If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from my time blogging is that a lot of my readers are much more informed about the genre than I am.
Anyway, I’ve had a request from a reader, Kurt Keefner, which I’ll reprint in it’s entirety:
“I was hoping you could help me with a bit of research. I am writing a book about Donna Tartt’s novel The Secret History. In it I analyze the themes of the story but also write about an archetype to which Tartt’s novel belongs: stories where a charismatic teacher imparts dangerous ideas to a cult-like student(s) with fatality ensuing. I have quite a few examples, including Rope (the play and the movie) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (novel and film). I also have some more recent examples.
It occurs to me, however, that there must be some examples of this archetype in classic mystery fiction, and I’m hoping you might know of some. I would be very grateful for any suggestions and would of course credit you in the acknowledgements”
To be honest, I’m pretty clueless, but it rings a number of bells, none of which I can put my finger on. So, dear readers, can you help Kurt out?
I know what you mean! It feels like there ought to be dozens of classic mysteries that fit this theme but I can’t think of any, especially if by ‘students’ Kurt means ‘young people’ like in The Secret History. “The Flock of Geryon” in Christie’s “The Labours of Hercules” has a cult with a charismatic leader which ensnares middle-aged women, but I don’t think it’s quite what Kurt is looking for (it’s also not very good).
There are a few more charismatic quacks in famous(ish) stories, but they often only convince one or two people. Pennick in Carr’s ‘The Reader is Warned’, Kalon in Chesterton’s “The Eye of Apollo”, whoever it is that runs the cult in Sladek’s “Black Aura” (I’ve lost my copy, and it’s probably too recent to count as ‘classic mystery fiction’). But I don’t imagine any of these offer a particularly useful comparison with The Secret History.
Is there anything by Gladys Mitchell? I haven’t read much of her stuff but she seems like the sort who wouldn’t be able to resist doing something inspired by The Bacchae…
I was thinking of Mitchell too as a likely source, but I’m very underread on her – haven’t gone back since the third failure at starting Come Away, Death. Any Mitchell experts out there?
Sorry, I didn’t read the examples carefully enough. Kurt obviously means ‘teacher’ literally – a school teacher or a tutor or a university professor etc. etc. In which case none of my suggestions are much use at all.