Transcript The Agatha Christie Code

(1890-1976)
Name at birth: Agatha May Clarissa Miller
Very prolific British author of mystery novels and short
stories, creator of Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective, and
Miss Jane Marple. Christie wrote more than 70 detective
novels under the surname of her first husband, Colonel
Archibald Christie. She also published a series of romances
and a children's book.
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Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, in the county of
Devon.
Her father died when she was a child.
Christie was educated home, where her mother
encouraged her to write from very early age.
At sixteen she was sent to school in Paris, where she
studied singing and piano.
 Christie
was educated home, where her
mother encouraged her to write from very
early age.
 At sixteen she was sent to school in Paris,
where she studied singing and piano.
 Christie was an accomplished pianist but her
stage fright and shyness prevented her from
pursuing a career in music.
 When Christie's mother took her to Cairo for
a winter, she wrote there a novel
 She devoted herself into writing and had
short stories published.
 In
1914 Christie married Archibald Christie, an
officer in the Flying Royal Corps.
 Their daughter, Rosalind, was born in 1919.
 During World War I she worked in a Red Cross
Hospital in Torquayas a hospital dispenser,
which gave her a knowledge of poisons.
 It was to be useful when she started writing
mysteries.
 The Christies bought a house and named it
'Styles' after the first novel.
 Christie was an accomplished pianist but her
stage fright and shyness prevented her from
pursuing a career in music.
 In
56 years Christie wrote 66 detective
novels.
 Christie's marriage broke up in 1926. Archie
Christie, who worked in the City
 In the same year Christie's beloved mother
died.
 After hearing that her husband had left for
Miss Neele's house, Christie disappeared for a
time.
 During WW II Christie worked in the
dispensary of University College Hospital in
London.
 In
her autobiography, Agatha Christie admits
to never really having a place or room which
was specifically to write in.
 All she said she needed was a steady table
and a typewriter, quite often just the dining
room table.
 She says that there was always a terrible
three or four weeks which had to be got
through when she first started to write a
book.
 In
her autobiography, she says there is no
agony like it: such misery and despair, such
inability to do anything in the least creative –
a feeling of paralysed hopelessness.
 Then suddenly, she found she would begin
to function again, know that “it” was coming
and that the mist was clearing.
 Agatha Christie talks about how strange it
feels to have a book growing inside you,
building up all the time.
 she said that she never found any difficulty
writing during the war
 Agatha
Christie believed that economy of
wording was particularly important in
detective stories.
 The reader did not want to heard the same
thing repeated three or four times.
 She uses very simple everyday language.
 Repeats it, rather than trying to introduce
new words and phrases.
 She also relies heavily on dialogue
throughout her books.
The solution often depends upon the reader’s
interpretation.
 But she prevent to this to keep her dialogue
very simple and straightforward.
 The simplicity of the language is one of the
key points raised in the debate regarding “The
Agatha Christie Code”, an ITV documentary
backed by research undertaken by a number of
universities.
 The research team also analysed each of
Christie's books for its word length, frequency
and sentence structure.
 They found that all of her books are very
similar in style, using the same number of letters
in a word on average, and approximately same
number of words in a sentence.
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THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES, 1920 Stylesin tapaus (suom. Paavo Lehtonen, 1970)
 THE SECRET ADVERSARY, 1922 - Salainen
vastustaja (suom. Eva Siikarla, 1974)
 THE MURDER ON THE LINKS, 1923 - Golfkentän
murha (suom. Niilo Pakarinen, 1943)
 THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT, 1924 Ruskeapukuinen mies (suom. Saima-Liisa
Laatunen, 1985) POIROT INVESTIGATES, 1924 Poirotit varhaiset jutut (suom. 1981)
 THE SECRET CHIMNEYS, 1925 - Rakkauskirjeiden
salaisuus (suom. Kyllikki Wehanen, 1948; Kirsti
Kattelus, 1984)
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THE ROAD OF DREAMS, 1925 (verse)
THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD, 1926 Odottamaton ratkaisu (suom. Edvin Ukkonen, 1927) /
Kello 9.10 (suom. 1929) / Roger Ackroydin murha
(suom. 1959; Kirsti Kattelus, 1982)
 THE BIG FOUR, 1927 - Neljä suurta (suom. AnnaLiisa Laine, 1978)
 THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN, 1928 - Sininen
juna (suom. Aarre Pipinen, 1940)
 THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY, 1929 - Seitsemän kellon
salaisuus (suom. Helena Luho, 1952)
 PARTNERS IN CRIME, 1929 (reprinted in part as The
Sunningdale Mystery, 1933) - Rikos yhdistää (suom.
