Famous Five: 4: Five Go To Smuggler's Top: 70th Anniversary Edition: Book 4 (Famous Five 70th Anniversary)

Product Information

Smuggler’s Top is an ancient house steeped in mystery. There are hidden passages behind panels, deep pits under ordinary floors that lead into a honeycomb of passages, some known and others where a clueless person could get lost in…forever.

Having witnessed signalling from the tower, the boys investigate. But then a figure comes down the stairs! Dat laatste heeft voor mij in dit verhaal altijd geprimeerd, en het is publiek geheim dat Enid Blyton de moeite heeft genomen om alles zo realistisch mogelijk te maken. Ze heeft zich namelijk gebaseerd op het stadje Rye, dat in het graafschap Kent ligt, vlak aan zee, op een heuvel die vroeger volledig omringd werd door moerassen - en nu nog voor een klein deel eraan grenst (het hele gebied daar, van Rye tot aan de Romney Marshes, was vroeger allemaal verraderlijk gebied). Rye stond ook bekend als smokkelaarsstadje. Ik ben er een paar keer geweest - de laatste keer een jaar of acht geleden, volgens mij - en ondertussen is de mist er allang weggetrokken, maar de situering als heuvel is natuurlijk nog altijd goed te zien. De hele sfeer die Blyton creëert, met mist, grotten en mysterieuze seinen, zit geweldig goed ineen. Google "Enid Blyton racism" and you find lots of articles. Her home town is very divided as some regard her as an icon and others actually remember her as a "nasty piece of work" - a sexist, racist, antisemitic, snob. The sexism is flagrant in her books too. The girls are always "helping mother to cook the dinner" or doing some other little domestic task. Not the boys, of course. Now Uncle Quentin, who in book one was writing formulas in his secret books and brewing stuff in test tubes, seems to have morphed into a civil engineer and is collaborating with their new host, Mr Lenoir, to drain the swamp, in a literal rather than Trumpian, sense. Caves and tunnels are a staple of this series. Few, if any, of the 23 books don't go underground or through the walls at some point.The wider conflict concerns the local smuggler who uses the marshes, and rather unbelievably ends up kidnapping Uncle Quentin in some implausible plan to thwart the draining by buying then burning his plans, thus stopping ... the swamp ... from being drained? Also, the smuggler is very rich and only smuggles for fun. If you cannot open a .mobi file on your mobile device, please use .epub with an appropriate eReader. Het zal wel niemand echt verwonderen dat dit boek ook echt over - jawel - smokkelaars gaat en dat ook het hele mysterie daarom draait. Maar op het einde word je als lezer toch nog verrast en blijkt het net iets meer te zijn dan dat - en blijkt oom Quentin er voor iets tussen te zitten. Daarnaast gaat dit boek wel iets sneller van start dan anders - en het verhaal zelf begint trouwens ook met een ferme knal, een die je misschien niet meteen ziet aankomen.

Still, they are highly entertaining and useful cultural history lesson (of a certain set of people). It’s weird reading them out loud with my American accent (but my son won’t even let me try to affect a British one), especially when they use British slang or manner of speaking. But I’m entertained by the dichotomy, even if my son doesn’t notice. Both children and adults have no arc in this book. There is just a clumsy collage of scenes that look pathetic to the eye. The smugglers, the hosts, the victims of kidnapping, all of them seem to lug no pulse in them, and no brain activity whatsoever. Given that there seems to be two of the brightest minds in science under that sinister and lugubrious roof, God help us what lesser mortals act like in that murky and brownish grey universe. Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's. The original conflict is over the taking of Timmy. Mr Lenoir hates dogs. This is generally an unfailing indicator of villainy!Timmy has caused many problems for his mistress in the past and yet another springs up: She's not allowed to have him at Smuggler's Top because Mr Lenoir despises dogs but that doesn't put George off. Typically, she decides to take him anyway but with the firm resolve that Timmy will be kept hidden from Mr Lenoir's view. Timmy is not allowed at Smuggler's Top, so the children have to smuggle him in and out via a trapdoor that leads to passages below.