The 2014 Challenge carries on...
...For those interested (essentially, this is me, I am guessing). My recently discovered obsession with, Agatha Christie's, 'Hercule Poirot'. The most arrogant Belgian, since, the waffle. I deliberately, decided that my next plan of attack, after my experience with, 'The ABC Murders', was to read the entire collection of Poirot (after a beer I seem to remember)...
...when the printer had finished printing the last of the three pages of A4 paper with all the books and collections that, Christie had written involving the Belgian detective! I looked with some trepidation at the task in hand (sobriety does this!).
I immediately divorced from my conscious any attempt to do all the novels and all the short stories in chronological order (there are 10 short story collections!). So they were removed which left the novel canon of Poirot. All 34 books, starting in 1920 finishing with, 'Curtain', in 1975 (Yes, pedant, I am aware that, 'Curtain' was written 30 years or so before it publishing
Caution, Herodotus diversion here; Funny story with pedants; When the Rolling Stones performed at Glastonbury (in the loose sense of the word, I might add). I made the comment on twitter, that this was actually the Rolling Stones second performance at Glastonbury. The first being when they played for the coronation of King Arthur (An age joke, you see). Within minutes! the first pedant appeared replying 'King Arthur wasn't crowned in Glastonbury, it was Wales, so you're wrong.' (And the funny thing was. I knew that generate that type of response, but the joke was worth it. And boy, was it.
Anyway, moving swiftly (not something the Rolling Stones could be accused of now) from death defying rockers to small Belgian types. 34 books. 34, Seriously, i've been to Kingswear, where Christie lived. Anyone who has been to Kingswear may only wonder how she didn't double that figure!
So, as I stapled my chronological list of Poirot novels together (Please read this in as monotone voice, with a nasal accent as possible, for full anorak effect) and marked the first novel, 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' as read on the 20-11-2013, I ploughed into the Belgian with abandonment. As I now write this, I have just, an hour or so finished the 1935 published novel, 'Three Act Tragedy', which coincidently contains the least mention or impact from Poirot himself (with no mention of his 'partner', the decidedly average intellectual, Hastings at all).
Again, what is quite astonishing (spoiler alert: I will blab the murderers identity. Hey, you have had 78 years to find this out, so no moaning), just how innovative this lady was. After 8 novels and a substantially succesfull character in print (like Rebus, would be to Ian Rankin). She realised a novel with barely a mention of Poirot. He appears almost nondescript in the initial few pages, as a guest at a party. Poirot is then bumped into on a bench in the South of France and then, disappears for the majority of the book as two of the initial party goers, Sir Charles Cartwright & Mr Satterthwaite begin to investigate the crimes themselves (along with the lady called 'Egg', another example of the language of the time with nicknames, you used to be familiar with in the House of Elliot). He then appears to help guide them in their investigations towards the end of the novel, prior to revealing the twist that Sir Charles Cartwright, the only man who believed the first murder, was, a murder. Is in fact the murderer, killing the second victim who know an institutionalised patient was his wife and as such could not be granted a divorce to marry the young woman whom he had fallen in love with. A classic twist. And yet she had the strength of a novelist to write a novel with her mainstay character who goes in and then out and then in and solves the murder.
It was an interesting read and then the genius behind the writing of it, dawns on you, just how clever it all has been and how confident she must have been by then to have the brass neck to try that. When most authors if they stumble on a commercially popular character would just churn out novels dominated by that, said, character. It seems that Agatha Christie would not even sacrifice the plot line for that commercial character and this seems quite unique to me.
Now I move on to, 'Death In the Clouds', another from 1935 (and at this point she was aged 45, which also shows her longevity, as she reached 86 years of age. Again, having been to Kingswear, this is also self explanatory). The year prior to the 1936 Nazi Olympics. It still, at times, unsettles me as to just how far back these novels from the historical perspective go, from characters born into empire and those no longer born to rule the waves.
I have another 24 books to read this year. Though, she was not a writer of long works, so they can be read at a pace and of course, they do hook you into doing that (Stephen King, she is not). I have no idea when this challenge will end, or what the next one is. I Imagine that it will probably involve attempting all the Mrs Marple mysteries (Though whether I enjoy her as much as Poirot, I am yet to discover!)
Bizarrely, over Christmas, The BBC, did re-show a 'Tommy & Tuppence' episode from 1983/4(?). Tommy & Tuppence being another set of Christie creations, a 'flapper' couple based in the 1920's. Apart from the horrific sight of wobbly sets & terrific overacting it was enjoyable, so I could read those 5 novels I guess, that could be fun.
The fact that it seems she produced the following detective characters; Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, but also Tommy & Tuppence Beresford, Harley Quin, Parker Pyne & superintendent Battle is perhaps lost to the overawing shadows of Poirot & Marple.
