Monday, January 21, 2008
Jennifer Thanisch as Anne, Michelle Gallagher as Georgina, Gary Russell as Dick, Marcus Harris as Julian from "The Famous Five" (1978-1979) television
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The 21 Books
| Five on a Treasure Island (1942 - ISBN 0-340-79614-6) Five Go Adventuring Again (1943 - ISBN 0-340-79615-4) Five Run Away Together (1944 - ISBN 0-340-79617-0) Five Go To Smuggler's Top (1945 - ISBN 0-340-79618-9) Five Go Off In A Caravan (1946 - ISBN 0-340-79619-7) Five on Kirrin Island Again (1947 - ISBN 0-340-79620-0) Five Go off to Camp (1948 - ISBN 0-340-79621-9) Five Get into Trouble (1949 - ISBN 0-340-79623-5) Five Fall into Adventure (1950 - ISBN 0-340-79622-7) Five on a Hike Together (1951 - ISBN 0-340-79624-3) Five Have A Wonderful Time (1952 - ISBN 0-340-79625-1) Five Go Down to the Sea (1953 - ISBN 0-340-79626-X) Five Go to Mystery Moor (1954 - ISBN 0-340-79627-8) Five Have Plenty of Fun (1955 - ISBN 0-340-68119-5) Five on a Secret Trail (1956 - ISBN 0-340-79629-4) Five Go to Billycock Hill (1957 - ISBN 0-340-79630-8) Five Get into a Fix (1958 - ISBN 0-340-03363-0) Five on Finniston Farm (1960 - ISBN 0-340-68123-3) Five Go to Demon's Rocks (1961 - ISBN 0-340-79633-2) Five Have a Mystery to Solve (1962 - ISBN 0-340-79634-0) Five Are Together Again (1963 - ISBN 0-340-79635-9) |
Characters
| George (Georgina) Kirrin: Georgina is a tomboy, demanding that people call her George. By cutting her hair very short and dressing like a boy, she is often mistaken for one, something which pleases her enormously. She is headstrong by nature and, like her father, Quentin, has a fiery temper. Dick (Richard) Kirrin: George's cousin, and brother of Julian and Anne, sometimes mistaken for George because of his behaviour and dark hair. Dick is the joker of the group, but also very thoughtful. Julian Kirrin: The eldest of the five, cousin to George and older brother to Dick and Anne. He is an intelligent boy and a natural leader whose cleverness and reliability is often noted by Aunt Fanny. Anne Kirrin: The youngest in the group, and written by Blyton as girlish, with a natural instinct to mother the others. She famously dislikes the adventures the Five constantly encounter, but soldiers on loyally. Timmy: George's dog and the unofficial mascot for the group, who is available to attack unwanted people on George's command. Timmy is the archetypal loyal mongrel-clever, affectionate and fiercely loyal to his owners and to George in particular; he provides physical protection for the children on multiple occasions. George adores Timmy and thinks that Timmy is beautiful. In the first book of the series, George's parents forbid her to keep Timmy and George is forced to hide him. After the end of their first adventure, they relent and she allowed to keep him. Jo, the gypsy girl: First appears in "Five fall into adventure" and in several others. The first adventure finds her in an abusive relationship with her father, but when he is sent to prison she is fostered. She has the only romantic interest in the books, being obviously attracted to Dick. He had hit her when they first met, believing her to be a boy - and was later mortified. She immediately liked him. Fanny Kirrin: George's mother, and aunt to Dick, Julian and Anne. Aunt Fanny is married to Uncle Quentin, and is, through most of Blyton's Famous Five novels, the principal maternal figure in the lives of the children. (Julian, Dick and Anne's parents are very rarely seen, and rarely even mentioned, as most of their adventures take place on school holidays while visiting the village of Kirrin.) Quentin Kirrin: George's father, and a famous inventor and scientist. He possesses an infamous temper and has little tolerance for children on school holidays, but is nevertheless not as heartless as he may at first seem. In the first book of the series, it is established that he is the brother of Julian, Dick and Anne's father. |
Five Go Down to the Sea (1953). Knight 1973 paperback edition. 188 pages
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Overview
| Three of the children, Julian, Dick and Anne, are siblings. During their holidays, they are regularly sent to the seaside town of Kirrin to stay with their Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin, whose daughter, Georgina, is a tomboy always known as George. The stories almost always take place in the children's holidays when they come home from their respective boarding schools. Every time they get together, they get caught up in an adventure, the location of which varies from book to book. Sometimes the scene is set close to George's home at Kirrin Cottage: "Kirrin Island", a picturesque island in Kirrin Bay, for example, presents many opportunities for adventure. Since both George's own home and various other houses are hundreds of years old, there is room for much in the way of secret passages or smugglers' tunnels, which play a central role in the plot of several books in the series. On other occasions, the children may go camping or hiking or be sent on holiday together elsewhere, but they are always accompanied by George's dog, Timothy, affectionately known to the children as Timmy. The settings, however, are almost always rural and enable the children to discover the simple joys of cottages, picnics, ginger beer, bicycle trips, home-made food, islands, sea shores, and always have a thrilling adventure. Blyton always said that George was based on a real girl she had once known: in her later life, she admitted that that girl was herself. |
Five on Treasure Island
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Famous Five
| The Famous Five is Enid Blyton's most popular and celebrated series of children's books. The sequence began life in 1942, when the first book, Five on a Treasure Island was published, and it has won great acclaim from both fans and critics. The series has gone on to become amongst the best-loved stories ever to have been written for children. All the "Famous Five" books have been adapted for television at some stage. The series feature a fictional group of children - Julian, Dick, Anne and George - and their dog Timmy. Blyton also created several such groups for her detective series, including The Secret Seven and Five Find-Outers and Dog, but the Famous Five are the best-known and most popular of these. Blyton only intended to write about 6 to 8 books in the series but, owing to their high sales and immense commercial success, she went on to write 21 full-length books featuring these memorable characters. Indeed, by the end of 1953, more than 6 million copies of these books had been printed and sold. Even today, more than two million copies of the books are sold each year, making them one of the biggest-selling series for children ever written. |