The Beautiful Mystery

The Beautiful Mystery explores the tension between privacy, which stems from an obligation to protect, and deception, which tends to hide corruption, particularly in institutional hierarchies. Secrets abound in the novel: from the location of the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden even from the church, to Beauvoir’s personal secret that he and Annie are a couple. The desire for secrecy stems from anxiety about safety, though it’s often not clear which fears are rational and which self-serving. The Gilbertines are “an order of worriers” (133) who fled France because they feared the Inquisition—something that turns out to have truly been a danger. However, they have been living in fearful isolation ever since, which makes Gamache and Beauvoir think of the clerical abuse scandals of the recent past, wondering if the monks are in the wilderness to avoid paying for any wrongdoing. Beauvoir’s relationship begins as a secret out of a sense of loyalty to Gamache but curdles into doubt and insecurity as Francoeur torments himself with the idea that Gamache will not be happy to see him with Annie.

With leadership and institutional authority comes the impulse to conceal knowledge from others. The abbot refuses to share the details of the monastery’s crumbling foundation, worried that it would inflame already existing tensions among the monks.