bensoussane]

Even as a child, I thought the idea of Ern and Goon being taken in by Larry, Daisy, Pip and Bets dressing as foreign royalty and speaking a fake language was too ridiculous to swallow. This distanced me from the events of the story somewhat, though I did still enjoy other comical episodes throughout the book. One of my favourite moments is when Fatty accidentally leaves the earrings in his ears after disguising as a gypsy woman, leading Mrs. Hilton to stare at him in astonishment and say haughtily, "Well, really, Frederick, I cannot approve of your jewellery!"

I love the following illustration by Treyer Evans, by the way. It's full of life and fun and is positively wriggling with plump babies in various moods! I like the lady with the lorgnettes (perhaps one of the judges of the baby show?)

[Irene Malory Towers]

Me too - I am so glad that you (Green Hedges) found it your favourite Find Outer book, as I also did. There has been some discussion and a readathon elsewhere in another thread in this forum and I was disappointed to see that this book did not score well. It has the most humour out of all the FFO book and when I read it now I still laugh out load. There are so many incidents, when Fatty forgets to remove his earring, when Goon is taken in by their "royal" outfits, the twin baby show with Goon going up and down examining the prams, when Goon is whizzing round and round on the fairground and when Fatty retrieves his bike back from Goon. I love it.

In addition it shows Fatty at his finest (character wise) when he pretends to give Goon credit at the end although it was Fatty who had given him the hint in the first place and Chief Inspector Jenks praises him (Fatty) for that.

True the actual mystery is not traditional with suspects, clues and all of the FFO's taking part, like Mystery of the Pantomime Cat or Invisible Thief or Tally Ho Cottage but it is nice to have variety. I also think it is good that Ern takes an increasingly important role in these mysteries, until (Strange Messages) he is actually number 2 to the great Fatty himself his contribution far surpasses the others.

[Green Hedges]

All true, Irene Malory Towers! I should read the bit about Goon and the babies again. I think I read it too quickly in order to summarise what was going on.

Anita, I see what you mean. But Enid gave the scenario a lot of attention. The first scene taking place in Fatty's shed and then the reprise as they walk down to the river. I think the conceit builds up beautifully and I suspend disbelief while laughing my head off!

Prince Bongduncern.

[Lenoir]

It is different to the usual Mystery Book but great all the same, and quite hilarious in parts thanks to the twins.
I think it was the second-last book I read in the series. As a boy I used to go to the bookshop and scan the shelves to see if they had any new paperbacks I hadn't read.
Every so often a 'new' one would appear and if I had saved enough I could buy it and maybe get a chocolate bar as well to celebrate. That version is the Dragon paperback, and I collected the hardback much later on (2003) from a second hand store.

[Green Hedges]

This reminds me that during my first phase of Enid Blyton reading (mid-1960s) one went to the library for red hardback editions of Famous Five while the bookshop for the colourful paperback covers of Malory Towers, Secret series and Mystery books. This was the first phase of paperbacks for children and obviously Hodder and Stoughton didn't sign up for it. (Collins owned Armada/Dragon.) But it worked in Enid's favour as it meant that it was her name that was attracting children into both libraries and bookshops.

By this time she wasn't writing the books any more, but I hope it gave her pleasure, first, to see the bright, slim books with her name on the cover and, second, to realise so many of the younger generation were still getting hooked on her writing.

Duncan

[pete9012S]

I'm sure it did give her great pleasure Duncan.
Thanks again for one of your earlier postings which answered the very same question which I had long pondered over:

That is a fascinating entry though. The note expressing her enthusiasm about 50,000 copies being sold of the paperback Five Go Adventuring Again shows that despite suffering from debilitating dementia, she still cared about her success and status as a writer.

It seems that Enid Blyton was an admirer of Betty Maxey as she writes of the Famous Five paperbacks: "The books are beautifully produced."

Enid's Last Diaries

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... f=4&t=4659" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to read Duncan's account of how pleased Enid was with the books that where produced for my own generation.
It shows how forward thinking she was right to the end. Who knows, she may even have loved the cartoon/stick-like people covers we see on today's latest editions!

Thanks again to Duncan for helping to answer the question I have long wondered about many of the paperback editions produced during her lifetime.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/for ... paperbacks" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Splodj]

My grand-daughter is now reading the mystery stories and was introduced to them at school. She identifies with Bets, probably because of the age similarity.

On the subject of suspending belief, I was very willing to do this – but only within a framework of real-world laws. (Ye cannae change the laws of physics!) If these are breached the story loses meaning. After all, the basis for The Mystery Of The Vanished Prince is that there is a logical physical explanation for how he vanished; if he could disappear into thin air there would be no mystery.

[db105]

I'm reading this one now. Like Anita, I found the gang pretending to be foreign royalty and fooling Ern and Goon a bit too much even for my inner child. That kind of spoiled the otherwise funny scene for me. But I'm looking forward to getting into the mystery.