Book Review: Frank Merriwell’s School Days by Burt L. Standish
This is the first of the long-running and once-famous Frank Merriwell series of exciting books for teenaged boys. These were written by Gilbert Patten under the pen name of Standish, and the first few volumes are actually compilations of stories originally published in Tip-Top Weekly, a magazine for boys, starting in 1896. (This explains a certain disjointedness in the plot.)
Young Frank wasn’t quite able to make it into West Point (politics), so he has come to the slightly less prestigious Fardale Military Academy to get an education. No sooner has he alighted from the train than he crosses paths with Bartley Hodge, a spoiled and rather vicious lad, who swiftly becomes his rival. (We know Bart’s a bad ‘un because he kicks a dog in the second sentence of the book.)
From there on in, there’s a whirlwind of exciting events with a fight or rescue or startling turn of events almost every chapter. This does, however, make the book not so much have a climactic ending as just a stopping point.
Frank’s a likable young chap, accomplished in many areas, handsome, not given to vice (but not through a tiresome goody-goody personality) and an all-round decent fellow. Perhaps a bit too decent for his own safety, but he’s also got some amazing luck. Even so, Frank is not invincible, he is outdone more than once, and suffers several temporary setbacks.
Ethnic humor is provided by two boys, one of Irish descent and the other of Dutch, both of whom have ridiculous accents and act stereotypically “foreign.” They’re good guys, though, so the humor never gets truly mean. The setting of a boys’ school reduces female roles considerably, but we do have “buxom” farmer’s daughter Belinda Snodd, who is quite capable of handling unwanted advances even without Franks’ intervention, and dark-eyed Inza Burrage, a jolly girl that Frank and Bart both fancy. Inza’s much more the damsel in distress type, I fear, and it is due to her that Frank gets a medal of honor from the US Congress about halfway through the book.
Yes, that’s right, the awarding of a Congressional medal of honor to Frank isn’t even the big ending of the volume!
Suitable for older teens, especially boys, who are interested in what life was like more than a century ago and are willing to slog through the awful comedy accents.
