Hardy and Sons: Recent Episodes
Shaun Hautly
A Chapter By Chapter review of the book series The Hardy Boys by Franklin W. Dixon. New Episodes every Monday!
Eight or nine different stories unfold during this halfway chapter. It's been almost two years since we read the previous chapter.
This is either a great, bad chapter, or an awful, wonderful chapter. We couldn't decide.
This is an actual chapter from this really, really weird book. It's a mystery told to the boys.... about pilgrims.
The boys discover more than ten mysteries in a chapter drowning in foreshadowing and unnecessary exclamations!
We compare our classic blue bound 1956 rewrite to the 1928 original version of this book. There are problems.
The thrilling conclusion to the fifth book from the classic series. The boys basically kill someone.
In the worst plot twist yet, the boys discover someone with split personality via amnesia, and someone hears the whole thing.
The missing guy was hiding in a cliff. We know this the entire time because of the title of the chapter.
The boys watch two people fight and arbitrarily choose one of them to be "the good guy."
The author misses several opportunities for authentic tension and instead becomes obsessed with a compass.
The boys learn about guns while the narrator teaches the children readers about guns as well!
The boys continue to downplay threats and suspicion. Then their dad tells them to hunt an attempted murderer.
While this chapter title could describe any Hardy Boys book or chapter, this one is actually more of a boomerang to peril.
The boys get a call from a stranger. Anytime someone new mentions that strangers, the boys trust them, too. Then they get kidnapped. Obviously.
The boys almost die, people are shot, cars are wrecked, mysteries abound across the country, and the boys trust several strangers.
We begin to dissect the differences between the 1920's original and the 1960's rewrite of book 4: The Missing Chums. Turns out, they added a LOT, removed a lot, and kept some really weird things.
The boys ambush the enemy. There are no negative consequences for any of their actions.
In this penultimate chapter of book 4, Frank seizes control of the Police and the Coast Guard while Joe listens to criminals explaining the details of all of their crimes.
The boys-- especially Joe-- demonstrate their disastrous instincts multiple times and get captured. Again.
Unable to learn more, the boys thanked the proprietor and bought three postcards.
That sentence is emblematic of this chapter and the entire series as a whole.
The boys miss several obvious clues for a shakedown and a bank robbery. The boys also don't know anything about magicians.
The season finale brings us a reflection on artistry and authorship as well as potential for future projects.
Don't forget the live show next week. Monday the 14th, 8pm. On YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP9nCB29E7I
The boys crawl across the field in a thinly veiled metaphor for how the author writes these three chapters.
In this episode, we examine the first half of one chapter of the original book, but just as we near our break, David's phone dies, and we lose our connection with each other. However, the integrity of our recordings is unscathed. We had planned on recording the second half before posting this, but Shaun has been traveling. So you can have this first part of the eighth part of our comparison. Goodnight!
However questionable, the boys make much more modest decisions for rescue apparel than their 1960 rewrite brothers.
We find rabbit holes and take them as deep as they go. We explore parts of the books and ourselves that had only just been discovered.
The boys ask direct questions and the criminals incriminate themselves without hesitation.
Our recording quality has changed. We are staying isolated to abate the spread of the Corona Virus. The boys enjoy lemonade and a good story from their dad.
The boys take their new boat to a location just South of the Old Mill. Then THINGS GET REAL.
The boys follow a rabbit hole to inevitability, but can't seem to guess where it leads.
The boys avoid realizing the most obvious clues relating to foreign bicycles. Then they find a cave.
We meet Aunt Gertrude, learn Mrs. Hardy's real name, and spend some time inside the writer's head.
The boys talk to a freakishly tall child and then follow a man around downtown Bayport.
The story climaxes with bullets, boats, and buffoons. Fenton Hardy seriously tried to kill someone. With a gun. But misses. From, like, real close.
We explore the differences between the original 1927 version and the 1959 revision of Book 2 of the Hardy Boys Series, The House on the Cliff. We learn about Pretzel Pete, Sam Bates, and some real simple racism.
In this episode we review the ORIGINAL 1927 edition of The House on the Cliff, and we apologize to Charles Leslie McFarland. They destroyed his masterpiece.
We took the stage and recounted some of our favorite moments with a group largely comprised of non-listeners.
Several groups of high schoolers chase smugglers and find quick, anti-climactic resolutions.
After reading the first ten chapters, we summarize so you can catch up if you don't have time to listen to ALL the previous episodes.
Tony Prito steals a boat and the boys seemingly teleport to another dimension inside a rock.
The boys and their mother make some bad decisions and then things get weird in Pleasantville.
This is the chapter that ought to have been called Pretzel Pete. We finally meet the man. Then the boys find part of a towel.
The boys race each other to save a guy from drowning and then get sensual with his revival near a farmer.
The Boys are Back! A new adventure starts with too much responsibility and a fetish for optics.
In the season finale, we finish our comparison of the old and new versions and get ready for season two!
Rounding the corner on the action of the story, we learn about what the new authors thought was "missing" from the original books. That includes hobo attacks, diaries, and a cooky.
This is the moment for which we've been waiting. This is the rumors all coming true. This is the reason the books were rewritten. This is our history, recorded in a children's book.
We get to know the younger, more selfish version of the boys a bit more. As well as their flawed, authentic father.
David and Shaun discuss the difference between the original 1929 version and the 1959 rewrite of The Tower Treasure. We speculate about what it was like in 1929.
The books were rewritten in 1959 for a handful of reasons. Too violent, racist, and degenerate. So we got our hands on an original and we're comparing the two!
In a rare, well-written chapter, the boys celebrate for a full minute inside a water tower.
The Hardy's struggle with details as the author struggles with consistency of detail and exposition.
The boys vandalize a local grocer and terrorize a rival detective instead of solving a case.
The Sleuthing trip gets cut short when something actually happens. Frank goes slumming with Callie.
If you haven't listened to our episodes on the first 10 of 20 chapters, this episode should catch you up to speed! We go over names, plot points, evidence, and motifs so you can join us in chapter 11 without missing a beat!
The boys cooperate with their father and aren't at all rivals. Fenton tends to his second family after the boys find a hat and jacket that a startled person must have dropped in the woods while walking on lids to hide their bootprints. Very normal things.
The brothers lose sight of the true stakes of the investigation, and focus instead on their own reputations.
The boys learn more about the actual mystery and struggle with the fact that they've been ignored by their town for finding a car in the woods.
The Tower Treasure's second chapter, The Holdup. (Note: There is no actual holdup in this chapter)