1986)
 THE UNDER DOG, 1929 THE MYSTERIOUS MR.
QUINN, 1930 - Herra Quinn esittäytyy (suom. 1986)
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THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS, 1932 (US title: The Tuesday
Club Murders, 1933; selection, as The Mystery of the
Blue Geranium and Other Tuesday Club Murders,
1940)
THE HOUND OF DEATH AND OTHER STORIES, 1933 Kuoleman koira ja muita kertomuksia (suom. AnnaLiisa Laine, 1978)
LORD ADGWARE DIES, 1933 (US title: Thirteen at
Dinner, 1933) - Lordin kuolema (suom. Eila Pennanen,
1953)
PARKER PYNE INVESTIGATES, 1934 (US title: Mr.
Parker Pyne, Detective, 1934) - Parker Pyne tietää
kaiken (suom. 1981)
UNFINISHED PORTRAIT, 1934 (as Mary Westmacott) Kuin muuttolintu (suom. Panu Pekkanen et al, 1976)
THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY AND OTHER STORIES, 1934 Listerdalen arvoitus: kaksitoista kertomusta (suom.
Anna-Liisa Laine, 1980) etc.
• CURTAIN: HERCULE POIROT'S LAST CASE, 1975 Esirippu: Poirotin viimeinen juttu (suom. Anna-Liisa Laine,
1976)
• SLEEPING MURDER, 1976 - Neiti Marplen viimeinen juttu
(suom. Anna-Liisa Laine, 1977)
• AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 1977
• THE MOUSETRAP AND OTHER PLAYS, 1978
• AKHANATON, 1979 (play, prod.; publ. 1973)
• MISS MARPLE'S FINAL CASES AND TWO OTHER
STORIES, 1979
• THE AGATHA CHRISTIE HOUR, 1982
• THE SCOOP, AND BEHIND THE SCENES, 1983 (with
others)
• WHILE THE LIGHT LASTS AND OTHER STORIES, 1997 Kirstun arvoitus ja muita kertomuksia (suomentanut Jukka
Saarikivi, 1999)
• THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES AND THE SECRET
ADVERSARY, 1998
• AGATHA CHRISTIE'S SECRET NOTEBOOKS, 2009 Agatha Christien salaiset muistikirjat (suomentanut Risto Raitio,
2010)
THE SECRED ADVERSARY, 1922 / Die Abenteuer
G.M.B.H., 1928, dir. by Fred Sauer
 THE MURDER OF ROGER ACROYD, 1926 / Alibi,
1931, dir. by Leslie Hiscott ; TV film 2000, dir. by
Andrew Grieve
 THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE, 1930 / TV film,
1986, dir. by Julian Amyes ; TV film 2004, dir. by
Charles Palmer
 LORD EDGWARE DIES, 1933 / Lord Edgware dies,
1931, dir. by Henry Edwards ; TV film 1999, dir.
