Revision and retranslation of children's classics in modern-day UK and Spain: The case of Enid Blyton's The Famous Five and Malory Towers

Abstract

Despite the commercial success of Enid Blyton's books in Spain, researchers have not paid much attention to the Spanish revisions and retranslations of her work. This paper focuses on two of Blyton’s most popular series, The Famous Five and Malory Towers. They were first translated into Spanish in 1964 and have been recently republished in Spain, partly because from 2010 onwards the STs have been thoroughly revised. We analyse which (para)textual aspects of both the original texts and their first translations into Spanish have been modified allegedly to fit the preferences of modern readers. Findings show that two different strategies, revision and retranslation, have been used by publishers for the same purpose: the revamping of Blyton’s works in modern-day UK and Spain.