From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid is feeling underappreciated by her parents and the world in general. The best way to teach them a lesson, she decides, is to run away from home for a while. But what she hates more than being underappreciated is being uncomfortable, and so she chooses to run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (for all those poofy Marie Antoinette beds to sleep in) and drags along her nine-year-old brother Jamie (for his $24.43).

Thus begins the adventure of a life-time for both of them. In between hiding from museum security in the bathroom, following school groups touring the museum during the day, doing laundry in a nearby laundromat, and scrounging for change in the museum fountain, Claudia becomes obsessed with a statue sold to the museum for $225 that may or may not be a Michelangelo.

And why is the eccentric multi-millionaire Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler writing such a long letter to her dear lawyer Saxonberg?

A 1968 novel by the children's author E. L. Konigsburg, which won her her first Newbery Medal.

It has been adapted for the screen twice:

Tropes used in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler include:
  • The Aggressive Drug Dealer: Invoked by Claudia as a reason Jamie should not pick up and eat a dropped/forgotten chocolate bar, mainly to show she's not as worldly as she thinks she is.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: An (infamous?) illustration of Claudia and Jamie naked in the Met's fountain, fishing for the change therein.
  • Based on a True Story: One of Konigsberg's inspirations for the story was a 1965 front-page news item in The New York Times about an Italian Renaissance sculpture the Met bought for $225 which they suspected was actually worth $500,000.
    • To a lesser degree, the illustrations of Claudia and Jamie were modeled on Konigsberg's two youngest children, Laurie and Ross.
  • Born in the Wrong Century: Claudia, though more explicitly so in the 1973 film.
  • Death by Newbery Medal: Averted. The only character explicitly described as having died did so years before the book began.
  • Eccentric Millionaire: Frankweiler, she sells a genuine Michelangelo to the Met for pocket change then refuses to provide authentication just so that she can watch the curators squirm.
  • Epistolary Novel: However, unlike the usual format, this book is one very long letter from Mrs. Frankweiler to her lawyer, Saxonberg.
  • Free-Range Children: Police and journalist reaction to missing children is really muted in the 1960s compared to today.
  • No Name Given: We never find out the title character's given name; she is always referred to -- even by herself -- only as "Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler".
  • The Reveal: Mrs. Frankweiler's lawyer is Claudia and Jamie's grandfather.
  • The Runaway: Claudia and Jamie.
  • Senseless Violins: Claudia and Jamie pack most of their clothes in a violin and trumpet case.
  • The Sixties
  • Swiss Cheese Security: The Met overnight security.
  • Time Marches On: In an afterword written for the 2002 edition, Konigsberg notes that some of the very real pieces from the museum that feature prominently in the book -- the medieval chapel, the bed the kids sleep in and the dolphin sculpture in the restaurant fountain, to name a few -- are long gone.
  • The Unseen: Claudia and Jamie are two of four siblings, the others of whom are virtual nonentities.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: Claudia gets a 50-cent allowance, hot fudge sundaes cost 40 cents, and a one-way train fare from Greenwich, Connecticut to Manhattan is $1.40. Admission to the Metropolitan Museum of Art is free. Oh, and two missing children who are white and well-to-do do not prompt a nationwide manhunt and 24-hour media coverage. Yup, this is the late 60s.
  • Unusual Euphemism: Jamie's favorite minced oath is "BALONEY", which provides Claudia the Eureka Moment required to solve the Michelangelo mystery.
  • World of No Grandparents: Only one of Claudia and Jamie's grandparents is alive, which contributes to their decision at the end of the book to secretly adopt Mrs. Frankweiler as a grandmother.
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