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The Secret Seven Paperback – Import, January 1, 2000

• Part of series The Secret Seven
• Print length 128 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Hodder Children's Books
• Publication date January 1, 2000
• Dimensions 2.76 x 0.63 x 4.33 inches
• ISBN-10 0340765356
• ISBN-13 978-0340765357
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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder Children's Books; Millennium Ed edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0340765356
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0340765357
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.1 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 2.76 x 0.63 x 4.33 inches
• #5,450 in Children's Classics
• #5,837 in Children's Mystery, Detective, & Spy

About the author

Enid blyton.

Enid Blyton is one of the most popular children's authors of all time. Her books have sold over 500 million copies and have been translated into other languages more often than any other children's author.

Enid Blyton adored writing for children. She wrote over 700 books and about 2,000 short stories. The Famous Five books, now 75 years old, are her most popular. She is also the author of other favourites including The Secret Seven, The Magic Faraway Tree, Malory Towers and Noddy.

Born in London in 1897, Enid lived much of her life in Buckinghamshire and loved dogs, gardening and the countryside. She was very knowledgeable about trees, flowers, birds and animals. Dorset - where some of the Famous Five's adventures are set - was a favourite place of hers too.

Enid Blyton's stories are read and loved by millions of children (and grown-ups) all over the world. Visit enidblyton.co.uk to discover more.

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The Secret Seven Books In Order

Publication order of the secret seven books, about the author:.

Enid Blyton was born August 11, 18987, and passed November 28, 1968. She was an English children’s writer who was easily considered BestSeller since the1930’s. Since that point she has sold well over 600 million copies. Her styles were quite versatile ranging from fantasy, mystery, and history. A number of her works, although old, are still quite popular. Some of her more familiar works are the Noddy Character, The Famous Five, and the Secret Seven. This excludes of course her very first book known as Child Whispers which was a 24 page collection of her poetry that was published at some point in 1922. This article shall focus on the Secret Seven, and other memorable material regarding story information and character development.

The Secret Seven Development

The Secret Seven is also known as the Secret Seven Society, and focuses on a fictional-group of detectives who happen to be children. Each character appears to be in several other individual books. The characters of the Secret Seven are Peter, the society’s leader, Janet, Peter’s sister, Barbara, Barbara, Pam, George and Colin. All of these characters in Secret Seven attend day school which is why the actual story takes place during a school term.

The Secret Seven originally appeared as 7 separate short stories written by Enid, each pertaining to one of the seven characters. She also developed a short story regarding how the secret society was formed. Although these seven individual stories were originally unnoticed they were later published in a single volume.

The Secret Seven

This story, which was published in 1949, focuses on the adventures of Jack who comes across men who take a prisoner to an abandoned dwelling. This leads to the other six children becoming involved in the attempts to figure just what is going, and this is happening.

The Secret Adventure

This story picks up with rising action, as a great treasure is stolen. What makes this particularly unusual and albeit interesting is that the children stand as witness, as the thief flees the scene of the robbery. This causes the seven to put forth all they have in order to catch the criminal.

Well Done Secret Seven

This can be initially anticipated as a little hearted, or at least the aspect of the Secret-Seven’s new abode. They now reside within a tree house in this book. All initially appears to be fine and smooth the group of seven discovers that someone else has made use of their beloved treehouse. This initially angers the group of seven, as they attempt to bring about confrontation. This is the case, howver, until

they realize the so called tree house intruder may be residing in their new home for dire reasons. This puts the group of seven to the test once again to unveil the issue, and to assist this new person who has invited themselves into their midst. This shockingly leads to the group having to thwart a gang of robbers who are planning a detailed heist.

Secret Seven on the Trail

Mystery is cranked up a notch in this exciting novel involving the group of seven. At Tigger’s Barn something quite odd begins to occur, and as detectives, the group of seven attempt to figure just what’s going on. It is said to be quite mysterious. Initially despite what is being said, Peter denounces it all as one collection of falsehoods and rumors. This seems to be the case until Jack hears a rather interesting exchange of words that causes him to question Peter’s claim.

