The Twins at St Clare's

[donnaimmaculata]

There's been some discussions on Enid Blyton on my flist lately, and then shocolate linked to this article, on which I wanted to comment, but then the comment kinda expanded...

So, I'm bringing you a post instead. Here are some titbits which you Blyton readers from English-speaking countries may not be aware of:

The St Clare's series is wildly popular in Germany. In fact, it has been almost entirely germanised, with the twins being renamed "Hanni" and "Nanni" (I've no idea which one's supposed to be Pat and which Isabel) and going to a school named "Lindenhof". The other characters' names have been changed, too. There's a Heidi, if I'm not mistaken, and Alison's been turned into "Ellie".

Also, I've only just learned that the St Clare's series originally included only six books. The German series has, like, two hundred, most of which were written in the 1970s/1980s by German authors employed by the publishing house. Seriously, there seems to be an endless supply of "Hanni und Nanni" books, with all sorts of adventures in a castle haunted by ghosts (IIRC), a stay in a school hostel in the country, Pat (or Isabel) being kidnapped in a Philippine princess's stead, and many more. St Clare's fanfiction, if you will - albeit very, very gen. I supposed none of the ghostwriters dared tread the femmeslash path. At least one of the books has horses.

At their midnight parties they have cake, sausages and lemonade; I understand that the food selection is much more multi-varied and out-there in the original?

Instead lacrosse, they play handball. And even though it's never explicitly stated, I think the new books are contemporary - i.e. set in the 1970s/80s. It's definitely heavily implied in the illustrations: I re-read one of the books only last week, and it's got very 70s illustrations, including a poster of a long-haired, bearded rock singer on the common room wall.

There's a film being currently made: Hanni & Nanni, scheduled for release in 2009. And did you know there's a Japanese series?

Just a thought, but: if the German publisher actually employed people to continue writing books for a popular British boarding school series - why not do the same with Harry Potter? Maybe I should put the idea forward and see what they think.

ETA: Um, is the embedding working? I can see the embedded video in the preview and on my LJ, but it doesn't show up in my f-list view.

ETA 2: Nevermind, it does now.

ETA 3: From the Wikipedia entry on Malory Towers:

"The German translation of the series adds twelve books occurring after the sixth, with Darrell (in the German version: Dolly Rieder) returning to a college associated with Malory Towers ("Burg Möwenfels"), the "Möwennest" (Malory Nest). As the story develops she returns to Malory Towers, first as educator, then she becomes matron of the famous 'North Tower' where she resided as a child. She marries her former "Möwennest" teacher in German and Literature, has a baby girl (Katharina) and finally becomes headmistress of Malory Towers, after Miss Grayling (Frau Greiling) had been seriously injured in a traffic accident, and is unable to work any longer." (emphasis mine)

Reads somewhat like a Harry/Snape fanfic, doesn't it?

Comments

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

*facepalms* I actually found her Wikipedia page without even realising that Rosina's supplied the wrong name! My reading skillz obviously fail.

They do sound very much like something I would like to read, because, like you, I love the boarding school trope. There isn't much of a boarding school tradition in Germany, which is probably why we don't get boarding school stories here. But as I said in a comment above: if someone ever decided to turn Harry Potter into an endless series - book or television - of adventures in a wizard boarding school, I'd be lapping them up. I know many people complain the books are too long and we don't really need the descriptions of Neville's time tables etc., but the everyday school life is the reason why I read these books in the first place. The whole Voldemort conflict is quite irrelevant.

I don't mind the Victorian morals. In fact, a nice plotty novel in a Victorian boarding school would exactly cater to my taste.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

From what you say, I highly recommend at least the first few Chalet School books - then if you hate them you can give up. :).

Reading order: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Brent-Dyer

(Just for your information, there's a fairly biased depiction of a Prussian girl who they give up on at about book eight), but I think the war books are fairly pacific, although obviously they have the clear anti-German sentiments of anything written at the time.)

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I think Rosina mentioned the Prussian girl somewhere upthread. I'm pretty sure my German sensibilities would not be insulted by a biased description of a Prussian girl. I understand that some Enid Blyton books have been censored later to take out some racist or classicist sentiments, but I think that these things should be left in, as they reflect the era in which a book was written.

There's a German series written between 1913 and 1925 about a young girl ("Nesthäkchen") growing up in the Wilhelminian and Weimar Republic periods, and one of the books gives the German perspective of the First Wolrd War. It has been ouf of print in Germany since 1945, which I think is an example of censorship going overboard. It would have made such a fascinating document of a period.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Personally I'd love to read something giving a German perspective of WWI, so I'm sorry to hear it's out of print (although I suspect it was never translated anyway).

Although, hey, I've just googled, and I think this must be it?

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

It is. The book was released in English, but never in German.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

That's such a shame. Self-censorship taken to extremes indeed.