The Judge, the Girl Sleuth and Scorned Literature
"I would start waiting with great anticipation for the newest [Nancy Drew mystery] one, but mine was a local branch and they didn't get the new one right away. That's when mom began to buy me them, because she saw how enamored I was with them ... I had like two shelves of them before I turned to other reading."
— Circuit Court Justice Sonia SotomayerAlthough Nancy Drew was certainly not politically correct at times, the University of Maryland's Girls' Series Books Rediscovered exhibit, Nancy Drew and Friends, demonstrates (and denigrates) the series' appeal. Today some of its conventions would not be employed in teen fiction:
* Teenage heroine is motherless, fatherless, or orphaned * Characters often do not age and there is little character development * Common plots involve restoring missing inheritances and identities * Setting is a vague location unable to be pinpointed on a map * Clues often involve jewels, maps, diaries, wills, or letters * Gothic and mysterious elements feature in the locations and plots * Cliff-hanger chapter endings are common * Typical villains are low-life characters, bullies, social climbers, or foreigners * Stories refer to previous and following books in the series * Lists of all the books in the series and other series books from the publisher are listed on the book coversHowever, the exhibit text notes that: "The early classic Nancy of the 1930s-1940s is bold, independent, fearless, and capable. With the revisions starting in the 1950s, Nancy is not so outspoken and accepts more help from others making her seem less heroic. Nancy also started traveling throughout the world experiencing exotic adventures and discovering new things; in one adventure she even encounters a flying saucer!
This exhibit highlights the girls’ series books in the Rose and Joseph Pagnani Collection in the University of Maryland Libraries. This collection contains over 300 books from 33 different series published from 1917 to 1980. Although Nancy Drew is the star of the exhibit, other girls’ series heroines such as Vicki Barr, Sue Barton, Judy Bolton, and the Dana Girls are also included.
The exhibit is rife with interesting Drewish facts such as: "Nancy Drew drives a blue roadster in the early volumes. In the 1970s, it becomes a blue convertible. Next it was a blue Ford Mustang. Now it is a blue Hybrid!"
Read The New York Times piece, Nancy Drew and the Secret of the 3 Black Robes.
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