The Book of Dame Frevisse: Margaret Frazer’s Medieval Mysteries
By Faria S. Sookdeo
Master’s Thesis, The City University of New York, 2006
Introduction: During an interview that I had with Margaret Frazer she disclosed that she wanted to pursue a career in architecture. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, the word architect derives from the Greek arkhitekton (chief builder or craftsman) which comes from teks and which means “to fabricate or to weave a wattle (a construction of poles intertwined with twigs, reed and branches) fabric.” By the modern definition of the word Margaret Frazer did not become an architect. However, she did become one in the etymological sense. What has she been fabricating and weaving?
Margaret Frazer has written and published fifteen medieval mystery books thus far. These books are considered detective fiction. In fact, two of Frazer’s books have been nominated for the Edgar Award. Margaret Frazer is indeed worthy of the Edgar Award but she offers much more than a story with a victim, a detective and a formula for solving a mystery. Frazer’s books go far beyond the traditional detective tale.
As P. D. James says in an interview with Andrew Gulli, which appears in Strand Magazine, “I think you can learn far more about the social mores of the age in which the mystery is written than you can from more pretentious literature. I mean, if you are thinking of the 1920s, the so-called Golden Age [of mysteries], and want to know what it was like to live in England at that time, you can get a much better story from the mysteries than you can from prize-winning novels”. What do these statements imply? Should mystery novels be redefined? Or should some mystery novels, like Margaret Frazer’s, not be classified under the genre of traditional detective fiction?
Frazer fabricates detective stories but weaves historical facts and moral gravitas into the plots. The plot of each book is such that it is not focused primarily on solving the murder. Frazer offers a world filled with factual historical contexts, depth of human psychology, and social and religious mores of the time periods in which her books are set. With their historical facts and moral dimensions, Frazer’s books give a sense of pyschagogia. Margaret Frazer’s books are in a different genre from those of the traditional detective tales. The depth and richness of Frazer’s books will change a reader’s internal landscape. They should be seen and read for what they are: Tales that give an education of a particular period in medieval English history and most importantly, tales of morality and mortality. They can be read individually or, given their continuity, as one book that adds to The Book of Dame Frevisse.
To argue this point, I will use discussions of the traditional detective tale by Jacques Barzun, C. S. Lewis and Wayne Booth. Also, I will give examples of traditional detective tales like those of Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler. Then I will demonstrate, using Frazer’s Tales, how she moves away from the modus operandi of the traditional detective stories. Historical background, plot, character development and moral gravity will be analyzed. Also, evidence will reveal that the fifteen individual novels, when read in sequence, can be viewed together as one book. I will show that ultimately these books add up to a deep, rich experience that goes beyond the formulaic, traditional detective stories.
Click here to read this thesis from Margaret Frazer’s website
By Faria S. Sookdeo
Master’s Thesis, The City University of New York, 2006
Introduction: During an interview that I had with Margaret Frazer she disclosed that she wanted to pursue a career in architecture. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, the word architect derives from the Greek arkhitekton (chief builder or craftsman) which comes from teks and which means “to fabricate or to weave a wattle (a construction of poles intertwined with twigs, reed and branches) fabric.” By the modern definition of the word Margaret Frazer did not become an architect. However, she did become one in the etymological sense. What has she been fabricating and weaving?
Margaret Frazer has written and published fifteen medieval mystery books thus far. These books are considered detective fiction. In fact, two of Frazer’s books have been nominated for the Edgar Award. Margaret Frazer is indeed worthy of the Edgar Award but she offers much more than a story with a victim, a detective and a formula for solving a mystery. Frazer’s books go far beyond the traditional detective tale.
As P. D. James says in an interview with Andrew Gulli, which appears in Strand Magazine, “I think you can learn far more about the social mores of the age in which the mystery is written than you can from more pretentious literature. I mean, if you are thinking of the 1920s, the so-called Golden Age [of mysteries], and want to know what it was like to live in England at that time, you can get a much better story from the mysteries than you can from prize-winning novels”. What do these statements imply? Should mystery novels be redefined? Or should some mystery novels, like Margaret Frazer’s, not be classified under the genre of traditional detective fiction?
Frazer fabricates detective stories but weaves historical facts and moral gravitas into the plots. The plot of each book is such that it is not focused primarily on solving the murder. Frazer offers a world filled with factual historical contexts, depth of human psychology, and social and religious mores of the time periods in which her books are set. With their historical facts and moral dimensions, Frazer’s books give a sense of pyschagogia. Margaret Frazer’s books are in a different genre from those of the traditional detective tales. The depth and richness of Frazer’s books will change a reader’s internal landscape. They should be seen and read for what they are: Tales that give an education of a particular period in medieval English history and most importantly, tales of morality and mortality. They can be read individually or, given their continuity, as one book that adds to The Book of Dame Frevisse.
Click here to read this thesis from Margaret Frazer’s website
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