Investigating different aspects of solidarity: Brook Farm in Adele Fasick’s historical mystery "A Death in Utopia"

Abstract

The eponymous utopia in A Death in Utopia (2014) by Adele M. Fasick stands for The Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education, a famous intentional community set up by George and Sophia Ripley in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1841. But for economic solidarity and the solidarity of ideas, Brook Farm would have never come into existence. The following article shows that Fasick’s idea of inscribing the fictional investigation of a criminal conundrum into the life of Brook Farm has proved to be successful as far as “magnifying” the issue of solidarity is concerned. During her investigation Charlotte Edgerton, a Brook Farm member and an amateur sleuth, reveals not only the tragic circumstances concerning the crime but also the ideals and daily routines of the intentional community, a facet most probably intended by the author who has already explored the history of Brook Farm on a scholarly basis.