Nancy Pembroke #7 Nancy Pembroke, Senior

In Nancy Pembroke #7, Nancy Pembroke, Senior, Nancy and her friends continue their charity work via their secret organization.  They are now in their last year of college, and they hope to pass the torch to members of the junior class, if they can find the right kind of girls.

I enjoyed most of the book.  I became bored during the last several chapters.  The girls have one party after another leading up to their graduation, which is a bit much.  After enduring probably at least five parties, I then had to endure lengthy commencement events.  I was completely uninterested, but I made sure that I read the ending.

Nancy Pembroke truly is an unusual series.  Nancy Pembroke, College Maid and Nancy Pembroke, Sophomore at Roxford feature a large amount of hazing, and absolutely everyone is completely fine with the hazing.  Hazing is considered necessary to one's growth as a person.  These two books are rather interesting, although absurd.

In between the above books, Nancy travels to Canada in Nancy Pembroke's Vacation in Canada.  Nancy behaves like an idiot in this book and the reader must endure copious information about historical statues in Canada.  After Nancy's Sophomore year, she travels to New Orleans in Nancy Pembroke in New Orleans.  Actually, Nancy spends a lot of time in other places in this book.  I dislike both of these books and mostly did not read them.  I don't feel that I missed out on much, and I was able to enjoy the final books in the series just fine.

In the last three books, Nancy Pembroke, Junior; Nancy Pembroke in Nova Scotia; and Nancy Pembroke, Senior; Nancy matures.  These three books are the strongest titles in the series.  It's incredible to see how much Nancy changes and what a wonderful person she becomes.

In closing, I do recommend the Nancy Pembroke series to those readers who enjoy early 20th century college series books.  The stories have little to no mystery and are simply an account of the girls' adventures through college.  For the most part, the books are quite interesting and enjoyable.

Nancy Pembroke #5 Junior and #6 Nova Scotia

In Nancy Pembroke #5, Nancy Pembroke, Junior, Nancy and her friends return to Roxford.  As members of the junior class, the girls must mentor the younger girls.  Nancy finally realizes how awful she behaved during the previous year and vows to improve.

The story arc of this book centers around Nancy's personal growth.  She gradually becomes a much nicer person and is less flighty.  She quits treating Philip badly and even becomes friends with him.  For a time, I thought that Philip might be a prospective suitor, even though Nancy has written to a young man named Curtis for quite some time.

On page 20, the reader learns some interesting information about one of the professors.  "Professor Cummings stayed in town all summer, and has been playing around with a young kid from high school."  OMG.

Now that the girls are in one of the upper classes, they are no longer interested in hazing.  Instead, the girls form a secret society for the purpose of helping people in need.

This is a very good book.

In Nancy Pembroke #6, Nancy Pembroke in Nova Scotia, Nancy and her friends travel to Nova Scotia.  Nancy further matures, and she even falls in love with a young man named Jim.  In this book, the reader learns about Nancy's beliefs concerning romance and men.

Jim rescues Nancy from a predicament and impulsively kisses her.  From pages 168 and 169:

Her cheeks burned as she recalled his good night, yet she could not, some way, feel angry at him, as she should.  Why?  She had always hated any form of "necking" and a boy who tried it even once was out of her good graces.

"You're so funny, Nan," remarked one of her admirers, smarting from a rebuke.  "Everyone does it now."

"That may be," she had replied.  "Let 'everyone.'  I won't."

"But why?  There is no harm in it," he had persisted.

"Whether there is harm in it or not, I don't like it.  I consider love and all that goes with it such a wonderful, such a sacred thing, that I don't care to spoil it by playing at it with Tom, Dick, and Harry.  My kisses and hugs are going to be kept for the one right man; if he ever comes.  This wholesale display of affection is unspeakably cheap and disgusting, and I won't be a party to it."

I like how Nancy stands up for her convictions.  But wait...  Nancy used to kiss Uncle John on the lips.  So it's fine for Nancy to "neck" with her uncle but not with prospective suitors.  Um, okay.  The last part of the Nancy Pembroke set is like a different series from the first part.

On page 206, Nancy and Jeanette speak about the importance of finishing their education.  Nancy remarks, "I really want to finish college, and be prepared to earn my living in some way if it is ever necessary.  So many girls think that if they can only get hold of a man, they need never lift a finger again."

