detective novels she wrote under her own name along with fourteen short story collections, but she has also published six romances under the name Mary Westmacott. She is best known for her detective novels and these tend to focus on much loved characters Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Parker Pyne, Harley Quin/Mr Satterthwaite, and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford.
Like many authors, Agatha Christie was unsuccessful at getting her work published first off, but in 1920 The Bodley Head press published her first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. This featured the prominent character Hercule Poirot and kick-started her literary career.
Christie’s detective novels have given her the title of ‘Queen of Crime’ since she introduced of number of motifs into the genre which became classics. The genre of detective novels now pretty much follows the path laid by Christie: a murder is committed, there are several suspects who are all concealing their own secrets, the detective slowly uncovers these personal secrets over the course of the story and discovers a shocking twist towards the end. Agatha Christie novels pride themselves on shocking the reader. The culprits are so varied and usually the least suspecting person involved. They range from children to policemen and from narrators to people who have already died.
At the end of most Agatha Christie novels the investigator will gather the surviving suspects into a single room and explain the course of his thinking. He will reveal the guilty person, usually to the surprise of several others in the room, although there are a few exceptions.
There are certain flaws to the genre of realism, however, because they all work on such a tightly bound framework. By reading too many you can become pretty good at working out the twists. Many of the characters also fill stereotypes and so it can feel like reading the same novel on repeat. These stereotyped descriptions were more regular before the end of the Second World War, when such attitudes were more commonly expressed publicly, and focus largely around Italians, Jews, non-Europeans, and sometimes Americans, the last of which are usually described as impossibly naïve or uninformed.
The repeatability factor is more to be said for modern detective novels than Agatha Christie’s specifically. As previously stated, she lead the way for the genre of detective novels so there is no better place to start than in her writings. Really, Christie is indebted to no one for her stories. They are as original as anything can be in literature.
INTRODUCTION
This book is a collection of some of Agatha Christie’s finest works. Detective novels have been around for decades, all beginning with Agatha Christie. She was a pioneer in this genre and made it what it is today. Detective novels centre around a murder and finding out who the culprit is and in this field Agatha Christie is at the top of the charts. She is the world’s best-selling mystery writer and often considered a master of writing suspense, of plotting and characterisation. Some critics, however, suggest that Christie’s plotting abilities are far great than her literary ones. Here we must consider what we think of as Literature with a capital ‘L’. Surely any fiction in the world is literature, but what is Literature? The classics and critically acclaimed pieces? Agatha Christie novels are certainly extremely popular and widely read but many people are dismissive of her literary abilities. Her novels are well crafted but arguably well written.
The Secret Adversary was first published in the January of 1922 and introduces the characters of Tommy and Tuppence, who are featured in three other Christie novels and one collection of short stories. Thomas Bereford, or Tommy, is a young redheaded Englishman who is a World War Veteran. He’s considered slow but steady and clear-headed, even in stressful and pressing situations. Prudence L Cowley, otherwise known as Tuppence, is a young woman with black bobbed hair. She is one of several children of a conservative archdeacon and served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment during the same war. She is described as being modern and stylish as well as quick thinking and intuitive. Being in her early twenties, the same as Tommy, she is quick off the mark with brilliant ideas.
Criticism from The Times Literary Supplement described the book as ‘a whirl of thrilling adventures’ in 1922. It described the characters Tommy and Tuppence as ‘refreshingly original’ and praised the fact that the ‘identity of the arch-criminal, the elusive ‘Mr Brown’ is cleverly concealed to the very end.’ Literary critics for The New York Times Book Review were equally impressed. They wrote that ‘It is safe to assert that unless the reader peers into the last chapter or so of the tale he will not know who this secret adversary is until the author chooses to reveal him’, proving how intricately written Christie’s tales are. The review also stated that ‘Miss Christie has a clever prattling style that shifts easily into amusing dialogue and so aids the pleasure of the reader as he tears along with Tommy and Tuppence on the trail of the mysterious Mr Brown. Many of the situations are a bit moth-eaten from frequent usage by other writers, but at that Miss Christie manages to invest them with a new sense of individuality that renders them rather absorbing.’ This shows what positive reviews the book received at the time. However, the book also received some negative responses. Her own publisher, John Lane had wanted her to write another detective novel along the lines of The Mysterious Affair at Styles and was therefore disappointed by this novel. You win some you lose some, I suppose.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles, however, was written in 1916 and was Christie’s first novel. This is where Hercule Poirot is first introduced as well as characters Inspector Japp, of Scotland Yard, and Arthur Hastings, the narrator of the story. As Poirot is settling into his new home the murder of a young woman is committed nearby and he must use his detective skills to solve the mystery. The Mysterious Affair at Styles was incredibly well received. The Times Literary Supplement reviewed the book stating that ‘The only fault this story has is that it is almost too ingenious.’ And The New York Times Book Review was equally impressed. They wrote that ‘though this may be the first published book of Miss Agatha Christie, she betrays the cunning of an old hand,’ indicating that she reads like an experienced writer.
It is argued that Christie often made the unlikeliest character the guilty party and this is said to be what interests fans the most. Accomplished readers could predict the ending and identify the culprit but Agatha Christie novels are seen as much harder to predict than most in the genre. There is a way about her writing that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, unwilling to put the book down. Its not dull and full of clichés like a lot of crime writing, it’s innovative and refreshing. Expect the unexpected and prepare to be surprised.
THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES
‘The Mysterious Affair At Styles' was first published in the United States in October 1920 and in the United Kingdom on 21 January 1921.
CHAPTER I - I Go To Styles
The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as “The Styles Case” has now somewhat subsided. Nevertheless, in view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked, both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the whole story. This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational rumours which still persist.
I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my being connected with the affair.
I had been invalided home from the Front; and, after spending some months in a rather depressing Convalescent Home, was given a month’s sick leave. Having no near relations or friends, I was trying to make up my mind what to do, when I ran across John Cavendish. I had seen very little of him for some years. Indeed, I had never known him particularly well. He was a good fifteen years my senior, for one thing, though he hardly looked his forty-five years. As a boy, though, I had often stayed at Styles, his mother’s place in Essex.
We
