The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World

Last updated
The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World
The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World.jpg
Author E. L. Konigsburg
Cover artistRussell Gordon, design
CountryUnited States
Language English
Genre Children's novel, mystery
Publisher Atheneum Books
Publication date
2007
Media typePrint (hardcover & paperback)
Pages244 pp (first, hard)
ISBN 1-4169-4972-0 (first edition, hard)

The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World (2007) is a middle-age or young-adult novel by E.L. Konigsburg. It is somewhat a detective story, and some reviews present it as mystery fiction.

Contents

Amedeo Kaplan is both new boy and a rich boy in the sixth grade. He longs to discover something "no one" yet knows. He volunteers to help liquidate the portable property of an elderly woman who once sang opera in Europe and finds himself learning more about degenerate art and the German occupation of the Netherlands.

The Mysterious Edge is a kind of sequel to The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place (2004). Margaret Kane's two executive allies in The Outcasts are Amedeo Kaplan's godfather and mother here, about fifteen years later, and Vanderwaal family history is one aspect of The Mysterious Edge.

Setting

Mysterious Edge is set in the present and primarily in the private residential part of St. Malo, Florida, a fictional navy town. One secondary setting is the art center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, directed by Peter Vanderwaal. Backstory events occurred in Amsterdam, Vienna, and Epiphany, New York —the fictional city in Greater New York where the Bevilacquas, Roses, and Vanderwaals all lived at 17 to 21 Schuyler Place for a decade or two after World War II.

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place (2004) itself provides some backstory for The Mysterious Edge. Epiphany, New York is the primary setting for two other novels, The View from Saturday and Silent to the Bone.

Summary

Amedeo Kaplan and his divorced mother Loretta Bevilacqua have moved from Epiphany, New York to St. Malo, Florida. He is a new boy at school for the first time and does not yet have friends. He is happy to befriend the next-door neighbor Mrs. Zender, an opera singer on the European circuit in the fifties, who retired with a European husband to her childhood mansion in St. Malo. Mrs. Zender plans to move to the retirement community Waldorf Court while she can still afford it. Amedeo volunteers to help liquidate most of her possessions.

From his artist father Jake Kaplan, who lives back north, and many visits to the fine arts institutions of New York City, Amedeo is a novice expert on paintings and drawings. Working with classmate William Wilcox and his single mother, the professional appraiser and estate liquidator Mrs. Zender has engaged, he learns more about the business, about people, and about Mrs. Zender, who is in and out of every room they work.

Amedeo's godfather Peter Vanderwaal, who directs an art center, is preparing to host a traveling exhibition of Degenerate Art, a selection from the 1937 exhibition Entartete Kunst in Munich, the heart of Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, Peter's father John has died in Epiphany and his mother Mrs. Vanderwaal has pressed upon him a box that contains his father's life story. Amedeo finds on a Zender bookshelf a small drawing signed by the modern artist Modigliani. From Peter, he learns that Modigliani died young (in 1920); his paintings and drawings were commonly forged in post-war Europe.

Amedeo finally recalls that the drawing is familiar because he has seen it many times, within a family photo displayed at the Vanderwaal home. On the other hand, Amedeo and William come to suspect that Mrs. Zender planted the drawing for him to find. Peter never looked closely at John Vanderwaal's box before his mother repossessed it at the exhibition, but Mrs. Vanderwaal follows up a phone conversation with her son by driving her Winnebago to St. Malo and delivering the "life" directly to Amedeo and William.

With John Vanderwaal in hand and Mrs. Zender at hand, Amedeo and William pursue the mystery.

Reception

Angela Leeper of Book Page reviewed the book, saying, "Each interlocking piece of this mystery produces an astounding puzzle that shows the importance of art, history, family, and friendship. For middle-grade readers and younger teens, The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World is a true find!" [1]

Matt Berman of Common Sense Media said, "This is clearly not for everyone, or even for most. Konigsburg not only writes about gifted children, she expects her experienced readers to be equally clever, to be comfortable with ambiguity and sophisticated vocabulary (or at least willing to look things up), and to be willing not only to read, but to think." [2]

Mark David Bradshaw of Watermark Books reviewed the book, saying, "The interplay between these characters is subtle and absorbing, and Konigsburg does a masterly job of showing us that the biggest truths can’t just be dug up or dusted off—they can only be discovered by attempting to understand the crazy and amazing hearts of the people around us." [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amedeo Modigliani</span> Italian painter and sculptor (1884–1920)

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and figures that were not received well during his lifetime, but later became much sought-after. Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance. In 1906, he moved to Paris, where he came into contact with such artists as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși. By 1912, Modigliani was exhibiting highly stylized sculptures with Cubists of the Section d'Or group at the Salon d'Automne.

Elaine Lobl Konigsburg was an American writer and illustrator of children's books and young adult fiction. She is one of six writers to win two Newbery Medals, the venerable American Library Association award for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American children's literature."

<i>Death on the Nile</i> 1937 novel by Agatha Christie

Death on the Nile is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 1 November 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.

