The Valley of Adventure

I've first read this as a child and don't know how often I actually re-read this. Often. Very often, I guess. It is my favourite book of Enid Blyton's, including some of the most appealing settings I've ever read about. Seriously, reading the summary, this book sounds weird. But reading the book, suddenly the summary sounds weird, not truly captivating the book's essence, the magnificience of how Enid Blyton managed to paint those characters and create a plot around them.

It has been a while since my last read, but I remember having a little trouble with the resolution of the storyline, so I decided to rate it with four stars. It is still a book to be recommended.

I continue to be surprised by the Adventure series, the plots of which all seem to be longer and more involved than any other Blyton books I've read. The children certainly travel further than the Famous five ever do - this time they end up in Austria. But everything else is just the same - it is, for example, reassuringly possible to tell whether someone is good or bad just by looking at them.

It is also fascinatingly possible to see evidence of the classism Blyton is always criticised for. Towards the end, the children are looked after by an elderly couple, who are always referred to as "the old people" and who are frequently talked about instead of to, as though the couple weren't actually present. It feels quite uncomfortable to read show more actually.

The strangest thing is the reference to the war. Blyton is known to be one of the children's authors who continued to write as though the war didn't exist. This novel, published in 1947, does in fact talk about the war in the past tense, although, strangely, as something that happened to other countries. The children appear to know there was a war (though they speak about it as though about something a long time ago) but don't seem to know much about it or feel that it had anything to do with them. Absolutely fascinating really. I wonder what it would have been like to read this book in England back in the latter 40s. I suppose that children young enough to read it then would have been too young to be really seriously involved in the war when it was on, but I would imagine they would certainly remember it. And rationing would most certainly not be a distant memory but a current reality for them!

Despite the greater complexity, I still can't take to the Adventure series as I do to the Five. But it really is interesting to see a series handled differently. I wonder what's next? show less

The sexism didn't bother me as much as the bit at the end where Philip rather high-handedly tells the policeman to stop asking questions and go after the bad guys. It made me think of the bit in Terry Pratchett where Commander Vimes, a policeman, thinks how much he hates to be called "my man" in a particular kind of neighing voice. Still, the delight of reading an Enid Blyton always outweighs any of the negatives. Cool stuff includes a cave behind a waterfall and a collection of looted Nazi treasure.

The third Adventure book puts the children in a particularly thrilling situation. About to go on a trip with Bill, they get by mistake into the plane a group of crooks are using, and are taken to an isolated and uninhabited valley in the Alps, with breathtaking scenery and ruins of burned old buildings. There's just no apparent way to leave the valley, and the bad guys are after some kind of treasure hidden during the war. The children have to hide from them, obtain food and shelter and try to escape the valley.

The story really captures the imagination of children and of anyone who can suspend disbelief and just enjoy the innocent adventure.

Oh how I've missed this series. I think this was my favourite series by Enid Blyton, and it is much more successful than the 'famous five'.

Nice and safe adventures with stupid, witless crooks, lots of food (there is always lots of food in Enid Blyton books!) and sleeping on "soft and springy moss".

Of course there is the somewhat annoying issue of the sexism in the books, which comes to light in the boys doing all the dangerous thingswhile the girls stay to "keep watch" on the cave, but it is simply a thing you have to deal with when reading Enid Blyton.

6.3.07

Another fun adventure! Once I started this one I couldn't put it down. I was so curious what was going to happen next :-) So much fun!

Adrianne

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