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The Rover Boys #5
The Rover Boys on the Great Lakes (1901) by: Arthur M. Winfield. / Edward Stratemeyer /
But the third man had a second to think, and he retaliated by a blow which nearly lifted poor Tom off his feet. But before he could strike out a second time, Sam, with the nimbleness of a monkey, darted in and caught him by one leg. Dick saw the movement, gave the sailor a shove, and the tar pitched headlong in the passageway.
- GenresFiction
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1901
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 14, 2016
I don't often review a one-star book because I don't usually finish them; three is usually as far down as I'll go, and three is pretty good - it means I enjoyed the novel enough to finish the whole thing and form a strong, positive opinion on it, and can delineate several reasons to recommend it. A one-star review looks more like a warning, like a skull-and-crossbones or a toxic-waste trefoil. At some point during the reading of a book with a rating like that, you are likely to throw it through an open window as hard as you can. Possibly when you're first introduced to Aleck Pop.
It's a terrible book with stilted dialogue and formulaic characters pursuing a repetitive plot. It really has to be seen to be believed. It's probably in the public domain, which means it's probably online somewhere. Just try to read the first page aloud without grinning. There are flaws in this thing that simply can't be attributed to the era in which it was published.
This one requires a little background. I had only ever heard of the Rover Boys through the incisive Chuck Jones parody "The Dover Boys at Pimento U," a minimalist, surreal satire from 1942 that almost got him fired. I had just walked into a used bookstore, turned my head to the right, and the first book on the first set of shelves, right at eye level, was the 1901 edition of this book. It was fate. It was providence. It was destiny. It was four dollars, so I bought it.
There's a bit of a Weird Al effect associated with "The Dover Boys," in that the parody is all that remains, as the Rovers themselves have sunk into a well-deserved and possibly insufficiently punishing obscurity. The books were written by Arthur Winfield, one of many pseudonyms of the legendary Edward Stratemeyer, head of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The Syndicate was responsible for dozens of adventure novels for children, including the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, and Tom Swift; their writers worked for flat rates cranking out cookie cutter fiction under pseudonyms like Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon. Most of these have gone the way of the Rover Boys, which set the template for hundreds of numbing, repetitive children's adventures to come.
I won't say I was raised on the Hardy Boys, but I sure read a lot of them. I don't remember a word of any of them. They all look so inviting, with their pretty painted hardbound covers all in a row on the shelf, but once you've seen the cover, you've read the most exciting part of the story.
The Rover Boys, Tom, Dick, and Sam, who seem to be rich enough to pretty much buy Michigan outright, are enjoying a sailing holiday after a rather trying adventure that they will continuously refer to in the hopes of getting you to buy more books in the series. They fall afoul of Arnold Baxter and his no-good son Dan, their rival at Putnam Hall, and spend the rest of the novel variously getting separated, tied up, and escaping, both individually and as a set.
The book is so repetitive that when Tom is lashed to a tree somewhere around page 200, one just rolls one's eyes; the book is 80% done and he's already escaped several times already, so it's hard to see what tying him up is going to accomplish. There's no sense that things are building to a climax; no event puts any weight on any future event or relates to any previous event. A bunch of stuff happens, in no particular order.
Contempt is cheap. I could laugh at this thing until my character limit ran out. But I wasn't really expecting great things from the Rover Boys anyway; the stiff, robotic dialogue and emotionless pacing were pretty clear by the end of the first page. But it was good for a laugh. Some books present themselves more as opportunities than as stories; I did read it, I did finish it, and I'm sitting here reviewing it. This was more of an opportunity, not to read it, but to have read it, and to salute, even with just one finger, what passed for kidlit in 1901.
It's a terrible book with stilted dialogue and formulaic characters pursuing a repetitive plot. It really has to be seen to be believed. It's probably in the public domain, which means it's probably online somewhere. Just try to read the first page aloud without grinning. There are flaws in this thing that simply can't be attributed to the era in which it was published.
This one requires a little background. I had only ever heard of the Rover Boys through the incisive Chuck Jones parody "The Dover Boys at Pimento U," a minimalist, surreal satire from 1942 that almost got him fired. I had just walked into a used bookstore, turned my head to the right, and the first book on the first set of shelves, right at eye level, was the 1901 edition of this book. It was fate. It was providence. It was destiny. It was four dollars, so I bought it.
There's a bit of a Weird Al effect associated with "The Dover Boys," in that the parody is all that remains, as the Rovers themselves have sunk into a well-deserved and possibly insufficiently punishing obscurity. The books were written by Arthur Winfield, one of many pseudonyms of the legendary Edward Stratemeyer, head of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The Syndicate was responsible for dozens of adventure novels for children, including the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, and Tom Swift; their writers worked for flat rates cranking out cookie cutter fiction under pseudonyms like Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon. Most of these have gone the way of the Rover Boys, which set the template for hundreds of numbing, repetitive children's adventures to come.
I won't say I was raised on the Hardy Boys, but I sure read a lot of them. I don't remember a word of any of them. They all look so inviting, with their pretty painted hardbound covers all in a row on the shelf, but once you've seen the cover, you've read the most exciting part of the story.
The Rover Boys, Tom, Dick, and Sam, who seem to be rich enough to pretty much buy Michigan outright, are enjoying a sailing holiday after a rather trying adventure that they will continuously refer to in the hopes of getting you to buy more books in the series. They fall afoul of Arnold Baxter and his no-good son Dan, their rival at Putnam Hall, and spend the rest of the novel variously getting separated, tied up, and escaping, both individually and as a set.
The book is so repetitive that when Tom is lashed to a tree somewhere around page 200, one just rolls one's eyes; the book is 80% done and he's already escaped several times already, so it's hard to see what tying him up is going to accomplish. There's no sense that things are building to a climax; no event puts any weight on any future event or relates to any previous event. A bunch of stuff happens, in no particular order.
Contempt is cheap. I could laugh at this thing until my character limit ran out. But I wasn't really expecting great things from the Rover Boys anyway; the stiff, robotic dialogue and emotionless pacing were pretty clear by the end of the first page. But it was good for a laugh. Some books present themselves more as opportunities than as stories; I did read it, I did finish it, and I'm sitting here reviewing it. This was more of an opportunity, not to read it, but to have read it, and to salute, even with just one finger, what passed for kidlit in 1901.
September 7, 2019
This book as well as many other Rover Boys books, is on the Robinson Curriculum home school book list. It is good for vocabulary building and learning to write. There is slang and period words circa 1901. The first chapter references some cities around the great lakes which, if used in home school, could cause students to look them up on a map; building other skills. Some nautical terms as well. While these books don’t qualify as great literature they are good for educational purposes.
The book is in the public domain and I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg.
The book is in the public domain and I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg.
October 7, 2016
This books is a period piece. The Rover boys travel the Great Lakes of Erie and Huron. They are kidnapped and held for ransom. They help return an escaped convicted felon to jail and rescue Mrs. Stanhope and her daughter Doran from the hypnotist felon who wanted to marry Mrs. Stanhope for her money, thereby depriving Dora of her future inheritance. Similar to the Hardy boys.
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August 28, 2011Wonderful narratives about Dick, Tom and Sam Rover, their adventures and their archenemies, the Baxters.
April 26, 2012
It was GREAT!!!
November 12, 2015
It was good.
June 7, 2016
Librivox edtion
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews