MITHYL BANYMANDHUB
Agatha Christie has been hailed as “the foremost writer in what has been called the golden age of crime fiction”. She has been instrumental in bringing the genre to new heights. Her primary characters, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, are some of the best known in popular fiction. Agatha Christie is still perused by amateurs of the genre. I read her for the first time way back in the early sixties and still go to the titles I have so far not read with the same zest.
Passage to Paris
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on September 15, 1890, in Devonshire to an American father and a British mother. Those were the days when formal schooling for young women usually took place in the home. At the age of sixteen she travelled to Paris where she studied piano and singing. She became an accomplished pianist and was fluent in French. Her mastery of the language enabled her to create famous dialogues for the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, whose English was indifferent and frequently included French expressions.
She married Archibald Christie on December 24, 1914. During the First World War, Mrs. Christie became a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment in a hospital. The experience she acquired in the pharmacy would be invaluable as she became familiar with many of the poisons she would use later in her novels.
Publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at style: A Detective Story, featuring Hercule Poirot was published in 1920. Though it was not a great financial success, it encouraged Christie to continue writing.
Between 1920 and 1926, Agatha Christie published six novels and introduced several new primary characters. Among these were Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, who first appeared in The Secret Adversary (1922) and Colonel John Race, who was introduced in 1924 in The Man in the Brown Suit. The author also published The Secret of the Chimneys (1925) which featured superintendent Battle, the only major Christie detective who was affiliated with Scotland Yard. In 1926, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published. It gave rise to a debate among both reviewers and readers. Some were of opinion that the author had broken the rules of fair play often associated with mystery novels by allowing the narrator, Ackroyd, to be the murderer. She replied that the reader must suspect all the characters. This novel is today considered as one of her major achievements.
Stress and Amnesia
Her mother breathed her last soon after and her marriage was quickly falling apart. On December 4, 1926, she drove away from her Berkshire home for what was supposed to be a short drive. Mr. Christie informed the police about her absence when she did not return after a reasonable time. Her car was found two days later – its wheels hanging over a cliff. Everyone was concerned about the missing writer whose life appeared to resemble the happenings of one of her books. Two weeks after her disappearance, she was identified among the guests of a Yorkshire hotel. The doctor who examined her concluded that it was a case of amnesia that resulted from stress.
In 1928 she divorced Mr. Christie and spent her time travelling while her daughter Rosalind was at school. She met her second husband, Max Mallowan, an archaeologist, in 1930. They were married on September 11 of the same year. During the Second World War, Agatha Christie again offered her services voluntarily. She was assigned to the pharmacy at University College in London. Once again, the experience she gathered made it possible for her to gain other valuable information about poisons. She continued writing and two of her most famous books, Curtain: Hercule Poirot’s Last Case (1975) and Sleeping Murder (1976) were completed during this time. They were originally intended to be published posthumously and were the “last cases” of Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. However, the success of the film version of Murder on the Orient Express in 1974 convinced Agatha Christie that these titles should be published sooner. Her autobiography came out of press in 1977.
Style, Plot and Characters
Agatha Christie was interested in analyzing human nature. Her plots thus revolve around the motivations that cause people to act in a desperate manner. These include greed, jealousy, a desire for power and revenge. This tendency to construct crimes around common motives rather than esoteric ones renders if possible for her readers to relate easily to the characters involved.
She developed a particular style. Thus, in her novel, the reader can expect a clever plot, believable dialogue and engaging characters. This adherence to a pattern that worked has contributed greatly to the popularity of her novels.
Agatha Christie was made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1950. The year 1952 saw the opening of The Mousetrap in London – a work that has the distinction of being the longest running play in history. In 1965 she was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Witness for the Prosecution (1953). She was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956, received an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Exeter in 1961 and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1971. Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum measured her for a wax portrait in 1972.
Conclusion
Taken as a whole, Agatha Christie’s crime-fiction novels constitute some of the best known works in the genre. Her novels are entertaining and engaging. Her writing is somewhat old-fashioned but she uses realistic motivations to relate easily to the situations at hand. Several factors account for Christie’s popularity. Her plots are well-constructed. She takes the reader through a logical series of actions. In addition, there are details which are cleverly interwoven to ensure continued interest in the plot. Her characters consistently speak and continually act in a manner appropriate to the roles created for them.
After a brief period of failing health, Agatha Christie died in her home in Wallingford on January 12, 1976.
Bibliography
1. Christie Agatha, An Autobiography, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1977.
2. Tynam, Kathleen, Agatha, New York: Ballantine, 1978.
3. MaGill, Frank N.ed. MaGill’s Survey of World Literature, New York, Salem Press Inc, 1993.