1. A MULTIMEDIA LOOK AT
AGATHA CHRISTIE'S
POIROT
Tufts University Osher LLI
Ami Judkins Malia

2. SG OVERVIEW
 Background
• detective fiction genre
• Agatha Christie and Poirot
• historical context of assigned texts
 Read, watch, and discuss The Mysterious Affair at Styles
 Read, watch, and discuss Peril at End House
 Surprise!

3. HOUSEKEEPING
 Introductions
 Expectations
 Syllabus Review

4. DETECTIVE FICTION

5. DETECTIVE FICTION
 Sub-genre of both crime and mystery fiction
 Main character is an investigator or detective, either professional or
amateur, who investigates a crime – often murder
 Genre considered to be established in 1841 with publication of
Edgar Allen Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue
• Detective C. Auguste Dupin

6. DETECTIVE FICTION, CONT.
 However, earliest known examples of detective stories are:
• A tale in One Thousand and One Nights
• between the 8th & 12th centuries in the Islamic State
• Circle of Chalk
• between 13th & 14th centuries in China
 Other 18th and 19th century European examples too

7. THE GOLDEN AGE
 1920s and 1930s
 A number of very popular detective fiction writers emerged
 The majority of these writers were female
• Original four (4) “Queens of Crime” …

8.  Margery Allingham
 Agatha Christie **
 Ngaio Marsh
 Dorothy Sayers
QUEENS OF CRIME
 Albert Campion
 Hercule Poirot & Miss Marple
 Inspector Roderick Alleyn
 Lord Peter Whimsey

9. QUEENS OF CRIME
Photo # 1

10. FORMATS
 Whodunit
• reader provided clues, solution only at end
• Christie’s Poirot
 Private investigator (PI)
• person hired to undertake investigatory law services
• Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes

11. SUB-GENRES
 Hardboiled
• private eye dealing with corrupt underbelly of American society
• Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe & Danshiell Hammett’s Sam Spade
 Police procedural
• realistic depiction of police work, usually multiple cases investigated
simultaneously
• Tony Hillerman’s Jim Chee & Joe Leaphorn
 Historical whodunit
• Crime within a setting of historical significance
• Ellis Peter’s Cadfael

12.  Hercule Poirot
 Sherlock Holmes
 Constable Hamish McBeth
• modern Scotland, Highlands
• MC Beaton, mystery
 Regan Reilly
• modern USA
• Carol Higgins Clark, mystery
FAVORITE DETECTIVES
 Mrs. Amelia Peabody
• Victorian Egypt
• Elizabeth Peters, historical
whodunit
 Medicus Gaius Ruso …
• Roman Empire
• Ruth Downie, historical whodunit
 Inspector John Rebus
• modern Scotland, Edinburgh
• Ian Rankin, police procedural

13. AGATHA CHRISTIE
Photo # 2

14. EARLY LIFE
 Born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on September 15, 1890
• in seaside resort town of Torquay, Devonshire, England
 Frederick and Clarissa Miller, parents
 Two siblings, older sister and brother
• she was youngest by 8 years
 She described her upbringing as “firmly Victorian” and
“agreeable”

15. EARLY LIFE, CONT.
 Father was well-to-do American living in both US & UK
• Married his step-mother’s niece, an Englishwoman born in Belfast
 Planned to settle in US, but fell in love with Torquay while visiting
 Father died when she was age 11
• Family became impoverished
 No formal education until finishing school in Paris at age 16
• Self taught reading, home schooled as well, and basic math and
science lessons from her father

16. EARLY WRITINGS
 While stuck in bed recovering from flu, mother suggested she write
down her stories instead of tell them – a pastime she was fond of
 Soon had a number of stories and began on poems
• First published work, poem, at age 11 in local newspaper
 By late teens she had won several prizes for her poetry
• Sent off early stories to magazines under male pseudonyms … All
rejected
 Author, neighbor, and friend Eden Phillpotts told her she had a “great
feeling for dialogue”