Go Ahead Secret-Seven

This was published in 1953. Things definitely become cut from a much more serious nature in this installment. George, one of children from the group of seven is banished from the society by none other than his father. It is revealed that this was the case due to the group practicing their shadowing and following techniques. As if things are not already odd enough now, dogs begin to start vanishing. Once again, thieves prove themselves to be quite persistent and resilient, as they are revealed to be the cause behind sudden and rapid disappearance of the dogs. Some of the children letter end up kidnapped by the group, as the situation turns disparate.

Good Work Secret-Seven

This installment was published in 1954. While things remain tense, certain members-of-the-group are hit hard, as Peter and Janet’s their car has been stolen by thieves. This definitely hurls itself at the group hard, and poses several issues that need to be resolved quickly. The shocking hook is that Peter and Janet have been abducted inside of their car without the thieves knowing.

Secret-Seven Win Through

This was published in 1955. Disaster most definitely strikes in this installment. The group of seven is horrified to realize their old meeting area has been dismantled by a gardener. This definitely poses issues for future cases.

These individual novels and others collectively make up the Secret-Seven, and provide a rich and compelling story leaving the audience plenty of content until they get their hands on the next book.

Peter- he is the presumed head of the secret society. He is a depicted as lacking no confidence. He is self-assured and commanding at times. He is shown as one who’s role is not often questioned and holds down territory as a respected and bold leader. Once and a while, however, Peter is shown to be somewhat blunt and albeit candid, especially with the girls ultimately leading to what some may view as insensitive moments. In spite of this, everybody looks up to and respects him. He can be interpreted as the most experienced of the group when it comes to passing along gems of knowledge. This can be observed in times where he certainly shows a great deal of deft leadership skills and advanced decision making processes. It is safe to assume that this is at a level that far surpasses that of a normal and average ten year old boy or girl. Some negative claims may be that he is seen at times as bossy, arrogant, condescending and dictatorial.

Peter takes a role in these seven books albeit different roles, but still present. His character is fully fleshed out and shown to possess a certain amount of depth and perspective.

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The Secret Seven by Enid Blyton - review

This book is about seven children who are an agency. Their names are Peter, Janet, Colin, Pam, Barbara, Jack and George. They all go out on adventures throughout the seasons.

You can easily get attached to this book and I would definitely recommend it.

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Searching for the Real ‘Anna O.’

As described by Gabriel Brownstein, the basis for one of Freud’s most famous cases posed as many questions as it answered.

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By Susannah Cahalan

Susannah Cahalan is the author of “The Great Pretender” and “Brain on Fire.”

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THE SECRET MIND OF BERTHA PAPPENHEIM: The Woman Who Invented Freud’s Talking Cure, by Gabriel Brownstein

Bertha Pappenheim stopped eating and sleeping. She lost her language and ability to move. Her eyes crossed and her muscles spasmed.

She suffered, her doctors said, from the prevailing diagnosis afflicting primarily well-to-do women in fin de siècle Vienna: hysteria.

What this meant was and is a source of debate: Did her facial paralysis emerge from a biological condition? Was her intermittent deafness psychological — or something more metaphysical?

Her physician, Josef Breuer, taken with the engaging and beautiful young woman, began visiting her daily. Sometimes Pappenheim made up fairy tales, sometimes she spoke of her hallucinations. Together they traced the source of her trauma to her father’s sickroom and with the repressed unearthed, Pappenheim began to improve.

There was catharsis in this exchange. Pappenheim herself described the process, which came to be known as “the talking cure,” as “chimney sweeping.”

More than a decade later, Sigmund Freud included Pappenheim’s story under the name “Fraulein Anna O.” — a case in “Studies On Hysteria.” Later, Freud added apocryphal details to the case, including a pseudo-pregnancy that illustrated his theory of transference. Embellishments aside, Anna O. — psychiatry’s most famous inconvenient woman — entered the annals of history as a success story that helped birth psychoanalysis.

