No More Jolly Japes?
Growing up I loved reading Enid Blyton books, but they were starting to feel dated even when I was reading them in the 60s and 70s. Apparently the publisher is going to address this by revising the old-fashioned language for a modern audience. Quite a few people are rather peeved about this. Ironically, I’m actually not terribly upset by this idea. This may come from having tried to read some old Secret Seven books to the boys when they were younger and finding that I was having to explain far too much that would have just been normal, or just slightly quaint to an earlier generation.
What I remember from my childhood was that Enid Blyton was disapproved of because she used vernacular and slang. These days folks would probably be more disapproving of the stereotypes. While I was a big fan of her most famous series, The Famous Five, having those updated wouldn’t bother me a bit as I think those books were more about the story. On the other hand, I do think I would be bothered if they try to update her girls boarding school series like St. Clares and Malory Towers as those seemed to me to be about a time as well as a place. Of course, they’ll definitely have to fix up those illustrations while they’re at it. How many teen boys do you know that would be dressed in a suit and tie when on vacation?
