Abstract
This chapter was written for a collected volume aiming to expand our understanding of the 1920s – a decade mainly associated with works like "Ulysses" and "The Waste Land" – by exploring literary texts published in 1922 that do not belong to the modernist canon (and are therefore rarely discussed). I offer a reading of A. A. Milne’s only mystery novel, "The Red House Mystery," arguing that it presents an interesting take on the detective genre – one that is paradoxically both highly conventional and highly idiosyncratic. On the one hand, the novel harkens back to the Victorian roots of detective fiction, blending motifs from Arthur Conan Doyle's work with the country-house setting that would later define the Golden Age of detective fiction. On the other hand, Milne’s background in drama influences the novel’s lighthearted and comedic approach to crime writing. With its heavy emphasis on dialogue, "The Red House Mystery" presents detection as "glorious fun," a "profession" performed self-consciously and theatrically by its two amateur detectives. As a result, the novel functions not only as a mystery but also as a meta-mystery, full of intertextual references to earlier detective stories and to the comedy of manners traditions of the nineteenth century.
Frank, Michael C