Rereading The Trolley to Yesterday today and it almost feels like an anomaly among the books – and this is somewhat odd of me to say, considering it introduced me to the series, along with The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull. The time machine element, as much as I enjoy its quaint charm, suggests it is science fiction - although ghosts and gods pervade the rest of the story - and the historical feeling of the locations doesn't evoke a gothic atmosphere.As much as I enjoy it, I now wish John Bellairs had created a separate series, starting with Trolley, in which a young person or persons and eccentric elderly friends visit different eras.
An interesting concept. But would Bellairs have wanted another series to maintain internal chronology with? Another interesting what if with Trolley would have been the supposed sequel Brad Strickland proposed, The Trail of the Time Trolley, bringing Dixon and company to the 1990s. I still think an even better title for this should have been The Trolley to Tomorrow. Bookend with the original. Come on.
But let's take Matthew's thoughts and ask what if the trolley was used by a new character. What if this character traveled back in time to solve mysteries with the likes of - oh, let's say William Shakespeare or Ben Franklin. Those characters are featured in two adventures written by Bailey MacDonald.
That's sort of a crossover. But not really. Ahem.
Still, a new character whose job it is to assist historical characters in solving mysteries does seem to have an interesting angle. He or she could read about unsolved mysteries in old newspapers and then set the trolley dials for whenever and just roll with the punches.
I can see the book billing now:
John Bellairs's Time Traveling Trolley in
The ....
I always had the feeling that the time trolley was more of a means to an end than anything else. A way for Professor Childermass (and John Bellairs) to get to the past that they found interesting. I think John got it out of his system with the one book. It is a little harder to understand where Brewster came from. I guess John had a very active imagination. I would be curious to know if Brewster was in the book from the first draft or if he was brought in to handle some problem he could not think of a way to get past. I also sort of got the idea that John's editor was humoring him with this one book, but then they had to get back to work on the series. It really does not fit in well with the other books, except for the characters running interest in history. I did enjoy the book, but I am not so sure a series of these stories would have held readers for very long.
ReplyDeleteFrom somewhere within our archives, comments from Brad Strickland:
ReplyDelete“Brewster was not originally included in the cast. Bellairs's editor observed there needed to be a way for the characters to communicate with the historical figures they visit in the past. Brewster was created to be, among other things, the universal translator.”
If an earlier draft still exists it would be interesting to see how the book started without him.
BM
Thanks for the info on Brewster. I always thought Brewster was a gimmick, he just does not really fit into a Bellairs book. I think reading any of John's working manuscripts would be interesting, but I would love to see an early version of House.
ReplyDelete