Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Turn some valves, Nancy! And quickly!
Chapter 23 -- Girls, Too!
As with the Boys Club serial market, Stratemeyer faced competition.
By virtue of output -- 800 books is no small
matter --.Enid Blyton (1897-1968) was
prolific. Blyton's early "The Prisoners of the
Dobbadies" in The Enid Blyton Book of
Fairies (1924), includes an underground
river boat ride as the Dobbadies show their
anger at Pamela and Peter's intrusion into
their world, but things work out for the
better.
The underground boating aspect of the tale is minor in itself,
but as we will see, it's the inception of a theme to come.
"The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice" in Tales of Ancient
Greece (1930), edited by Blyton, tells of "the black River
Styx" to the "long, dark passages" of the Underworld.
Blyton's literary framework -- as was that most writers of her
time -- was steeped in the classics. Charon's river was my
no means new territory.
The Children of Kidillin (1940) is set during WW II. Tom and Sheila are sent from London to live
with their cousins, Sandy and Jeanie, in Scotland where the boys become curious about stream
gushing out of the hillside. Might it be possible to crawl inside and see where it leads? The river
within the mountain leads to solution of a mystery!
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