Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Wondering if you read the same version of Nancy Drew both when you were a child and when you were an adult. The originals from the thirties are great fun; the revisions from the late fifties and sixties, not so much. The sanitizing of the stories to eliminate racism and class distinctions was so heavy-handed that it sucked out all the flavor and charm--Nancy became a much less interesting character, as did the people around her.
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I"m sure the ones I read later were the sanitized versions. I can only guess that the others I read were originals, but many were library copies and thrift shop buys. I do remember them as being longer and I never caught any racism (meaning the characters did not put anyone down or actively hate anyone) but I think that there were stereotypes that were true of the time and were taken out. The whole "housekeeper" idea itself came from a different time/place than we live in today.
But it is those originals that were valuable. I think kids today or back then are capable of seeing through history and to take that out is a shame. Changing the vocabulary and simplifying the stories is worse because there is no reason for that.