Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton PDF

Author: Andrew Maunder

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-12-02

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 3030763323

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book is a study of the best-selling writer for children Enid Blyton (1897-1968) and provides a new account of her career. It draws on Blyton’s business correspondence to give a fresh account of a misunderstood figure who for forty years was one of Britain’s most successful and powerful authors. It examines Blyton’s rise to fame in the 1920s and considers the ways in which she managed her career as a storyteller, journalist and magazine editor. There is discussion of her most famous series including the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, Malory Towers and Noddy, but attention is also given to lesser-known works including the family stories she published to acclaim in the 1940s and early 1950s, as well as her attempts to become a dramatist. The book also discusses Blyton’s fluctuating critical reputation, how she and her works were received and how Blyton the person has fared at the hands of biographers and the media.

The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature

The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature PDF

Author: Bernice E. Cullinan

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2005-01-01

Total Pages: 930

ISBN-13: 9780826417787

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Provides articles covering children's literature from around the world as well as biographical and critical reviews of authors including Avi, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, and Anno Mitsumasa.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

What's Eating Gilbert Grape PDF

Author: Peter Hedges

Publisher: Rosetta Books

Published: 2014-11-12

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 0795343221

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

“Wonderfully entertaining . . . This distinctive first novel goes down like a chocolate milkshake but boasts the sharpness and finesse of a complex wine” (Publishers Weekly). Gilbert Grape is a twenty-four-year-old grocery store clerk stuck in Endora, Iowa, where the population is 1,091 and shrinking. After the suicide of Gilbert’s father, his family never fully recovered. Once the town beauty queen, Gilbert’s mother is now morbidly obese and planted eternally in front of the TV; his younger sister has recently turned both boy-crazy and God-fearing, while his older sister sacrifices everything for her family. And then there’s Arnie, Gilbert’s younger brother with special needs. With no one else to care for Arnie, Gilbert becomes his brother’s main parent, and all four siblings must tend to the needs of their helpless, grieving mother. So Gilbert is in a rut—until a mysterious new girl named Becky arrives in this small town. As his family gathers for Arnie’s eighteenth birthday, Gilbert finds himself at a crossroads . . . This “completely original” portrait of a family (The New York Times), “charged with sardonic intelligence” (The Washington Post Book World), was the basis for a film starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, and stands as one of the most memorable novels of recent decades. “Sometimes funny, sometimes sad . . . and always engaging.” —The Atlantic “By the book’s exhilaratingly luminous ending . . . we have already been mesmerized.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer “A funny, touching, caring first novel whose characters are familiar and moving in spite of (or perhaps because of) their peculiarities.” —Booklist

Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton PDF

Author: Barbara Stoney

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2011-08-26

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 0752469576

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Enid Blyton is known throughout the world for her imaginative children's books and her enduring characters such as Noddy and the Famous Five. She is one of the most borrowed authors from British libraries and still holds a fascination for readers old and young alike. Yet until 1974, when Barbara Stoney first published her official biography, little was known about this most private author, even by members of her own family.The woman who emerged from Barbara Stoney's remarkable research was hardworking, complex, often difficult and, in many ways, childlike. Now this widely praised classic biography has been fully updated for the twenty-first century and, with the addition of new colour illustrations and a comprehensive list of Enid Blyton's writings, documents the growing appeal of this extraordinary woman throughout the world. The fascinating story of one of the world's most famous authors will intrigue and delight all those with an interest in her timeless books.

The Real Enid Blyton

The Real Enid Blyton PDF

Author: Nadia Cohen

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2018-08-30

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1526722046

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

She is the most prolific childrens author in history, but Enid Blyton is also the most controversial. A remarkable woman who wrote hundreds of books in a career spanning forty years, even her razor sharp mind could never have predicted her enormous global audience. Now, fifty years after her death, Enid remains a phenomenon, with sales outstripping every rival.Parents and teachers lobbied against Enids books, complaining they were simplistic, repetitive and littered with sexist and snobbish undertones. Blatant racist slurs were particularly shockingly; foreign and working class characters were treated with a distain that horrifies modern readers. But regardless of the criticism, Enid worked until she could not physically write another word, famously producing thousands of words a day hunched over her manual typewriter.She imaged a more innocent world, where children roamed unsupervised, and problems were solved with midnight feasts or glorious picnics with lashings of ginger beer. Smugglers, thieves, spies and kidnappers were thwarted by fearless gangs who easily outwitted the police, while popular schoolgirls scored winning goals in nail-biting lacrosse matches.Enid carefully crafted her public image to ensure her fans only knew of this sunny persona, but behind the scenes, she weaved elaborate stories to conceal infidelities, betrayals and unconventional friendships, lied about her childhood and never fully recovered from her parents marriage collapsing. She grew up convinced that her beloved father abandoned her for someone he loved more, and few could ever measure up to her impossible standards.A complex and immature woman, Enid was plagued by insecurities and haunted by a dark past. She was prone to bursts of furious temper, yet was a shrewd businesswoman years ahead of her time. She may not have been particularly likeable, and her stories infuriatingly unimaginative, but she left a vast literary legacy to generations of children.

Looking For Enid

Looking For Enid PDF

Author: Duncan Mclaren

Publisher: Portobello Books

Published: 2012-09-06

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1846274915

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This is a strikingly inventive and unusual portrait of the most successful English writer for children (until J. K. Rowling), Enid Blyton, who entertained millions worldwide with her myriad adventure stories and mysteries but was herself both an adventure and a mystery. This book is for everyone who ever wondered what kind of woman Enid Blyton was. Enid Blyton gave us the Famous Five and Fatty's Find-Outers, the Enchanted Wood and the Wishing Chair. Some of us, encouraged by austere critics, have pretended no longer to want what Enid gave. We have pretended that we were not once upon a time enthralled by her stories. We have chosen to forget how much we loved the time we spent in their company. And we have feigned disdain. Now, Duncan McLaren offers lapsed devotees the possibility of honest redemption. If you're willing to acknowledge that Enid Blyton once mattered to you, you are warmly invited to accompany Duncan on an adventure that will investigate what made Enid Enid and endeavour to reach the source of her torrent of stories, those that came when she was 'letting her mind go free'.

Eight Children in Narnia

Eight Children in Narnia PDF

Author: Jared Lodbell

Publisher: Open Court

Published: 2016-10-04

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0812699106

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Eight Children in Narnia is a detailed study of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, exploring the story’s influences, themes, symbols, ironies—and the reasons for its enormous popular success. Lobdell draws attention to insistent motifs in the work: the great house in the country, the past alive in the present, the life of the imagination, the mixture of the familiar and the adventurously new, the combination of pageant and satire, the child as judge, and the child as warrior. A prolific writer and literary scholar with an established reputation, Lewis decided quite late in life to write something completely new to him: a story for children, and he drew upon his own childhood memories as well as his literary and philosophical theories. Among the many important influences Lobdell identifies Bunyan, Swift, Kipling, and the popular children’s writer E. Nesbit, as well as the classic fairy-tale and medieval romance.