Read All The Books Aaaaaah! discussion

I've heard people refer to this story so many times, I had to see just what they were talking about. The thing is, it was originally a 20-episode silent film serial from 1914, of about 30 minutes each, but most of the episodes have been destroyed, so there are very few people (if any) alive today who are likely to have seen it, except either in a still-surviving condensed 9-chapter form, or as one of the movie remakes, or as this novelisation, which was published in 1915, the year after the serial premiered.

The series was followed by The Hazards of Helen and The Exploits of Elaine, both of which were reviewed as superior to the original, but they're much more obscure today.

So far, there are a lot of plot threads being introduced, but the writing is pretty witty and funny!

The chapters, being based on episodes of the serial, are of course very episodic, with each one focusing on one particular perilous adventure. It's almost sitcom-like with several running gags, as well as Harry (her stepbrother and fiancé) always sneaking along on the adventure, sometimes in disguise, often helping to foil the plans of the two villains to kill Pauline. Sitcom-like except for the fact that they're very much trying to kill her and make it look like an accident, sabotaging a plane, planting a bomb, etc. There haven't been any confirmed deaths so far, but that innocent plane pilot was in very bad shape after the crash.

The villains are Owen, the treacherous secretary of the late father of Pauline, who is holding Pauline's inheritance in trust until her marriage to Harry, and a petty criminal named Mug, to whom Owen owes blackmail money. To explain why Owen turned to evil, the author gave him an opioid addiction. But the author either has no idea what such an addition should look like, or keeps forgetting that he has it, because aside from occasional mentions of him taking some, Owen shows no signs of having such an addiction.

Since the reason for Pauline's year-long adventure plan was to see the world and gain experience to make her a better writer, I expected it to be more of an around-the-world type thing, but the longest excursion so far has been a sea voyage, and each chapter ends with her touching base back home before setting out for the next adventure. Some of these adventures are strictly local, like going up in an aeroplane at a stunt show, or parachuting from a hot air balloon, or visiting a temple in Chinatown.

There's also a recurring plot element of Pauline thinking Harry is getting involved with their mutual friend Lucille, when they're actually just talking with each other about the dangers Pauline's getting into and trying to work out how to keep her safe.

The plotline with the ghost mummy princess has stayed mostly in the background. It was up front in the first chapter, establishing that Pauline is a reincarnation of this Egyptian princess (but her ghost still shows up) and that there's also some ancient Egyptian priest who wants Pauline dead so her spirit will return to him, and this priest gave a scarab to the villains and put them in contact with each other telepathically to ensure their cooperation, but only that once. After that, nothing else has come of that plotline, though the mummy has just been mentioned at the beginning of the current chapter, so maybe we'll find out what they're supposed to do with this scarab.

Unfortunately, the comedy and wittiness has almost disappeared from this book. Just a line here and there on occasion. And it's close to the end, and nothing has come of the mummy plotline.

Well, the mummy made one final "appearance" offscreen, more like the author realised he'd completely left that plotline hanging and quickly scribbled in one last mention of it after the final episode/chapter had been written. The mummy did nothing but induce Harry to return home from his business trip so that he'd be there when Pauline got back, but this didn't help her at all, just made a convenient time for her to renounce her perilous lifestyle and agree to marry Harry.

Of the two villains, one of them, Hicks, blackmailer of Owen and the more hardened criminal between the two of them, made it about halfway through the book, then just vanished entirely, never to be seen or mentioned again despite the fact that a ghost Egyptian priest had telepathically linked him to Owen and gave him a scarab for some sinister purpose. Never heard about the priest or the scarab again.

Owen, the remaining villain, died offscreen during Pauline's last adventure, of a morphine overdose.

All in all, the story was all over the place. Inconsistent in tone and continuity, relying a lot on coincidence and luck. Pauline usually did not get out of her perils by her own actions. It was all very experimental, and I'm sure the inconsistencies were due more to the filmmakers modifying things as they went along based on audience reactions. I'll bet the movie remakes of this story were better, since they could have trimmed out the fat and made sure there were no loose ends, sudden disappearances, or unsatisfying conclusions.

Now, two of the similar serials that followed after this, The Exploits of Elaine, and the Hazards of Helen, were written as books and short stories first, while The Perils of Pauline was a film serial first and a novelisation afterward, so I might enjoy the followups more than this. The Mysteries of Myra was a film serial first like this one and a novelisation afterward, but it looks to be more paranormal-based all the way through, so that would make up for the disappointing mummy ghost content in this book. The Exploits of Elaine was based on a series of "scientific detective" short stories, which is very different, but could be interesting as well. The Hazards of Helen is an adventure story like this one, but reportedly corrects the problem of Pauline's lack of autonomy by letting Helen get herself out of her situations with quick thinking and resourcefulness. I'm open to trying another one sometime, but I'm not in a hurry.