The trouble is, as Gabriel Brownstein writes in his fascinating “The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim,” it was all a lie. Pappenheim was not cured. She continued to suffer long after Breuer gave up her case and ended up in a sanitarium, subjected to untold horrors, and addicted to the drugs that Breuer had prescribed her.

Her true triumph came long after she quit analysis. She emerged from this crucible in middle age, reinvented herself as an advocate and philanthropist and never again spoke of her time under Breuer’s care. She advocated on behalf of Jewish girls exploited by the sex trade, and opened institutions to house and educate them.

But “The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim” isn’t just about one woman — not entirely. This is a memoir nestled in an investigation, hidden inside a mythology. And it’s really about the limits of knowledge: not just about what we know about Pappenheim, but about medicine specifically and about nonfiction in general.

Fittingly, Brownstein’s interest in Pappenheim began with his father, Dr. Shale Brownstein, a respected psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with a longstanding grudge against Freud. The night before he died, Dr. Brownstein gave his son an essay he had written about Pappenheim. And despite Freud’s warnings about burdening ourselves with our parents’ desires, the father’s obsession became the son’s.

Brownstein could have written a much easier book than the one he did. I haven’t even mentioned his third layer: examining Pappenheim’s case through new research on the diagnosis of functional neurological disorder — the modern equivalent, he argues, of hysteria.

F.N.D. is a controversial diagnosis, despite being taken more seriously in recent years. This is not a rare condition; it is the second most common reason for outpatient neurology visits. Yet for some doctors it’s a scarlet letter, a signifier that the patient may be difficult or malingering.

Brownstein argues persuasively that F.N.D. is as “real” as the defect that necessitated open-heart surgery in his childhood, an experience he chronicled in his lovely “The Open Heart Club.”

Like hysteria, this diagnosis predominantly affects women; Brownstein profiles several. One loses her ability to walk; another shakes uncontrollably. Each seems to struggle with profound traumas — incest; years of grooming by a teacher; the horror of a mother who watched her baby get crushed under the wheels of a truck.

Tests are clean; there are no lesions. No M.R.I. scan can pinpoint the cause. But emerging studies show that F.N.D. seems to be a breakdown in the systems of the brain. “Brain networks have become tangled, messages are not getting through,” Brownstein writes.

Brownstein’s passages about F.N.D. are the book’s strongest. “In cases of F.N.D., the distinctions between ‘mind,’ ‘brain’ and ‘body’ seem imprecise,” he writes. “They have lost their ability to perform. They are violating the script the rest of us follow, a script that says consciousness is separate from the flesh.”

I feel it’s important — and so does he — to relay the context surrounding the “horrible three years” in which the author wrote this book. After his father died, Brownstein’s wife, Marcia, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He wrote the book in hospital hallways, in the moments between tending to their children.

When she died, he found himself writing the book for her. “Her death revealed my life as unstable, and her loss made the world seem unreal.” He related to the way the feminist literary critic Elaine Showalter defines hysteria as a “narrative incoherence.”

Of course, this incoherence is present within the book, too. We are left with so many questions: Did Pappenheim have F.N.D.? What would it mean if she did? Does the talking cure actually have a place in medicine?

Brownstein is allergic to answers. He likens himself to a “conscientious archaeologist” and leaves it to his readers to draw their conclusions based on the specimens he places before us.

“I do not claim to have solved any great mysteries here,” he writes, “to have discovered what Anna O. really suffered, or to be able to tell you what F.N.D. really is.”

As frustrating as this can feel to the reader, perhaps the impossibility is the point. Real life, after all, is rarely clear-cut.

THE SECRET MIND OF BERTHA PAPPENHEIM : The Woman Who Invented Freud’s Talking Cure | By Gabriel Brownstein | PublicAffairs | 326 pp. | $32

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