Hey guys! How's it going? I'm doing quite well. So I got a question in one of the comments on Facebook on my review of The Tower Treasure, the first book in The Hardy Boys, which I did last week. The person asked me what the differences were between the original text and revised text versions of the books, on a story level. I explained it to him, but it got me thinking about discussing this topic here on the blog. Since I've read both versions of book 2, The House on the Cliff, most recently I'll be using that for my frame of reference. Let's start with an overview of the series.
The Tower Treasure was originally published in 1927. Two more came out in 1927 and then three more came out in 1928. However, only two came out in 1929 and one came out in 1930. After 1928 the series averaged one book a year until 1957, then they skipped a year with The Mystery at Devil's Paw not coming out until 1959. Then they went back to releasing them one per year until the final book, The Sting of the Scorpion was published in 1979.
While Grosset & Dunlap and the Stratemeyer Syndicate continued publishing new books in the series, they also started publishing revised text editions of the first thirty-eight books in 1959. The Tower Treasure was first, followed by The House on the Cliff, but the other thirty-six books being revised sporadically, with the third book, The Secret of the Old Mill not being revised until 1962. Some were also revised out of order as well. Like book 11, While the Clock Ticked was revised in 1962 while book 10, What Happened at Midnight, wasn't revised until 1967. These revisions also varied, as some were only slightly altered, while others were drastically altered, and the rest were changed to a completely different story, but carried the same name as the original text version had had. The Tower Treasure and The House on the Cliff are only slightly altered.
The House on the Cliff had only slight alterations made to it in 1959. The story is intact, though dialogue is updated and some of the characters are switched around or removed entirely. In the original book, Frank and Joe stumble onto the mystery of the Polucca house by accident when they're out with Chet Morton, Biff Hooper, Phil Cohen, and Jerry Gilroy and the boys decide to check the abandoned house out. It turns out that the case their father is working on has to do with the boys saving "Jones", leading the boys to help their father out. Oscar Smuff is in this version as well. The villain's name is Ganny Snackley in this version and he's the leader of an international smuggling ring. Callie Shaw and Iola Morton appear here as well.
The revised text version of The House on the Cliff has the same basic story. However, this time around, Frank and Joe are sent to the Polucca house, now called the Pollitt house, as a viewpoint to look for smugglers on the bay, using a telescope. Jerry Gilroy is absent completely from the book, and Phil Cohen is still in the book, but Chet Morton and Biff Hooper still accompany Frank and Joe on their mission at the beginning of the book. Oscar Smuff is removed entirely and a new, one-off character, named Pretzel Pete (he sells pretzels on the Waterfront) is introduced as a friend and informant of Frank and Joe's father, Fenton Hardy. The boys still save "Jones" and take him to the Kane farm, though Bill Kane is named Henry in this version. Fenton still disappears. The villain is now called Felix Snattman and seems to be a slightly different person than he was as Snackley in the original book. He's still a dangerous smuggler, but he has a soft side that is shown at the end of the book, which I won't go into here. Otherwise the book is pretty much the same. As an example of a book that was changed drastically from the original but not completely different, let's take a look at book 10, What Happened at Midnight.
Like the original version of The House on the Cliff, this book also has Frank and Joe accidentally stumble onto the mystery. Instead of drug running though, this time it's a jewel smuggling ring they uncover. And this time Fenton is away on another case and doesn't appear in the book at all. Oscar Smuff shows up again here, though he's not as obnoxious as he is in the revised text version of The Tower Treasure or the revised text version of book 3, The Secret of the Old Mill.
While the revised text version of What Happened at Midnight was drastically changed from the original, it's still a similar story. This time, Fenton assigns Frank and Joe to protect a scientific breakthrough developed by one of their neighbours in Bayport. There's still a party at the Morton farm, and Joe still gets kidnapped, with Frank and the other boys hot on his tail. The criminals are all the same too, no name changes or anything. The FBI agents are the same as well, and other things that happened in the original text version also happen in the revised text version as well. So it wasn't changed very much in the revision process, but changed enough that it gives the reader a different experience than reading the original does.
Hopefully this answers your question. I honestly wasn't sure what to post today. I know I have Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew #4 to review, but I decided to push that back to next week so I can read all six issues and review the series as a whole. I figured that'd be more fun than reading and reviewing the final three issues individually. WandaVision begins tomorrow on Disney+ so I'm going to watch the pilot episode in the morning and then write my review of it right after that and then we'll see what the weekend brings in terms of reviews, because I have a few other pilot episodes to watch and review since I bought the first season of Stargirl on iTunes today, as well as the rest of the first season of Titans as I had already gotten the first episode back before Christmas. So stayed tuned for those coming your way. That's it for me for tonight so I will see you here tomorrow for my review of the first episode of WandaVision. Take care.
No comments:
Post a Comment