History Literature / NancyDrew

* AerithAndBob: Mostly chalked up to time, since quite a few names have fallen out of favor since the books were written; as it is, names like "Nancy," "Bess," and "Ned" currently sound a little old-fashioned and not the kind of names you'd expect teenagers to have, and the same goes for "Georgia", while her nickname, "George", is a GenderBlenderName that's common for men. But a name like Mortimer Bartesque couldn't have been very common, even then.

* {{Recurring Character}}s: Nancy's main cast includes her father, Carson Drew; KindlyHousekeeper and ParentalSubstitute Hannah Gruen; [[LoveInterest boyfriend]] Ned Nickerson; and [[HeterosexualLifePartners best friends]] Bess Marvin and George Fayne. While they appear in every book of the original series, and most books of most of the others, Ned, Carson, and Hannah are relegated to this status in the ''Files'' books. Additionally, some of the various series have their own examples:

** The ''Files'' have Brenda Carlton, a journalist and self-styled rival to Nancy, who usually is there to cause additional hindrances to Nancy, but occasionally works with her and helps her out.

** Ned spends much of the first few books of the ''Files'' series bitching about always being second best to Nancy's detective work and being upset that she prioritizes her career over him, to the point where he finally breaks up with her at the end of "Two Points to Murder". By "False Moves", the very next book after this, he himself needs those same detective skills to help his new girlfriend. His hypocrisy aside, this is also horrifically insensitive of him. And then there's the fact that said girlfriend is ''far more'' self-centered and career-oriented than Nancy ever was. He's also visibly jealous upon meeting her new boyfriend, even though ''he'' broke up with ''her'' and is dating someone else.

** This is averted with Charlie Adams, who has a thing for Nancy; he's very polite, sweet, and gentlemanly to her, and respects that she's dating someone else, never acting pushy or trying to assert his feelings. Nancy, in turn, while not interested in him romantically, very much appreciates what a NiceGuy he is and is always kind to him.

For what's basically the equivalent with dudes, see ''Literature/TheHardyBoys''.

* ExtrudedBookProduct: Alongside sister series ''The Hardy Boys'' it is among the worst offenders of this trope ever recorded. A rough outline of how bad it got follows below:

** In Sweden, she was renamed ''Kitty'' Drew for reasons that has never been fully explained. The most common theory being that the publishing company thought that ''Nancy'' sounded like an old lady's name, while ''Kitty'' would be more more hip and appealing to Swedish teenagers in the 1950s.

* LongRunningBookSeries

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* HardHead

* AerithAndBob: Mostly chalked up to time, since quite a few names have fallen out of favor since the books were written (as it is, names like "Nancy," "Bess," and "Ned" currently sound a little old-fashioned and not the kind of names you'd expect teenagers to have), but a name like Mortimer Bartesque couldn't have been very common, even then.

** 2016-present: ''Diaries'' is reduced to bi-annually.

** Likewise, Don Cameron was Nancy's boyfriend for the first few books before he was replaced with by Ned Nickerson for future installments. Unlike Helen, there was no mention of what happened with Don.

** Overlaps with TheUnfairSex: in the ''Files'' series and their crossovers with the Hardy Boys, Nancy has, and occasionally even acts on, some serious feelings for men other than Ned, most notably Frank Hardy and Mick Devlin (both of whom she straight-up kisses multiple times); though these flings don't ever end up lasting long-term, they're still usually portrayed positively or at least as being tragically star-crossed, even though she's essentially cheating on Ned with other guys. At least with Frank, he and Nancy mutually conclude whenever this happens that they want to stick with their respective partners, but with Mick, he outright asks Nancy to marry him, and she actually considers it. And yet, when there are books that involve another girl being attracted to Ned, Nancy gets very jealous, even though Ned never displays behavior that comes across as "cheating" as blatantly as Nancy does in the same situations.

* CostumePorn: Much like FoodPorn as described on the ''Literature/HardyBoys'' page, the books devoted a decent amount of space to descriptions of the outfits the girls wore. However, unlike the FoodPorn of the Hardys, the clothing descriptions remained, and when there are books like "A Model Crime" and "Designs in Crime", which focus on modeling and the fashion industry, the descriptions sometimes went UpToEleven.

** Turned UpToEleven in the French translation [[http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Roy#La_traduction_française as you can see on the other wiki]]: the only major character whose name is unchanged is Ned Nickerson (even River Heights is called River City). Nancy Drew herself is known as ''Alice Roy'' to make her name more euphonic (the ''Dr-'' sound is much harsher and more guttural in French) while still sounding quintessentially American. Even Carolyn Keene becomes ''Caroline Quine'' (which is pronounced the same).

** Turned UpToEleven in the French translation [[http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Roy#Traduction_des_noms_originaux as you can see on the other wiki]], Nancy Drew is known as ''Alice Roy'' to make her name more appealing to French ears while still sounding American enough. Even Carolyn Keene becomes ''Caroline Quine''.

* EagleEyeDetection

* [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Where The Hell Is River Heights?]]: The location of River Heights has always been pretty sketchy. The original ghostwriter, Mildred Wirt Benson, put it in her home state of Iowa, but it seemed to keep drifting farther and farther east, going as far as New Jersey when Harriet Adams did her rewrites in the 60s. As early as the ''Files'' series, however, it seems to have settled down and tends to stay within driving distance of Chicago (and despite that leaving four states as possibilities due to Chicago's location, it's often implied that it's in Illinois, also.)

** Averted with George in the original books, where this is her real GenderBlenderName, it's played straight in the reprints and all subsequent books, where her full name is Georgia Fayne, but she's near-exclusively called "George". In the most recent series--''Girl Detective'' and ''Diaries''--she actually ''hates'' being called by her full name.

** Averted with George in the original books, where this is her real GenderBlender name, it's played straight in the reprints and all subsequent books, where her full name is Georgia Fayne, but she's near-exclusively called "George". In the most recent series--''Girl Detective'' and ''Diaries''--she actually ''hates'' being called by her full name.

** In the earliest books in the series, Nancy's entourage who helps her with her sleuthing consists of one main "gal pal", Helen Corning, and her boyfriend, Don Cameron. They both only last for a few books before being phased out in favor of the classic characters everyone knows: Don is replaced by Ned Nickerson as Nancy's boyfriend, while Helen is PutOnABus and Nancy gets two "chums" instead of one--Bess Marvin and George Fayne--to form a trio of best friends.