Buying books

[dimity_blue]

I've been a fan of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's Chalet School books for over twenty years now. Although most of the books are available through Armada, they're all abridged versions. However, I discovered, a couple of years ago, that Girls Gone By Publishers are republishing all the original texts, along with a pile of other 'hard to find' authors. They bring a few of the Chalet School books out each year, plus some of Elinor's other even-harder-to-find titles.

Anyway, I was Christmas shopping on Amazon and did a spot check to see what Chalet School books they had, and found a couple of fill-in titles by other authors, so I ordered a couple and they all arrived today. I took a glance through the "Chalet Girls Grow Up" by Merryn Williams, who is a published author with, apparently, ten other titles to her name.

Now tell me this: what kind of published author fails to be aware that the full stop (period) goes before the ending speechmarks in direct speech?! It's not a one off - I've glanced through the book and the mistake is repeated time and time again. Did no one proof-read this book?!

And, to make it worse, the author appears to have decided that everyone is doomed to misery. Jack kills himself. Jo, his wife, (one of the most beloved Chalet School characters) is depicted as bossy, domineering, and getting more and more muddled as the years go by. Whereas in the actual series, Jo was extremely understanding (although described as a 'champion-butter-in') who would certainly have picked up on her eldest daughter being ill-treated by her husband! Len, (short for Helena - the eldest daughter), is being abused by her husband. To the extent that she only knows it's okay to greet him at the door as he's not in a bad mood.

That's all I've read so far and, to be honest, I won't be bothering with the rest of it. It does, of course, have a pile of raving reviews on the back, which leads me to suspect that the people who loved it are mentally deficient.

::takes a deep breath:: Well, unlike the reviewers, I won't be considering this the 'definitive' version of what happened after the last real Chalet School book.

Btw, I share the same birthday as Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (6th April) and I'd love to know what she would have thought of that book.

On the plus side, I got four books for my mother, and the Wizardology and Dragonology books that match the Egyptology book a friend of mine is getting me for Christmas. They're for Christmas too, btw. And they are just as gorgeous as the other book.

Comments

[ripleynikki.livejournal.com]

As the years go by, I see numerous misprints and grammatical errors in "professionally" published books more and more. I think there isn't anyone proofing these things as it costs lots of money to pay someone to proofread. And the books just keep getting more expensive all the time while the quality of the paper and writing decline. I've pretty much stopped buying all but a few books and those are mostly art books. :-/ Enjoy your new ones, though! They sound wonderful. :-)

XXXOOO
Lorraine

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I don't get my Dragonology and Wizardology ones until Christmas but I'm really looking forward to them. They're beautiful!

And this is the first book I've bought that's had such an appalling amount of mistakes in it. I flicked through it, and won't be reading it. I'm thinking about putting it up on eBay as one of the worst Chalet School books in existence!

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of the Chalet School books. Are they a UK thing? What era?

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Hi Sally!

I think the Chalet School books are available in the US too - I know that Girls Gone By publishers post abroad.

The first book was written in 1925, and the last one was published in (I think) 1969, just after the author's death but the ages of the characters um...slid a little. Jo Bettany was 11 in the first book, and about 39 in the last!

The school is originally in Austria, so you get quite a bit of history as well in some of the books, especially during WWII when the school has to move, first to Guernsey then to England.

I have a spare copy of the first book (although it's abridged and rather worn), if you'd like to read it. I was going to give it to a charity shop but, if you want it, email me your address and I'll send it to you. It's a lovely series.

And if you'd like to take a look, here's the UK club (http://www.rockterrace.demon.co.uk/FOCS/ebdbiog.html) about it.

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Ah, this makes me smile! My mom has several old book series from the 20s and 30s -- things like the Motor Girls, and The Girls of St. Bedes (my favorite), and original Nancy Drew or Dana Girls books. This sounds very much of that ilk! If you don't mind sending it, I'd love to read it and I'll send you my addrss in an email -- but only if you're sure it's convenient and doesn't cost much.

I'm a bit of a collector of old kids' series -- one of the things I brought back from England, *in my backpack* no less, was a complete hardback set of Enid Blyton's Adventure series. I love those! They're from the 50s and 60s I think. And I have Zane Grey's old Ken Ward books too. I'm weird, I know.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

I remember the Adventure series! I liked it. My favourite of Enid Blyton's though is the 'R Mystery' series, like "The Rat-a-Tat-Tat Mystery" and "The Ring O'Bells Mystery". Do you remember that?

And no, it's no problem at all. I really hope you'll enjoy it. You've got my email address (the beeb.net one), haven't you?

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Yep, I just sent you the email. Thanks!