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So, for her birthday, my daughter got the first three Nancy Drew books from my mother. And we've been reading through them.
The big shock for me was the absence of Bess and George. My (admittedly vague) memories of the books was that they would show up in nearly every book, but they haven't even been mentioned yet. Looking online, they apparently first appear in book 5, "The Secret of Shadow Ranch."
Nancy in these first few books is a pretty neat woman. She's young, but intelligent, pretty driven, and has a keen interest in justice. In the first book, "The Secret of the Old Clock", she happens upon a mystery involving a missing will - Josiah Crowley was a nice old man with a decently sized fortune who passed away after telling several relatives and close friends that he was leaving them some money - and the will that shows up after his death just leaves everything to one family, presented as unpleasant, rude, and snooty. Nancy focuses down to try and figure out where the will could have ended up, facing danger and uncertainty to do so. Naturally, she succeeds.
The second book, "The Hidden Staircase", features Nancy's friend in the first book, Helen, whose great grandmother is having 'ghost' problems at her old house. She and Helen join great grandmother and grand-aunt as they snoop around for how the ghost is getting in - Nancy and Helen never seem to think the ghost is really supernatural, and a lot of the time is spent trying to find frustratingly difficult to find secret doors. (To the book's credit, if they were easy to find secret doors, the book would be half it's length.) Nancy very much takes charge of things, pushing the investigation forward, keeping the local police in the loop, and although she's worried when her father disappears, she's able to rescue him at the end.
We haven't finished the third book, "The Bungalow Mystery", but so far it's in a similar vein. Helan and Nancy, caught in a bad storm while boating, are rescued by Laura, a fast friend who has family troubles of her own - her parents having passed away, she's uncertain about her new parents, who seem to have been picked for her by her mother, but who she hasn't met before. Personally, my money is on a couple who are impersonating the couple who are supposed to care for her, with a desire to loot Laura's inheritance.
Although set in the 30s, these seem to be printings of the 1959 re-edits. There's a Nancy Drew Wiki (of course there is) which lists all the various books and compares the differences. Reading the originals, I can see why they were re-written - there's unfortunately quite racist characters who have been removed in the newer versions. (Sadly, this apparently results in all minority characters being removed.) I would have been uncomfortable reading those bits to my daughter, although I suppose we would have stopped to discuss the presentation.
It's fun reading something like this from the beginning, and see how things have changed.
The big shock for me was the absence of Bess and George. My (admittedly vague) memories of the books was that they would show up in nearly every book, but they haven't even been mentioned yet. Looking online, they apparently first appear in book 5, "The Secret of Shadow Ranch."
Nancy in these first few books is a pretty neat woman. She's young, but intelligent, pretty driven, and has a keen interest in justice. In the first book, "The Secret of the Old Clock", she happens upon a mystery involving a missing will - Josiah Crowley was a nice old man with a decently sized fortune who passed away after telling several relatives and close friends that he was leaving them some money - and the will that shows up after his death just leaves everything to one family, presented as unpleasant, rude, and snooty. Nancy focuses down to try and figure out where the will could have ended up, facing danger and uncertainty to do so. Naturally, she succeeds.
The second book, "The Hidden Staircase", features Nancy's friend in the first book, Helen, whose great grandmother is having 'ghost' problems at her old house. She and Helen join great grandmother and grand-aunt as they snoop around for how the ghost is getting in - Nancy and Helen never seem to think the ghost is really supernatural, and a lot of the time is spent trying to find frustratingly difficult to find secret doors. (To the book's credit, if they were easy to find secret doors, the book would be half it's length.) Nancy very much takes charge of things, pushing the investigation forward, keeping the local police in the loop, and although she's worried when her father disappears, she's able to rescue him at the end.
We haven't finished the third book, "The Bungalow Mystery", but so far it's in a similar vein. Helan and Nancy, caught in a bad storm while boating, are rescued by Laura, a fast friend who has family troubles of her own - her parents having passed away, she's uncertain about her new parents, who seem to have been picked for her by her mother, but who she hasn't met before. Personally, my money is on a couple who are impersonating the couple who are supposed to care for her, with a desire to loot Laura's inheritance.
Although set in the 30s, these seem to be printings of the 1959 re-edits. There's a Nancy Drew Wiki (of course there is) which lists all the various books and compares the differences. Reading the originals, I can see why they were re-written - there's unfortunately quite racist characters who have been removed in the newer versions. (Sadly, this apparently results in all minority characters being removed.) I would have been uncomfortable reading those bits to my daughter, although I suppose we would have stopped to discuss the presentation.
It's fun reading something like this from the beginning, and see how things have changed.
