The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage

The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage is the first book written on or about Enid Blyton from a multi-cultural stance, that is, from an international panorama. It examines Enid Blyton's changing viewpoints during her literary career toward familial issues, science, health, religion, and the environment through the lenses of one of her most well renowned series, The Famous Five.

The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage in Summary

The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage is the first book that analyzes Enid Blyton's literary works with special emphasis on The Famous Five series from a multi-cultural as well as international perspective. In the first chapter an introductory analysis on all the 21 original Famous Five books is undertaken. In the second chapter, titled, "Enid Blyton," a brief factual biography of Enid Blyton is undertaken. In the third chapter, titled, "Language," the author examines the linguistic complexities of reading books in English as a second language, based on the author's personal experiences, using Enid Blyton's books as cardinal aspects in this context. He also looks at, in brief, the comparative history of publishing in Europe, North America as well as Africa. He also examines Enid Blyton's literary influences on several prominent writers in Africa, Europe and North America. In the fourth as well as the most sensitive of all the chapters, titled, "Stereotyping," the author alludes to the accusations labelled against some of Enid Blyton's literary works as being stereotypical in its analysis of some ethnic, racial and religious groups within their historical, political as well as socio-economic contexts. In this aspect, the "Golliwog," "Nigger," "Gypsy," as well as class and nationality "cliches" are given largesse explications. In the fifth and last chapter, titled, "Familial Politics," the author examines the dynamics behind the successes of The Famous Five series as a microcosm of analyzing familial cohesion and discord within families, an aspect that ties in all-too familiar Blytonian themes such as food, science, religion, health, environment as well as comparative illustrations in The Famous Five books, with special emphasis on those by Eileen Soper and Betty Maxey. The chapter also analyzes Enid Blyton's literary works in comparison with other children's writers, before and after Enid Blyton with an inclusion of American influence on Blytonian Literature and vice-versa in a rather symbiotic manner The book ends by summarizing the main anecdotes, from the author's perspective, in all of the 21 original Famous Five books. The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage can currently be purchased at: http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.amazon.co.uk/, www.kobobooks.com, http://barnesandnoble.com/, http://http://www.bn.com/, http://amazon.ca/, http://www.borders.com/, http://www.wikio.com/, http://www.infibeam.com/. http://www.flipkart.com/, http://www.booksamillion.com/, http://www.pronto.com/, http://www.goodreads.com/, http://www.abebooks.com/, http://www.abebooks.co.uk/, http://www.alibris.com/, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/, http://www.bn.com/, http://www.kinokuniya.com/, http://www.strandbooks.com/, http://www.bookadda.com/, www.dealoz.com, www.shopzilla.com, www.shopzilla.co.uk, www.booktopia.com, www.textbooks.com, www.textbooksrus.com, www.half.com, www.campusbookrentals.com, www.valorebooks.com, www.alibris.com, www.nextag.com, www.allbookstores.com, www.ecampus.com, www.biggerbooks.com, www.bookdepository.com