The Adventure Series
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The Adventure Series by Enid Blyton, a prolific English children's author, is a series of eight children's novels. These books feature the same child characters: Philip, Jack, Dinah, and Lucy-Ann, along with several adult characters. Jack's pet cockatoo, Kiki, is also a standard feature in each novel, and the bird always comes through with some raucous utterance that amuses everyone or helps the children to evade danger.
The stories show the four children off on their own, discovering and solving mysteries without much adult assistance. Although the publication dates span a decade, Blyton reportedly wrote each of the novels in less than a week.
The colourful dust jackets were illustrated by Stuart Tresilian.
Contents |
[edit] Novels
- The Island of Adventure (1944) as Mystery Island (US, 1945)
- The Castle of Adventure (1946)
- The Valley of Adventure (1947)
- The Sea of Adventure (1948)
- The Mountain of Adventure (1949) (with Brian J. Peppers)
- The Ship of Adventure (1950)
Originally, the series was supposed to end after this episode, but under the great demand of dedicated fans, Blyton wrote two more episodes:
- The Circus of Adventure (1952)
- The River of Adventure (1955)
All of the books are in print, and the original editions are expensive collectors' items.
TV versions of The Island of Adventure and The Castle of Adventure were made.
TV versions of all of them were made by Cloud 9 Studios, New Zealand.[citation needed] The Castle of Adventure had its title changed to "The Woods of Adventure" and the plot differs greatly from the book.
[edit] Plot summaries
[edit] The Island of Adventure
During his holiday break, Philip Mannering meets Jack and Lucy-Ann Trent, and together they run off to the coastal estate of Philip's aunt and uncle, Craggy Tops. Soon, the three of them and Dinah, Philip's sister, witness strange happenings centering about the nearby Island of Gloom and two strange characters — the grumpy and unfriendly manservant, Jo Jo (renamed Joe in a later, bowdlerised, version), and the mysterious fellow calling himself Bill Smugs (real name: Bill Cunningham). A trip to the island's abandoned copper mines yields an unexpected surprise as they discover a sinister operation being conducted in the abandoned shafts.
The book has been severely criticized on its complete ignorance of geology.
[edit] The Castle of Adventure
The children and Mrs. Mannering travel to a lonely mountain cottage, which lies close to an old castle. Curious about the ruin, and eager to watch a family of golden eagles nesting in it, the children explore the place. Jack decides to stay overnight in the castle courtyard, and finds he is not alone. He finds men doing bad things and quickly alerts his close friends who get help.
In 1990 a TV adaptation of The Castle of Adventure was made and became popular with a teenage audience. It is still available, though mostly in VHS form.
[edit] The Valley of Adventure
Preparing for a trip by plane with Bill, the four children inadvertently go into the wrong plane, which takes off under frightening circumstances — and find themselves stranded in an isolated valley scarred by war, and at the mercy of sinister men looking for a long-lost treasure.
[edit] The Sea of Adventure
Bill takes the foursome on a trip to a Scottish island to help them recover from measles. But amongst the islands, they stumble upon a sinister plot; Bill disappears, and the children are left alone to find out where he is and what is going on.
[edit] The Mountain of Adventure
Hoping for a quiet holiday for once, the children, Kiki, Mrs. Mannering and Bill head off for a mountain farm in Wales for some wandering. But on the search for the Vale of Butterflies, the children get lost and find themselves near a mysterious mountain. Ominous rumblings of the ground, a pack of wolves roaming the area, a black fugitive, and Philip's disappearance are but a few of the mysteries the children have to unravel about the mountain.
[edit] The Ship of Adventure
On a trip to the Mediterranean, Lucy-Ann acquires a ship in a bottle, which proves to be the key to the location of a long-lost treasure. But eager as the children are to find it, they soon have to deal with a sinister adversary who will stop at nothing to get the riches for himself.
[edit] The Circus of Adventure
Who is the strange pompous boy Bill has invited to his home for the holidays? The children soon discover that he is a prince, and as such he has enemies. Jack and Kiki find themselves following the others who are kidnapped and taken to a strange country — but they find help in a circus, and with his new friends Jack will soon decide the fate of an entire nation.
[edit] The River of Adventure
Recovering from a very bad flu, the four children and their family make a river trip in the Middle East. But not only for an innocent occasion; Bill has received the task to watch a crook named Raya Uma. The children soon find another adventure revolving around a magnificent buried city filled with treasure beyond imagination.
[edit] External links
- Adventure Series Book Reviews & Articles
- The Island of Adventure at the Internet Movie Database
- The Castle of Adventure at the Internet Movie Database
- Adventure Series Online
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