by Brian Farnham, starring David Suchet, Hugh
Fraser
 MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, 1934 / Film
adaptation in 1974, dir. by Sidney
 Lumet THE A.B.C. MURDERS, 1935 / The
alphabet murders, 1966, dir. by Frank Tashlin
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• MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA, 1936 / Film adaptation in 2001, dir. by Tom
Glegg, starring David Suchet and Hugh Fraser
• DEATH ON THE NILE, 1937 / Film adaptation, 1978, dir. by John
Guillermin, film scritp by Anthony Shaffer ; TV film 2004, dir by Andy Wilson
• APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH, 1938 / Film adaptation in 1988, dir. by
Michael Winner, film script by Anthony Shaffer
• TEN LITTLE NIGGERS, 1939 / And then there were none, 1945, dir.by
René Clair ; Ten little indians, 1965, dir. by George Pollock ; Ten little indians,
1975, dir. by Peter Collinson ; Ten little indians, 1989, dir. by Alan Birkinshaw
• EVIL UNDER SUN, 1941 / Film adaptations: 1982, dir. by Guy Hamilton,
film script by Anthony Schaffer ; 2001, dir. by Brian Farnham, starring David
Suchet and Hugh Fraser
• THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY, 1942 / TV film, 2004, dir. by Andy Wilson
• TAKEN AT THE FLOOD, 1948 / TV film, 2005, dir. by Andy Wilson
• WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, 1948 / Film adaptation in 1957, dir.
by Billy Wilder
• MRS. GINTY'S DEAD, 1951 / Murder most foul, 1964, dir. by George
Pollock
• AFTER THE FUNERAL, 1953 / Murder at the Gallop, 1963, dir. by George
Pollock
• 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON, 1957 / Murder she said, 1962, dir. by George
Pollock ; TV film 1987, dir. by Martyn Friend ; TV film 2004, dir. by Andy Wilson
The first part of the novel (a little over a third) is an
effective psychological thriller as the family and the
victim are introduced, principally through the
perspective of Sarah King and Dr. Gerard, who discuss
the behaviour of the family. Mrs. Boynton is sadistic and
domineering, traits that (it is suggested) may have
influenced her choice of original profession: prison
warden.
Sarah is attracted to Raymond Boynton, while
Jefferson Cope admits to wanting to take Nadine
Boynton away from her husband, Lennox Boynton, and
the influence of her mother-in-law. Having been
thwarted in her desire to free the young Boyntons,
Sarah confronts Mrs. Boynton whose apparent reply is a
strange threat: "I’ve never forgotten anything – not an
action, not a name, not a face." When the party
reaches Petra, Mrs. Boynton uncharacteristically sends
her family away from her for a period. Later, she is
found dead with a needle puncture in her wrist.
Poirot claims that he can solve the mystery within
twenty-four hours simply by interviewing the
suspects. During these interviews he establishes a
timeline that seems impossible: Sarah King places the
time of death considerably before the times at which
various of the family members claim last to have
seen the victim alive. Attention is focused on a
hypodermic syringe that has seemingly been stolen
from Dr. Gerard’s tent and later replaced. The poison
administered to the victim is believed to be digitoxin:
something that she already took medicinally.
During a protracted denouement, Poirot explains
how each member of the family has, in turn,
discovered Mrs. Boynton to be dead and, suspecting
another family member, failed to report the fact. In
reality, none of the family would have needed to
murder the victim with a hypodermic, since an
overdose could much more effectively have been
administered in her medicine. This places the
suspicion on one of the outsiders.
The murderess is revealed to be Lady Westholme
who, previous to her marriage, had been
incarcerated in the prison in which the victim was
once a warden. It was to Lady Westholme, and not to
Sarah, that Mrs. Boynton had addressed that peculiar
threat; the temptation to acquire a new subject to
torture had been too great for her to resist. Disguised
as an Arab servant she had committed the murder
and then relied upon the suggestibility of Miss Pierce
to lay two pieces of misdirection that had concealed
her role in the murder.
Lady Westholme, eavesdropping in an adjoining
room, overhears that her criminal history is about to
be revealed to the world and commits suicide. The
family, free at last, take up happier lives: Sarah
marries Raymond; Carol marries Jefferson; and
Ginevra takes up a successful career as a stage
actress - she also marries Dr. Gerard.