So buy a modern edition (unlike mine). And, if you do, set your expectations impartially low, try to tolerate the occasional out-of-date ejaculation, and enjoy.

This time I read them in German and in English and compare them chapter for chapter to find the differences in the German translation. I was very pleasantly surprised, on re-reading The Island of Adventure. Yes, the plot is thin, and the characters, while well-sketched, still essentially simplistic. But it's fun - who does't love a good secret tunnel? In particular, it's rather better written than I was expecting, and better than it needed to be, with surprising depth and sympathy even in peripheral characters: I can see why this felt real to me in a way that more overtly childish books did not. While the prose, and in particular the dialogue, are inevitably dated, they're more 'pleasantly old-fashioned' than 'incomprehensible' or 'ridiculous'. According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.And what an ending it is! This is Big Screen action, the sort of scrape Indiana Jones would get caught up in. I won't give it away here, but it's all very nicely done and has a realistic feel to it, even for this adult reader! Overall, very good stuff. Review by Heather from Australia (March 30, 2005) The journey under the sea, through a long, long tunnel that connects the mainland to the Isle of Gloom, is very nicely done, and (I think) completely realistic. I had reservations about the thought of a man-made tunnel, but no, Enid Blyton describes a natural underground fissure with a few alterations here and there to make it a little more passable. And the entrance to the tunnel is pretty cool too – down the well! I did wonder, though, why Bill said it would be foolish to go climbing down wells and through underground passages in the dead of night, and that they should wait until morning. Why? Would it be lighter underground during daylight? ;-) Following the events in The Ship of Adventure, Bill marries Mrs Mannering and adopts all the children as his own. The children call him Bill Smugs due to the fact that he introduced himself under that alias on their first adventure. The end of the adventure is nail-biting stuff. The two boys along with Bill Smugs are in danger of being shot and later drowned alive, and then must find a very risky method of escape. All this ensures nobody could dream of putting the book down during the final two chapters. A very good beginning to arguably Blyton's best Adventure/Mystery series of all. Review by Harikrishnan Menon (added December 12, 2005)

Note: The following synopsis contains spoilers. If you haven't read the book, you may not want to read this. I've put comments on language changes and other oddities as I went along, because I thought it would make more sense if these are seen in context. To be honest, it wasn't reading, it was sharing the adventures with the characters, they did get into some predicaments, ones we all dreamed about getting into ourselves as kids in real life! Recovering from a very bad flu, the four children and their family make a river trip in the Middle East. But there is another reason for this choice of destination: Bill has been asked to watch a crook named Raya Uma. The children soon find another adventure revolving around a magnificent buried city filled with treasure beyond imagination. Fortunately I have old versions of these books in German and in English (I bought all 8 books in English on my first trip to the UK in 1981 at Foyle's in London). Later versions were often modernized to make them politically correct (which I hate as that's not what I remember reading when I was a child). I have to admit that Enid Blyton is one of my guilty pleasures in-between reading novels, (auto)biographies and non-fiction books on WW II.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2011-11-09 19:20:22 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA145915 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City London Date-raw November 11, 1982 Donor Jenis petualangannya 11-12 dengan Lima Sekawan (((o(*°▽°*)o))) yang artinya: Lorong Rahasia! Gua Persembunyian! Harta!! (✧ω✧) ...atau minimal sesuatu yang berharga [̲̅Rp(̲̅ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°̲̅)̲̅✧] Dulu pas SMP dipinjemin seri Petualang ini tapi yang vol.6 ...dan karena waktu itu juga sudah baca Lima Sekawan, STOP, dan Trio Detektif, rasa-rasanya keempat tokoh utama di seri ini jadi kurang meninggalkan kesan~