The Biographer as Assassin: The Hidden Murders in “The Assignation”

Abstract

Is “The Assignation” a spoof-ne that unfortunately is not, for the most part, very funny? Is it a serious romantic allegory, which incidentally includes an extended send-up of Thomas Moore’s then-popular biography of Byron? Or is it some ironic fusion of the two, which leaves us neither laughing nor crying, merely wondering what it is all about? The tale is a mystery indeed. I believe it is a murder mystery.