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- Title
Mary and the Mystery of the Strange Crying: Elements of the Detective Story in <italic>The Secret Garden</italic>.
- Authors
Oppermann, Eva
- Abstract
This contribution demonstrates how Burnett adopts several devices typical of detective fiction, namely clues, secondary secrets, interrogations, Gothic elements and the investigating outsider in a closed (and reclusive) society, in <italic>The Secret Garden</italic> in order to introduce tension and the motif of a riddle to solve her masterpiece. She also for the first time uses character qualities to develop Mary into a character with a talent to rely on her own observations and draw the correct conclusions. Thus she becomes the prototype of the girl sleuth who will become important in later detective fiction for children. This so far neglected aspect provides new insight into both the novel's plot structure and its main character's special qualities.
- Subjects
SECRET Garden, The (Book); BURNETT, Frances Hodgson, 1849-1924; MYSTERY fiction; LITERARY characters; SECRECY in literature; RIDDLES in literature
- Publication
International Research in Children's Literature, 2018, Vol 11, Issue 1, p80
- ISSN
1755-6198
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.3366/ircl.2018.0255