Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on E. L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Introduction
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Plot Summary
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Detailed Summary & Analysis
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Themes
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Quotes
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Characters
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Symbols
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of E. L. Konigsburg
Historical Context of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Other Books Related to From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- Full Title: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- When Written: 1966
- Where Written: New York City suburbs
- When Published: 1967
- Literary Period: Modern
- Genre: Children’s Fiction
- Setting: 1960s New York City (especially the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Greenwich, Connecticut
- Climax: Claudia Kincaid discovers the truth about the angel sculpture in Mrs. Frankweiler’s files.
- Antagonist: Claudia’s parents, the museum guards
- Point of View: First Person, Third Person
Extra Credit for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Life Imitates Art. In 1995, an expert in Italian Renaissance sculpture noticed a small marble cupid statue in the lobby of the French Embassy, across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The expert announced that the cupid was an early Michelangelo. When The New York Times ran a story about the cupid, lots of people wrote to E. L. Konigsburg asking if she’d known about the statue when she wrote her book (she hadn’t).
Fact and Fiction. Ever since Mixed-Up Files’s publication in 1967, museum staff have been asked so many questions about the book that in 2001, the Metropolitan’s magazine MuseumKids published an entire “Mixed-up Files” Issue.