Nance 1

Heather Nance

UWRT-1102 T/R 8:00am

WP#5

February 24, 2015

In the bag given to us last week I found two books which where the exact same title.

Nancy Drew, The Sign Of The Twisted Candles. Seemed a bit odd two of the exact same book,

but then I noticed the books did not seem the same age. One book seemed much older than the

other. The cover and binding appeared older in age. Where one book had a photo on the cover,

the other was plain with a shadow of a girl which seemed to be more of an older book style.

Turning to the title page this theory proved to be true. The book with the phot on the cover had a

copyright date of 1968 where the other book’s copyright date was 1933. This at first was a bit

surprising to me. Growing up on Nancy Drew books, I never realized her stories where that old. I

was not surprised by the 1968 dates but really did not know they went back to 1933, maybe even

older. I also noticed that even though there are two different copyright dates these books were

both published by the same publisher. This then made me wonder why they would have a new

copyright date and not just a new print date as the newer book suggest they did reprint in 1986.

I wondered about the story line itself had the new copyright dates changed the story.

Reading the first chapter of each book I noticed a couple things. Although the story appears to be

the same it is told differently. Such things in the story like her car have changed. In the older

1933 version Nancy drives a Roadster, in the newer 1968 version it just mentions her sports car.

Nance 2

There is a sketch of her in her car in the book which makes it look like a typical 1960’s muscle

car. I also noticed how in the older book her car gets stuck at the end of the drive way of the

hotel where in the newer book they get trapped on the road by a tree which falls across the road.

Not sure why the difference there in the story line. Either way she and her friends get stuck and

must go into the hotel for help.

As the story seems the same so far a couple things I am curious about, the time periods of

this book take place in two different. This would think that the wording would suggest different

styles. There should be different life styles in the story line. In the 1930’s there was still

segregation in the 1960’s there were protests and stands against segregation will that be reflected

in the story lines. Why would they change so much of the wording in the story? I do not recall

reading this particular Nancy Drew as a child so I don’t recall how the story goes, but I believe

this will be interesting to learn more.