Will the real Enid Blyton, please stand up? It took some finding, and cost closer to a ten-shilling note than half a farthing, but I now have together both the whole St. Clare’s series and the Malory Towers series, by Enid Blyton, in the original text Methuen hardcovers. All but Last Term at Malory Towers, I purchased at Chapter 1 Books of Johannesburg, which deserves a shout out for getting a large order right even when I initially made a typo on the email address. Chapter 1 is a great resource for uncommon used books and, even after my plundering their stocks, has a huge variety of Blyton titles dating from before the textual changes.
https://www.chapter1.co.za
I‘ve just finished re-reading The Twins at St. Clare’s (1941) in the original, but the sequel, The O’Sullivan Twins (1942), was one of the three books still with the original dust jacket, and carefully preserved in plastic, so understandably, I couldn’t quite wait to show off how pretty it is.
Here is the entry at The Enid Blyton Society, with summary reviews and the cover art for different editions.
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=299
Unfortunately, the Society does not list all the textual changes that appear in printings from recent decades. Credit for documenting those goes to Fiona at the World of Blyton blog.
”The Twins at St Clare’s – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition?”
part 1 https://worldofblyton.com/2015/11/13/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-faired-in-a-modern-edition/
part 2 https://worldofblyton.com/2015/11/25/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition/
part 3 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/01/27/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-two/
part 4 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/02/26/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-four/
part 5 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/03/18/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-five/
part 6 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/04/20/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-five-2/
part 7 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/05/25/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-seven/
Fiona tallies 83 changes throughout the text, which she says is considerably fewer on average than most Blyton titles! Some are punctuation changes, but many are more substantial. Some of the worst come at the beginning of my favorite chapter, “The Great Midnight Feast”. Money amounts are changed to reflect decimalisation throughout, and comparing with the 2013 Dean edition I read the first time, you can see what an effect this, among other changes, as on the opening pages of Chapter VIII. Dean, by the way, is an imprint of Egmont, and at fore and aft in my paperback (soon to be left for adoption in a Little Free Library, per Gresham’s law) has pages boasting how ethical they are—in the very book where they don’t have any acknowledgment that the text, proudly boasting Enid Blyton’s signature on the spine, has been altered. But the biggest change comes when an entire passage is excised from Chapter XIII, ”The Four Truants”, when the O’Sullivan Twins, Kathleen, and Janet sneak out to see Galliano’s Circus (the subject of a series of three books on its own). One of the best details, five bears playing Ring a Ring o’ Roses, is completely excised! Presumably it is thought cruelty to animals to have bears in the circus.
Some other changes are typical woke nonsense, like changing a cat named Blackie to Sooty, and changing queer to strange; others, like the currency changes, or changing gramophone to record player, are supposed to update the text (though as Flora asks, why didn’t they just update the book al the way, and make the record player an iPod dock?) Many, though, seem to serve no point at all, and I imagine the chums in the Egmont boiler room mouthing “Wherever I go, I must also bowdlerize.” Fiona is, if anything, too forgiving of these cretins. Come 2036, The Twins at St. Clare’s will be in the public domain, and I richly look forward to seeing new editions with the original text restored driving these clowns out of business.
It is a pity more casual readers will still need to wait that long; even I got fooled and only learned the language had been adulterized by chance. Even reading twice over in succession, The Twins at St. Clare’s is a fine story of the marvellous, stunning life of a girls’ boarding school, with a great cast of characters, moments of folly and growth, secrets kept and found out, midnight rites and obstreperous pranks, told with simple language and class.
The original Methuen hardcover has eight illustrations by W. Lindsay Cable. Most of these are not too exciting, but I really loved this one facing Chapter XVIII. You really get a sense for the English ‘heath’ contryside St. Clare’s is situated in. But superior ‘illustration’ would have to wait until the gorgeous anime adaptation, which dates to 1991. You can see the opening here (tap options on screen for sound). https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV13C411V7nW/ I am eager to see it, but will wait until having read all the books, in case it adapts incidents from later entries.
Let this post be a wake-up call that it is high time to reclaim the great Enid Blyton and other great children’s authors from the latter-day “editors”, who have an unwarranted liberty to tamper with beloved texts without notifying prospective readers. If these texts were inferior, it would be simple work to put them out of print and simply publish new authors, but no! These publishers continue to use the canonical authors’ good names, slapped on inferior, amended texts, leaving their pockets lined, and new would-be fans turned off, wondering why mum and pop were so enthused about the volumes that appeared under the same titles, but with subtly different words, back in their own day.