Jeanette then replies, "I know; and one can never be sure what will happen at some time in the future.  It is foolish not to find out what one thing we can do well, and then fit ourselves to do it.  Then, in an emergency, there is something to depend upon."

These girls, especially Nancy, have really matured.

This is a very good to excellent book.

Nancy Pembroke #3 Sophomore at Roxford and #4 New Orleans

In Nancy Pembroke #3, Nancy Pembroke, Sophomore at Roxford, Nancy and Jeanette have transferred to Roxford.  Nancy cannot bear to stay in Eastport with Uncle John gone for a year, which is why she switches schools.  I personally don't see the difference, since Nancy is away from her uncle either way.  Furthermore, Nancy loses all of her friends when she changes to a new college.  Nancy makes some strange decisions.

On page 21, the reader is introduced to Philip Spenser.  Philip's friend tells him, "[Y]our family has made a perfect ass out of you."  I have to say that I greatly enjoyed the entrance of Philip.  It's also a bit odd, since up to this point the series has been told from Nancy's viewpoint.  This book alternates between Nancy and Philip.

Nancy is absolutely horrible to Philip in this book.  It's quite distressing.

On page 44, Nancy tells Jeanette about how she sent a picture in the mail to her father.  The picture and its outer wrapping arrived separately.  This is apparently the most amazingly funny story that the girls greatly indulge in repeating.  My problem is that this same story is in the first book of the series on page 169, told a little differently.  The author even uses the same poem again.  This story must have been too short, so the author stuck in some filler.  The A. L. Burt Company was more concerned about the length of the text than the quality of the story.  Read this post for more information.

These books are a tad bit more old fashioned than typical books of 1930 and later.

This series sends the message that hazing is just fine.  The girls are informed that hazing teaches them good life skills and that they should put up with whatever is done to them and accept their punishment with good spirit.  The girls are also told that whenever they are not being hazed that they will be on friendly terms with the perpetrators.

Some of the hazing includes making a girl walk ahead of a car on the road while the car's bumper pushes her along.

Philip is hazed by being forced to escort pedestrians back and forth across a busy intersection.  A crowd forms, and traffic is completely blocked for quite some time.  I find it amazing that law enforcement doesn't care that the college students shut down roads while they haze each other.

I enjoyed this book.

In Nancy Pembroke #4, Nancy Pembroke in New Orleans, Nancy and her friends discuss what to do over the summer break, and this includes going to New Orleans to visit dear Uncle John.

I could not read this book.  I figured that it would be something of another travelogue, and the beginning of the story is boring.  I did skip through a few parts of it, but I read very little.

I should note that near the end of the previous book, Nancy Pembroke, Sophomore at Roxford, Uncle John gets married!  Yay!  Nancy, of course, is utterly devastated.  The good news is that by the fifth book in the set, Uncle John is no longer of any importance to the series.  I am very glad of that.

Nancy Pembroke #1 College Maid and #2 Vacation in Canada

In Nancy Pembroke #1, Nancy Pembroke, College Maid, Nancy and her best friend, Jeanette, go away to college in Eastport.  Nancy chose Eastport because her beloved Uncle John lives there, and Nancy cannot bear to be far away from him.  The girls soon experience constant hazing by the girls of the sophomore class.  Meanwhile, the girls look forward to joining a sorority.

Nancy is rather immature, wild, and flighty during the early books in this series.  I like her well enough, but at times, she is rather hard to take.  Nancy has an unusually close relationship with her uncle which comes across as incestuous.  On page 83, Nancy gives Uncle John an "especially loving kiss."  On page 134, Uncle John gives Nancy a "tenderly indulgent" smile.  On page 144, Nancy lays "a caressing hand on his."

From page 220:

[Uncle John] smiled his slow, thoughtful smile. "I thought perhaps you might enjoy being nearer me—"

He never finished his sentence, for Nancy's arms around his neck and her kisses on his mouth made further speech impossible, and left no possible doubt of her preference.

The hazing includes girls being whipped and paddled.  Hazing is so prevalent in this book that it seems like the girls attend college solely for the purpose of harassing each other.  They certainly are not very interested in studies.

