Posted on 04/25/2020 5:19:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
In his famous article of January 20, 1945, the distinguished literary critic Edmund Wilson posed the challenging question, “Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd?” He was referring to the mystery novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. In a previous article in 1944 he had found her writing, “of a mawkishness and banality which seem to me to be impossible to read.” Wilson was surprised that prominent individuals such as Woodrow Wilson, W.B. Yeats, and T.S. Eliot were interested in the mystery novel genre. He would have been even more surprised that the genre constitutes the largest readership.
The mystery novel is a special genre of its own, separate from other types of fiction that it overlaps with such as police procedurals, suspense and thriller works, and hard-boiled noir stories which concentrate on action and realism. The formula is a mysterious death or commission of a crime to be solved. A number of people are involved in the plot, each with a credible motive and an opportunity to commit the crime, which is usually solved by a detective or official through logical deduction, sometimes with a gifted amateur whom the detective finds annoying at first but comes to admire. During the work, clues are provided for a solution which is believable.
Why are so many people interested in mysteries? Explanation may vary. It is escapist entertainment. There is fascination with a crime of acceptable violence. The stories, suspenseful in nature, allow us to live vicariously through the characters.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Agatha Christie is both alive and very well on Britbox
In addition to full length films, there are I think 7 seasons of Hercule Poirot
Interesting!
About 10 feet from where I am sitting was a very ornately carved antique trunk she had bought in China in the 1920s or so.
Her husband and she had gotten out of China just before the Japanese got to them.
They spent most of the war in Baghdad.
There, the ex-pats (her husband was British) got together often for parties.
Agatha Christie was among one.
One time when it was their turn to host, Agatha was sitting on that trunk and admiring the carving.
She told Barbara she must find a way to use it in one of her books.
We don't know if she did.
Has anyone noticed such a reference?
“among one” = among them.
There is a short story about an ornate Spanish Chest in which the body of a “jealous husband” is found. That’s the only story that I can think of which uses any kind of chest or trunk...
The method of murder was really quite unique. A small hole was drilled into the chest and as the husband spied on his wife through the hole a dastardly, but brilliant, murderer shove a sword into the hole killing the husband. Quite the mystery for the Belgium detective to solve. :-)
The story is interesting. I used to read mysteries and have all of Agatha Christie’s books.
But why is this under ‘news/activism’?
The Spanish Chest story immediately sprang to mind... didn’t the killer stab him through the eye as he peeped? I don’t remember for sure.
Yes, exactly. The husband was spying on his wife because he suspected that she was unfaithful with another man. The husband ended up with a sword to the eye for his troubles. LOL, I don’t want to give away who the murderer was in case someone wants to read the story.
David Suchet starred in the TV version and he is my favorite Hercule Poirot of all time.
I apologize, but Ms. Agatha is not on my genre shelves. Instead, I have a guy named Sam, a rather bulky orchid lover named Nero, an ex-L.A. cop named Jesse, a chap named James, just James, and a guy who owns a 1911 named Betsy.
Is your screen name a tribute to Poirot’s Miss Lemon?
During WW II, the opposing commanders for D-Day, Eisenhower for the Allies, and von Rundstedt for Germany, were both known to read mystery novels as a way to escape the pressures of their jobs. In those and many other instances, an active mind cannot be turned off for the sake of rest but must be diverted into a confined pastime such as reading a mystery novel.
I read the Nero Wolfe stories more than once, even when the “solution” (e.g. “The Red Box”, “Please Pass the Guilt”) is weak. The characterization, the build-up, the pacing, all well-woven together. Agatha Christie was mainly about the “puzzles” (”Murder on the Orient Express”, “Ten Little Indians”). The answer is generally very well crafted, and in the case of “Express” and “Indians” brought a new twist to a genre that had seemed to exhaust every combination of solutions. But, once read, it is done. But I have read “Some Buried Caesar”, “The Doorbell Rang”, “Too Many Cooks”, “And Be a Villain” multiple times. I still want the recipe for sausage minuit.
The French seem to do a lot of AC treatments.
One series I liked was “Les petits meurtres d’Agatha Christie”. The series adapted the books into ~90 minute epis that had the same cast of characters. And it was set ~1960.
The main detective character drove a Facellia, which was a nice touch.
Oh yes, I love David Suchet’s Poirot.
Yes! She is one of my favorite characters. I am going to be a very shallow woman for a moment or two and say how I love her clothes. The 1930s was such an elegant time for fashion and she wears it very well.
Agatha Christie’s grandson called Suchet’s performance “meticulous” and added that his grandmother would have loved David’s Poirot. I agree I can’t see anyone else in the role.
So far I’ve only seen Albert Finney and Kenneth Branaugh do it, and it just... Finney was too raucous and Branaugh was just... I don’t know. Not right somehow. That role belongs to Suchet now. No one else should even try it. LOL!
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