This post is part of the Nancy Drew Review Project; visit the project index here.
The Hidden Staircase was published in 1930 and is the second of the “old school” Nancy Drew novels. A condensed and revised version of the story was released in 1959, and this is the version that’s still in print today.
For my ongoing Nancy Drew Review Project, I read both versions of the story and compare them below.
Both versions of The Hidden Staircase follow largely the same plot: Nancy investigates a “haunted mansion,” deals with a cranky (possibly deluded) man who makes threats against the Drew family, and helps to find her father after he disappears from a business trip. As is typical of Nancy Drew stories, the haunted house plot and the disappearing dad plot are related.
1930 Original Text
This was my first time reading the original text, authored by Mildred Wirt Benson, and I deeply enjoyed it. I was first struck by the slow, deliberate pace of the story—there’s a long build-up to Nancy traveling out the mansion to help out the elderly Turnbull sisters, and there’s an equally long build-up to her discovery of the titular hidden staircase. In fact, I would say that a majority of the book is spent showing Nancy trying and failing to uncover clues, which was interesting to me, because I’m more used to Nancy being unrealistically brilliant and quick on the uptake.
Indeed, I found that The Hidden Staircase had a very dark, gloomy tone. Unlike the revised text, Nancy doesn’t bring a friend along to the mansion to help. Instead, she goes it alone, and repeatedly runs into dead ends. The “hauntings” are eerie and inexplicable, and when Nancy learns that her father has disappeared, she becomes rather depressed and loses interest in the mystery. (Realistic!)
Of course, eventually the different plot threads begin to unravel—but not before Nancy does a little law-breaking. She sneaks into the villain’s house, avoids his charicaturesque Black henchwoman, as well as his creepy menagerie of taxidermied birds, and finds a secret tunnel. The villain himself, I would like to say, is portrayed as…deranged. Not quite “crazy,” but a little manic. Nancy then leads the slightly inept police back to the villain’s lair, and just in time to save her father! (But not before there’s an armed standoff between the Black henchwoman and the police.) Hooray.
Other things I noted were the frequent use and mention of guns throughout (Nancy sleeps with one under her pillow in case the “ghost” tries any funny stuff, etc.), and the more emotive portrayal of Nancy. We see her jumping around in excitement, growing impatient, feeling hopeless, and laughing when her dad makes a particularly funny joke at another’s expense (I laughed as well).
Overall, the 1930 original text is very good.
1959 Revised Text
Honestly, I liked the revised text nearly as much as the original text—up to a point. Towards the end, Nancy was able to get several bad guys to spill their guts just by looking at them with disappointment, which I hated. And at the point in the original text where Nancy breaks into the villain’s house, in the revised text, she acts scandalized at the mere thought of breaking in. Also missing were any glimpses of Nancy’s fallibility or sense of humor.
But! I still liked the revised text. In this case, I think condensing the plot turned out okay because of how long it took the original mystery to get started in the original text. Instead of having Nancy visit with a lot of characters from The Secret of the Old Clock in the first few chapters, the revised text cuts right to the chase and has Nancy’s friend Helen call her up and request help with the haunted mansion.
That’s the other big difference: Nancy has Helen as a sidekick. (In the original text, Nancy speaks to Helen once, and determines that she can’t bring her onboard the investigation because Helen’s too big of a gossip). Obviously, we’re all used to Nancy having Bess and George along for the ride, but those characters aren’t introduced until book #5. So I guess when revising, the authors determined that Nancy works best with a little help and gave Helen a bigger role. If I remember correctly, Helen is Nancy’s “helper” through books #2-4 of the revised texts, until she gets married. I can’t remember if married Helen shows up after book #4. (Obviously, I have no idea what happens to Helen in the original texts.) In any case, I like Helen! Giving Nancy a friend keeps things from getting too gloomy, which is likely a good choice, since most readers think of optimism as being more of the series’ brand.
There were also changes with the resolution of the mystery itself. Here, the villain is more of a greedy, cranky old guy than a deluded soul. The unveiling of who’s doing the haunting and how Mr. Drew came to be abducted is a bit more complex than the original text, but the revised text also cuts out the emotionally-charged scenes from Nancy’s dad’s point of view. I also missed the exciting bit where Nancy breaks into the villain’s house, but, y’know. Revised text Nancy would never.
This book also introduces Chief McGinnis (here called “Captain McGinnis”) of the River Heights Police, who becomes a staple character throughout the series—at least in the revised texts.
The Verdict
I liked both versions of the story, actually. The original text is better written and arguably more exciting, but the revised text version is (a) nostalgic for me, and (b) has a complicated story that makes more sense for modern readers. I vote original text, personally, but I’m not mad at the 1959 version.
[Disclaimer: cover art scans are from this site.]