This book contains lengthy poetry that was written by Jeanette.  The poetry actually isn't bad at all, and I read some of it in the early part of the story.  I then decided that the poetry was taking up too much time and was way too long.  The poems sometimes cover around two entire pages.  After reading the first few poems, I skipped over the rest of them.  I don't have time for that.

I enjoyed this book.

In Nancy Pembroke #2, Nancy Pembroke's Vacation in Canada, the girls go on an incredibly boring vacation in Canada where the reader must endure lengthy explanations about the historical significance of every statue seen in Canada.

On page 9, Nancy gives Uncle John six kisses.

Uncle John prepares to depart for Europe, and he may be gone for a year.  Nancy is utterly devastated, and she acts like he has died.  I don't understand Nancy's unhealthy attachment to her uncle.  She does still have her parents, so I fail to understand why she is so very dependent on her uncle.

This book is an extremely boring travelogue.  It actually makes the more boring Stratemeyer Syndicate travelogues seem rather good in comparison.  This book is basically a history book.

It also doesn't help that Nancy continues to behave like she has no common sense.  For instance, she cannot get a bottle of ginger ale open, so she smashes the neck of the bottle against a bowl, breaking it.  The drink spews, and then the girls seriously consider drinking the remains of the ginger ale from the broken bottle.  Fortunately, the girls decide to throw out the ginger ale.

I read around half of the book, then I skipped over chunks of 10 to 15 pages at a time.  Each time I skipped ahead, I briefly read more historical information similar to what I saw during the previous set of pages.

I did not like this book.

The Nancy Pembroke Series

The Nancy Pembroke series consists of seven books published by A. L. Burt under the pseudonym of Margaret T. Van Epps.  According to James Keeline, the books were written by Helen M. Persons.

1. Nancy Pembroke, College Maid, 1930
2. Nancy Pembroke's Vacation in Canada, 1930
3. Nancy Pembroke, Sophomore at Roxford, 1930
4. Nancy Pembroke in New Orleans, 1930
5. Nancy Pembroke, Junior, 1930
6. Nancy Pembroke in Nova Scotia, 1931
7. Nancy Pembroke, Senior, 1931

Some online sources indicate uncertainty about the correct order of the books in the series.  The books are listed in one order on each copyright page and in a different order on the back panel of each dust jacket.  Copyright registration records do not help, since five of the books were registered on the same date in yet another order.  I can confirm that the list seen above shows the correct order for the set.

I have always been interested in the Nancy Pembroke series but not to the point of trying to find the books.  Many years ago, I heard about the hazing that occurs in the books and how it is a bit outrageous.  I have also heard that the series is considered to be odd.  This made me curious.  Probably once every few years, I thought about the series and briefly considered trying to acquire them.  I never followed through.

The books are quite hard to find in the original A. L. Burt editions, which have good quality paper.  The books are readily available in the World Publishing Company edition, but those books have poor quality paper that has turned brown.  I dislike purchasing books with pulp paper and avoid them whenever possible.  My interest in acquiring the Nancy Pembroke books has never been strong enough for me to want to purchase the books with pulp paper.

The series is in the public domain.  Five of the seven books are on Google Books, but I will never read them.  I do fine with reading modern young adult books through the Kindle app on my iPad, but that is a completely different situation.  I find that with old books, I will never get around to reading any of them in a digital format.  I know that they are available and waiting, but there are thousands of digital books out there.  Those books aren't going away, and I feel no urgency in getting around to any of them.  On the other hand, when I actually see the old books in a bookcase near me taking up shelf space, I am motivated to try them.  I must get around to reading them so that I can decide whether to keep them.

For those reasons, I never did get around to acquiring or trying the Nancy Pembroke series.  Recently, I was checking eBay, which I do far more often than I will admit.  I saw a set of six Nancy Pembroke A. L. Burt books with dust jackets that had just been listed.  The lot had a Buy It Now of $49.95 with free shipping.  I couldn't go wrong at that price, even if I ended up not liking the books.  A. L. Burt series books with dust jackets are typically very hard to find.  I purchased the lot, which ended up costing $54.50 with the added sales tax.

I then looked around for the seventh book in an A. L. Burt edition and found exactly one copy available.  Score!  In just a few minutes, I had secured the entire set of Nancy Pembroke books in the A. L. Burt edition with good quality paper.  I was finally going to be able to read the set!

Reviews will follow.