I must also 'throw out' (as the kids would say) a huge thanks to the lady, who knows who she is that has revealed herself to be a personal library of Poirot, from whom I am able to furnish those novels unreachable by library. Aren't friends lovely!
...when the printer had finished printing the last of the three pages of A4 paper with all the books and collections that, Christie had written involving the Belgian detective! I looked with some trepidation at the task in hand (sobriety does this!).
I immediately divorced from my conscious any attempt to do all the novels and all the short stories in chronological order (there are 10 short story collections!). So they were removed which left the novel canon of Poirot. All 34 books, starting in 1920 finishing with, 'Curtain', in 1975 (Yes, pedant, I am aware that, 'Curtain' was written 30 years or so before it publishing
Caution, Herodotus diversion here; Funny story with pedants; When the Rolling Stones performed at Glastonbury (in the loose sense of the word, I might add). I made the comment on twitter, that this was actually the Rolling Stones second performance at Glastonbury. The first being when they played for the coronation of King Arthur (An age joke, you see). Within minutes! the first pedant appeared replying 'King Arthur wasn't crowned in Glastonbury, it was Wales, so you're wrong.' (And the funny thing was. I knew that generate that type of response, but the joke was worth it. And boy, was it.
Anyway, moving swiftly (not something the Rolling Stones could be accused of now) from death defying rockers to small Belgian types. 34 books. 34, Seriously, i've been to Kingswear, where Christie lived. Anyone who has been to Kingswear may only wonder how she didn't double that figure!
So, as I stapled my chronological list of Poirot novels together (Please read this in as monotone voice, with a nasal accent as possible, for full anorak effect) and marked the first novel, 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' as read on the 20-11-2013, I ploughed into the Belgian with abandonment. As I now write this, I have just, an hour or so finished the 1935 published novel, 'Three Act Tragedy', which coincidently contains the least mention or impact from Poirot himself (with no mention of his 'partner', the decidedly average intellectual, Hastings at all).
Again, what is quite astonishing (spoiler alert: I will blab the murderers identity. Hey, you have had 78 years to find this out, so no moaning), just how innovative this lady was. After 8 novels and a substantially succesfull character in print (like Rebus, would be to Ian Rankin). She realised a novel with barely a mention of Poirot. He appears almost nondescript in the initial few pages, as a guest at a party. Poirot is then bumped into on a bench in the South of France and then, disappears for the majority of the book as two of the initial party goers, Sir Charles Cartwright & Mr Satterthwaite begin to investigate the crimes themselves (along with the lady called 'Egg', another example of the language of the time with nicknames, you used to be familiar with in the House of Elliot). He then appears to help guide them in their investigations towards the end of the novel, prior to revealing the twist that Sir Charles Cartwright, the only man who believed the first murder, was, a murder. Is in fact the murderer, killing the second victim who know an institutionalised patient was his wife and as such could not be granted a divorce to marry the young woman whom he had fallen in love with. A classic twist. And yet she had the strength of a novelist to write a novel with her mainstay character who goes in and then out and then in and solves the murder.
It was an interesting read and then the genius behind the writing of it, dawns on you, just how clever it all has been and how confident she must have been by then to have the brass neck to try that. When most authors if they stumble on a commercially popular character would just churn out novels dominated by that, said, character. It seems that Agatha Christie would not even sacrifice the plot line for that commercial character and this seems quite unique to me.
Now I move on to, 'Death In the Clouds', another from 1935 (and at this point she was aged 45, which also shows her longevity, as she reached 86 years of age. Again, having been to Kingswear, this is also self explanatory). The year prior to the 1936 Nazi Olympics. It still, at times, unsettles me as to just how far back these novels from the historical perspective go, from characters born into empire and those no longer born to rule the waves.
I have another 24 books to read this year. Though, she was not a writer of long works, so they can be read at a pace and of course, they do hook you into doing that (Stephen King, she is not). I have no idea when this challenge will end, or what the next one is. I Imagine that it will probably involve attempting all the Mrs Marple mysteries (Though whether I enjoy her as much as Poirot, I am yet to discover!)
Bizarrely, over Christmas, The BBC, did re-show a 'Tommy & Tuppence' episode from 1983/4(?). Tommy & Tuppence being another set of Christie creations, a 'flapper' couple based in the 1920's. Apart from the horrific sight of wobbly sets & terrific overacting it was enjoyable, so I could read those 5 novels I guess, that could be fun.
The fact that it seems she produced the following detective characters; Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, but also Tommy & Tuppence Beresford, Harley Quin, Parker Pyne & superintendent Battle is perhaps lost to the overawing shadows of Poirot & Marple.
I must also 'throw out' (as the kids would say) a huge thanks to the lady, who knows who she is that has revealed herself to be a personal library of Poirot, from whom I am able to furnish those novels unreachable by library. Aren't friends lovely!
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