Mary and Marilyn: Double-Trouble Twins

I'm always on the look-out for series books that feature twins: from the more modern Scarlet & Ivy series to the vintage Bobbsey Twins and Hope Twins series.  I chanced upon this particular at the Atlanta Vintage Bookstore a few years back, and I picked it up, thinking perhaps it was a series I had never heard of before.  As it turns out, this is the only book published with these characters (that I am aware of!), written by Bess Ann Elliot and published in 1938 by Cupples & Leon, the same company that published the Kay Tracey series, as well as the Penny Parker series and many others back in the day.  I can find no real information online about Ms. Elliot, and it appears this is the only book written under this name.  Whether the name is the author's real name or a pseudonym is a mystery in and of itself!

 

Mary and Marilyn: Double-Trouble Twins, while a story of twin girls, is mostly the story of nine-year old Marilyn North Starr, who lives with her grandfather and her aunt, Sally Ann.  The reader quickly learns that Marilyn's father was presumed dead while serving in the war (that would be World War I, in light of the publication date of this book), and her mother died of a broken heart not long after.  As it turns out, Marilyn is one of two twin sisters who, after both their parents died, were separated by the court system when the fathers of both parents fought for custody.  Grandfather North (the mother's father) was given one child to raise, while Grandfather Starr (the father's father) was given the other.  North and Starr hated one another, blaming each other for the marriage of what they believed to be their mis-matched children, and once the two twins were separated, the men vowed never to allow them to see each other.  Starr went so far as to build a dividing fence between the properties, and Marilyn was raised to never try and cross over on to Starr property.  (Oh, and yes, it must be mentioned that the North family was not well-to-do, while the Starr family was more than wealthy!)

 

If anyone has ever watched any of the versions of Walt Disney's The Parent Trap, then you can pretty much see where this is going.  Interestingly, The Parent Trap was based upon a German's novel published in 1949, as well as resembles a 1945 film with a similar plot; however, this book, with the very same premise of separated twins switching places to fool their families, was published nearly a decade prior to either of those. It would be more proper to say this story was inspired by Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, published back in the 1880s, in which an heir to the thrown switches places with a young peasant boy, and they experience each other's lives.  Elliot, however, in this book, reverses the fortunes - instead of the poor family being the abusive one, in this book, it is the wealthy grandfather who is distant and has shown no love or mercy on his granddaughter.  

 

As indicated above, the story focuses on Marilyn, the "poor" granddaughter, who is vibrant, full of life, and is the one who suggests the girls switch identities so that her sister can experience a family who loves her for once.  While we do get the story told from Mary's point-of-view on occasion, the majority of the book is seen through Marilyn's eyes, which is probably for the best, since she is the one who is thrilled with all of her experiences, yet, at the time, longing to return to her aunt and grandfather.  When the girls first make the switch, Marilyn accidentally injures herself (breaks her nose!) when Mary's dog Rex pulls roughly away from her to follow his mistress (it seems even though the twins look exactly alike, the dog can still tell which one is his true mistress).  Her grandfather, a famed surgeon, well known in the hospital and surrounding areas, takes her to the hospital, where Marilyn is stuck while Mary goes off on a vacation in her stead with Grandfather North and Sally Ann!  As one might expect, Marilyn's outgoing personality cannot help but shine through, and soon enough, she begins to melt the heart of her Grandfather Starr, who begins to not only suspect this is not the granddaughter he raised (albeit in boarding schools and without any familial love), but he starts to realize the mistakes he has made over the past nine years.

Elliot does not really introduce much mystery into the book, as much as she does the misadventures of Marilyn as she attempts to get to know her twin sister and share her life with her.  Elliot does, however, provide a sub-plot involving one Mr. Jones, a peculiar man who boards at the North's other neighbor's house.  Mr. Jones ultimately takes up residence in Grandfather North's houseboat, and he becomes a friend and confidant of both Marilyn and Mary.  Adult readers of the book will instantly figure out who Mr. Jones really is, but the audience for whom this story is actually intended will likely not realize his true identity and be in for a pleasant surprise when it is revealed at the end of the book.  

 

Regardless of the similarities to The Parent Trap and the obvious plot elements taken from The Prince and the Pauper, the story was a fun read in its own right.  Elliot breathed the right amount of playfulness, inquisitiveness, and family loyalty into young Marilyn that the reader cannot help but find no fault in all of her actions, and it seems only natural that she would be the one to warm Grandfather Starr's heart so as to open it for his in-laws and his own granddaughters.  The happy ending is definitely fairy-tale like in style, but it provides the reader a very satisfying conclusion (although it does leave the reader wanting for more, making me wish the author and publisher had continued this as a series, rather than just one-book offering). 

 

Something I did find odd is that after purchasing this book, I looked all over to try and find out what the dust jacket art looked like, but I found absolutely no image of the dust jacket anywhere online!  All copies I could find for sale with images had no dust jacket.  I finally located a copy on ABE that was selling with with a DJ for a relatively low price, but there were no pictures - so I took a chance and bought it.  So glad I did!  The dust jacket has some gorgeous cover art, in the same style as Mildred Wirt's Trailer Stories series.  There's no signature on the dust jacket, nor on the sole internal illustration at the front of the book, so I cannot identify who the artist is (if, indeed, the same artist did both the dust jacket and the frontis piece - it could have been two different artists).  Regardless, I am absolutely thrilled to have a copy with the dust jacket in beautiful shape. 

 

Oh, and I did discover in the back of my dust jacketed copy of the book that this book is from the "Junior Books for Boys and Girls" series from Cupples & Leon, with other books such as Rex: The Story of a Dog by Fullerton Waldo; One Boy Too Many by L.H. Mitchell; Here, Tricks, Here! by L.H. Mitchell; The Sea Dog by Arthur C. Bartlett; and others.  Based on this, I can assume this was never intended to be a series, but merely a one-off. 

 

I am glad I picked this book up, as it was worth the read and makes a nice addition to my collection of "twins" in series books.

 

RATING:  8 crayon-drawn sketches on a hospital room wall out of 10 for an adventurous tale of troublesome twins, mistaken identities, and family love and forgiveness!