<i>Chasing Vermeer</i> 2004 book written by Blue Balliett and illustrated by Brett Helquist

Chasing Vermeer is a 2004 children's art mystery novel written by Blue Balliett and illustrated by Brett Helquist. Set in Hyde Park, Chicago near the University of Chicago, the novel follows two children, Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee. After a famous Johannes Vermeer painting, A Lady Writing, is stolen en route to the Art Institute of Chicago, Calder and Petra work together to try to recover it. The thief publishes many advertisements in the newspaper, explaining that he will give the painting back if the community can discover which paintings under Vermeer's name were really painted by him. This causes Petra, Calder, and the rest of Hyde Park to examine art more closely. Themes of art, chance, coincidence, deception, and problem-solving are apparent.

<i>The Rule of Four</i> 2004 novel by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

The Rule of Four is a novel written by the American authors Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, and published in 2004. Caldwell, a Princeton University graduate, and Thomason, a Harvard College graduate, are childhood friends who wrote the book after their graduations.

<i>NYX</i> (comics) Comic book series

NYX is a limited series of comic books by Marvel Comics, consisting of seven issues, published between 2003 and 2005. It is written by Joe Quesada with art by Joshua Middleton and Rob Teranishi. NYX stands for District X, New York City.

<i>From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler</i> Novel by E. L. Konigsburg

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a novel by E. L. Konigsburg. The book follows siblings Claudia and Jamie Kincaid as they run away from home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It was published by Atheneum in 1967, the second book published from two manuscripts the new writer had submitted to editor Jean E. Karl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lado Gudiashvili</span> Georgian artist

Lado Gudiashvili was a Georgian artist of the 20th century. Gudiashvili was born into a family of a railroad employee. He studied in the Tbilisi school of sculpture and fine art (1910–1914), where he met the Armenian artist Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan, and later in Ronson's private academy in Paris (1919–1926). For a while, Gudiashvili belonged to a group of Georgian poets called "The Blue Horns" (1914–1918), who were trying to connect organically the Georgian national flavour with the creative structure of French symbolism. In Paris, he was a constant customer of the famous "La Ruche," a colony of painters where he met Ignacio Zuloaga, Amedeo Modigliani, Natalia Goncharova, and Mikhail Larionov. Gudiashvili's work was greatly influenced by Niko Pirosmanashvili.

<i>The Clue of the Broken Locket</i> Nancy Drew 11, published 1934

The Clue of the Broken Locket is the eleventh volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1934 and was written by Mildred Benson under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. It was later revised by Harriet Stratemeyer in 1965, and the story was mostly changed with a few elements of the original.

<i>The View from Saturday</i>

The View from Saturday is a children's novel by E. L. Konigsburg, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers in 1996. It won the 1997 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature, the author's second Medal.

<i>Death on the Nile</i> (1978 film) 1978 film by John Guillermin

Death on the Nile is a 1978 British mystery film based on Agatha Christie's 1937 novel of the same name, directed by John Guillermin and adapted by Anthony Shaffer. The film features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, played by Peter Ustinov for the first time, plus an all-star supporting cast that includes Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Jane Birkin, David Niven, George Kennedy, and Jack Warden. The film is a follow-up to the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express.

Johan Wilhelm Klüver was an electrical engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories who founded Experiments in Art and Technology. Klüver lectured extensively on art and technology and social issues to be addressed by the technical community. He published numerous articles on these subjects. Klüver curated for fourteen major museum exhibitions in the United States and Europe. He received the prestigious Ordre des Arts et des Lettres award from the French government.

<i>From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler</i> (1995 film) 1995 film

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a 1995 American television movie based on E.L. Konigsburg's novel of the same name. The story is about a girl and her brother who run away from home to live in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and discover what they think is a lost treasure. The children, Claudia and Jamie, are transfixed with the treasure and won't leave without knowing what its secret is. Lauren Bacall stars in the title role.

<i>The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place</i>

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place (2004) is a young adult novel by E. L. Konigsburg. It is a companion of Silent to the Bone, a kind of prequel published four years later. Parent publisher Simon & Schuster recommends it for "Ages 10 up".

<i>The Ragged Edge of Science</i>

The Ragged Edge of Science is a science book by L. Sprague de Camp, illustrated by Don Simpson. It was first published by Owlswick Press in 1980.

Susan Irene Glover is a Canadian actress, best known for playing Sarah in Naked Josh. She is also known for voicing Mrs. Wood in Arthur, Izabella Dehavalot in Amazon Jack, Mrs. Schuman in Spaced Out, Mrs. Larkin in later episodes of What's With Andy? (2003–2007), Tubby's mom in The Little Lulu Show, Lucille in Samurai Pizza Cats, General Jinjur in the 1986 anime The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Miss Dalee in My Goldfish is Evil.

<i>Book of Love</i> (album) 1986 studio album by Book of Love

Book of Love is the debut studio album by American synth-pop and electronic band Book of Love, released on April 1, 1986, by Sire Records.

<i>Mothstorm</i> 2008 young adult novel by Philip Reeve

Mothstorm is a young adult novel by Philip Reeve and released in October 2008. Illustrated by David Wyatt, it is the third book in the Larklight Trilogy, sequel to the 2007 novel Starcross.

References

  1. "Hidden Treasure at an Estate Sale". October 2007. Review of The Mysterious Edge. Angela Leeper. Book Page. Retrieved 2008-12-20 (URL update 2012-01-07).
  2. "The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World". No date. Review in multiple frames. Matt Berman. Common Sense Media. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
  3. Watermark Books Archived October 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine