Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Mystery
Definition:
Ah, the perennial question. Mysteries everywhere have been trying to answer this one for, well, forever, and especially since the rise of popular fiction. John Grisham knows whodunit. James Patterson totally has a clue.
But before you go writing off the mystery genre as solely the realm of popular fiction, consider these famous literary mysteries:
• Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged
• Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• John Updike's Rabbit, Run
• Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon
• Charles Dickens's Bleak House
What do all these books have in common? Murder, suspense, and puzzles. In a word: intrigue.
Just ask Sherlock Holmes.