But today, here, these fakers are FOUND OUT and EXPOSED! #EnidBlyton #TheTwinsAtStClares #StClares #EnidBlytonSociety #boardingschool #girlsschool #school #bowdlerization #adulteration #woke #rewriting #MischievousTwins #anime #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books
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https://www.chapter1.co.za
I‘ve just finished re-reading The Twins at St. Clare’s (1941) in the original, but the sequel, The O’Sullivan Twins (1942), was one of the three books still with the original dust jacket, and carefully preserved in plastic, so understandably, I couldn’t quite wait to show off how pretty it is.
Here is the entry at The Enid Blyton Society, with summary reviews and the cover art for different editions.
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=299
Unfortunately, the Society does not list all the textual changes that appear in printings from recent decades. Credit for documenting those goes to Fiona at the World of Blyton blog.
”The Twins at St Clare’s – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition?”
part 1 https://worldofblyton.com/2015/11/13/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-faired-in-a-modern-edition/
part 2 https://worldofblyton.com/2015/11/25/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition/
part 3 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/01/27/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-two/
part 4 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/02/26/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-four/
part 5 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/03/18/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-five/
part 6 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/04/20/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-five-2/
part 7 https://worldofblyton.com/2016/05/25/the-twins-at-st-clares-how-has-blytons-original-text-fared-in-a-modern-edition-part-seven/
Fiona tallies 83 changes throughout the text, which she says is considerably fewer on average than most Blyton titles! Some are punctuation changes, but many are more substantial. Some of the worst come at the beginning of my favorite chapter, “The Great Midnight Feast”. Money amounts are changed to reflect decimalisation throughout, and comparing with the 2013 Dean edition I read the first time, you can see what an effect this, among other changes, as on the opening pages of Chapter VIII. Dean, by the way, is an imprint of Egmont, and at fore and aft in my paperback (soon to be left for adoption in a Little Free Library, per Gresham’s law) has pages boasting how ethical they are—in the very book where they don’t have any acknowledgment that the text, proudly boasting Enid Blyton’s signature on the spine, has been altered. But the biggest change comes when an entire passage is excised from Chapter XIII, ”The Four Truants”, when the O’Sullivan Twins, Kathleen, and Janet sneak out to see Galliano’s Circus (the subject of a series of three books on its own). One of the best details, five bears playing Ring a Ring o’ Roses, is completely excised! Presumably it is thought cruelty to animals to have bears in the circus.
Some other changes are typical woke nonsense, like changing a cat named Blackie to Sooty, and changing queer to strange; others, like the currency changes, or changing gramophone to record player, are supposed to update the text (though as Flora asks, why didn’t they just update the book al the way, and make the record player an iPod dock?) Many, though, seem to serve no point at all, and I imagine the chums in the Egmont boiler room mouthing “Wherever I go, I must also bowdlerize.” Fiona is, if anything, too forgiving of these cretins. Come 2036, The Twins at St. Clare’s will be in the public domain, and I richly look forward to seeing new editions with the original text restored driving these clowns out of business.
It is a pity more casual readers will still need to wait that long; even I got fooled and only learned the language had been adulterized by chance. Even reading twice over in succession, The Twins at St. Clare’s is a fine story of the marvellous, stunning life of a girls’ boarding school, with a great cast of characters, moments of folly and growth, secrets kept and found out, midnight rites and obstreperous pranks, told with simple language and class.
The original Methuen hardcover has eight illustrations by W. Lindsay Cable. Most of these are not too exciting, but I really loved this one facing Chapter XVIII. You really get a sense for the English ‘heath’ contryside St. Clare’s is situated in. But superior ‘illustration’ would have to wait until the gorgeous anime adaptation, which dates to 1991. You can see the opening here (tap options on screen for sound). https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV13C411V7nW/ I am eager to see it, but will wait until having read all the books, in case it adapts incidents from later entries.
Let this post be a wake-up call that it is high time to reclaim the great Enid Blyton and other great children’s authors from the latter-day “editors”, who have an unwarranted liberty to tamper with beloved texts without notifying prospective readers. If these texts were inferior, it would be simple work to put them out of print and simply publish new authors, but no! These publishers continue to use the canonical authors’ good names, slapped on inferior, amended texts, leaving their pockets lined, and new would-be fans turned off, wondering why mum and pop were so enthused about the volumes that appeared under the same titles, but with subtly different words, back in their own day.
But today, here, these fakers are FOUND OUT and EXPOSED! #EnidBlyton #TheTwinsAtStClares #StClares #EnidBlytonSociety #boardingschool #girlsschool #school #bowdlerization #adulteration #woke #rewriting #MischievousTwins #anime #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books
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