The Hardy Boys Book #1: The Tower Treasure (Original Text) (1927) Book Review

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. It was quiet. Last week I ordered the Dover Thrift edition of the original 1927 version of the very first book in the Hardy Boys series, The Tower Treasure. It arrived on Saturday and over the course of the last three days I read the whole thing. Which means I'm here to talk about it. I'll be talking alot about the differences between the Original Text version and the 1959 Revised Text version, which is what I grew up reading. So let's get into it.

When I was a kid I had a huge collection of Hardy Boys books, both Original Text and Revised Text editions. However The Tower Treasure is one that I didn't have an Original Text edition of growing up. My mom's cousin, who I inherited most of my collection from, never owned a copy, and Nana never found one at a garage sale. And trying to find a copy for a decent price online is next to impossible. Until now, but I'll get into that a little later. So, as a result, the first Hardy Boys book I owned the Original Text version of was book two, The House on the Cliff, which I still own today.

One of the things I noticed about this version is that while the Revised Text version feels like a Hardy Boys book, just like any other, the Original Text version feels like the FIRST Hardy Boys. Mostly because in the Revised Text Frank and Joe are solving the Tower Treasure mystery, and the mystery of Chet Morton's stolen car before it, as if they'd always been detectives. In the Original Text though, they kind of just let things happen and they aren't constantly working on the case. And the adults around them treat them like they're just kids playing at being detectives. 

I wasn't expecting Chief Collig to be so dumb in this book. Even in the Original Text of The House on the Cliff, he's incompetent but not AS incompetent as he is in this book. It was actually funny, because he's more involved in this version than he is in the Revised Text, so we actually have a ton of scenes that he's not in in the Revised Text, that he's in the Original Text, and it's great. Basically every scene that Oscar Smuff, who is a member of the Bayport Police Department in the Original Text, is in, Collig is in as well. Or Con Riley, who has a much smaller part in the Revised Text version.

I was surprised to see that the dialogue stayed the same in many of the scenes between the two versions. Being that I've read this book since the '90s, it was nice to see that dialogue in key scenes, such as Hurd Applegate calling the police to arrest Henry Robinson for the theft of the Applegate fortune, remained the same between the two versions.

I was also surprised that one of my favourite scenes from the Revised Text was new to that version. It's the entire sequence where Frank and Joe go out to Chet Morton's farm for dinner with Callie, Chet, and Iola, and Smuff tries to convince Chet that he'd found his car, when in fact he had not. I found that scene important because it strengthened the connection between the Hardys and Chet, establishing them as close friends, and it also established Joe's relationship with Iola much earlier in the book than it was in this version. In fact Iola doesn't even appear until chapter 20, four chapters away from the end of the book. Whereas in the Revised Text, Iola is introduced at the end of chapter 3 in the scene I just mentioned. And of course, Chet's parents are nowhere to be seen in this version either.

One thing I do like about this version is that Callie is even more caring than in the Revised Text version. When Frank is worried about his dad, being that Fenton is in New York, and while Frank and Joe don't join him there in this version, Callie notices Frank's mood and not only asks him what's wrong, but if she can help him resolve whatever it is he's working through. Which is something she doesn't do in the Revised Text version. And then after they visit the Robinsons, Callie pleads Frank to clear Mr. Robinson's name for the sake of Perry and the girls if Fenton isn't able to. Which is what motivates Frank for the rest of the book. It feels even more personal for Frank and Joe in this version.

From 1991 to 2005 Applewood published reproductions of the first editions of the Original Text versions of the first sixteen books in the series, which had originally been published from 1927 to 1937. These are exact replicas of the original editions of the books, and at the time, were much cheaper than original first editions would've been, as they were starting to fetch collector's prices already. Unfortunately Applewood never reproduced the remaining 22 Original Text versions of the first 38 books in the series, and these are now out of print. Though from what the listings are showing on Amazon, both American and Canadian, the Applewood reprint of this book go from anywhere between $21 and $25 (American) and $16 to $87 (Canadian), so pretty expensive. Luckily there's another option.

In June of 2022 Dover Thrift Publications published a paperback reprint of the Original Text version of The Tower Treasure. With this version having gone into the public domain this year, Dover picked it up and put out a much more affordable edition of the book. The cover is very generic, being that the Hardy Boys license is still owned by Grosset & Dunlap (now a subsidiary of Penguin Random House) so the likenesses of Frank and Joe are still under copyright. But I found out about this edition two weeks ago, when a YouTube channel that I'm subscribed to, Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader, made a video about the book, and then did a follow-up where he compared the Original Text version with the Revised Text version. I waited a week, and then ordered it off of Amazon because it's not available through Indigo Books and it arrived on Saturday. So thanks to Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader for keeping on top of all the different editions of the Hardy Boys books and for keeping his viewers that are fans of these books informed on them.

I really enjoyed reading this book. After being so familiar with the Revised Text version my whole life, as that's what was widely available to me growing up, it was interesting to go back and read the original version from 1927. A few things shocked me. Like how amateurish Frank and Joe are as detectives in this book compared to the other Original Text versions of the series I've read, and how that scene I mentioned earlier was brand new to the Revised Text version. Of course, being a book that was originally written in 1927, there are certain stereotypes that are uncomfortable to deal with. Such as how Frank and Joe's friend, Tony Prito, is dealt with in the book. Which is really weird, being that they ended up getting rid of that particular Italian stereotype in book 2, The House on the Cliff. But those stereotypes are why the first 38 books were revised in the '60s and '70s because the publishers understood that they were not only outdated, but were plain inappropriate. If you can get your hands on the new Dover paperback edition or Applewood Books reproduction edition, I would recommend picking up the original version of The Tower Treasure. Especially if you're from my generation, and grew up with the Revised Text version as I did. It's well worth the read.

Alrighty my friends that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with another post. Possibly a comic book related one, but who knows. Until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.