17. YOUNG ADULTHOOD
 Met first husband, Archibald Christie, when she was 22
• She was currently engaged to another man, but fell in love immediately
and was engaged to Christie within days
• Both men were in military
 Married Archie on Christmas Eve of 1914 (age 24)
 He went off to war two days later, and she went to work at Torquay
Hospital nursing the first casualties from the front lines
 Two years later, she transferred to dispensary department
• Where she learned about poisons … to be of use in her writings later

18. MARRIAGE TO ARCHIE
 Moved to London in 1918 when he transferred to Air Ministry
• Only child, Rosalind, born in 1919
 Her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, came out in 1920
• Only earned 25 pounds, but launched Golden Age of Detective Fiction
 She wrote almost continuously for next 6 years, including:
• The Murder on the Links – Poirot
• Poirot Investigates – short stories
• The Road of Dreams – poetry
 Martial stresses grew

19. A MOMENTOUS YEAR
 1926 … huge financial success (her first) of The Murder of Roger
Ackroyd
• Marital troubles got worse with her new fame
 1926 … her mother died
 1926 … husband begins affair with a friend’s secretary
 1926 … Agatha leaves their new house, Styles, on December 3rd
after a quarrel with Archie – who left to spend weekend with mistress

20. AGATHA IN 1926
Photo # 3

21. HER DISAPPEARANCE
 Her car is found the morning of December 4th abandoned on
embankment of a scenic pullout on lake know as Silent Pool
• Fur coat, suitcase with clothes, and an expired license inside
 Newspapers full of headlines …
• Developments
• Interviews
• Speculation
 Both suicide and murder were among the ideas

22. PUBLIC OUTCRY
 Deputy Chief Constable of the case stated it was his “most
baffling mystery”
 Archie was a suspect for a time
 Hundreds of police from four counties involved
• Silent Pool was dredged
 Thousands of citizens involved in search
 10 days past

23. IMAGES
Photo # 4

24. HER REAPPEARANCE
 Found on December 13th in Yorkshire, 230 miles from her home
 At Harrogate’s Hydropathic Hotel
• Under the name of Archie’s mistress, Theresa “Nancy” Neele
 She claimed to reporter that she lost her memory
 Positively ID’s by husband on December 14th, who reiterated her
loss of memory
• “… I do not think she knows who she is. She does not know me …”

25. PUBLIC RELIEF
Photo # 5

26. ODDITIES
 Spent the week shopping, taking tea, going on long walks, playing
billiards, and even attended a dance
• Like every other guest, the hotel manager said
 Said she had recently lost a child
 Placed a personal ad in The Times …
• “Friends and relatives of Teresa Neele ... Please communicate …”
 When 1st reporter approached her and addressed her as “Mrs. Christie”
she responded that she was indeed her

27. PERSONAL AD
Photo # 6

28. THEORIES
 After examination, both a Neurologist and GP agreed with her
“loss of memory” diagnosis
• Though she was accused of falsifying it as well
 Press accused her of staging a publicity stunt
• Unlikely, as she was very shy and avoided publicity
 She never offered any further explanations in all the following
years
• Including her autobiographies (2)

29. THEORIES, CONT.
 Under mental duress, she staged revenge on her husband
 Cannot have been amnesia
• She wrote to Harrods that week stating she had lost a diamond ring
there the week before, and if they found it to send it to “Theresa
Neele” at Harrogate
 50+ years later an elderly journalist stated that he had spoken to
her publisher the day after disappearance
• Was told to drop it as Agatha was in Harrogate resting

30. AFTERMATH
 Lived with her sister for a year while divorce was in process
 Began thinking of writing as a true career – she would need money
 Her dislike of press began; she said she felt like “a fox …
• … hunted, her earths dug up, and followed by yelping hounds”
 Went on holiday to Canary Islands with daughter and wrote The
Mystery of he Blue Train
 Divorced in April 1928

31. THE ORIENT EXPRESS
 Decided on a solo holiday in autumn of 1929 … originally booked
to West Indies
 But, after hearing couple speak of the fascination of Baghdad –
and that one could take the Orient Express there – she immediately
changed her plans
• She had always wanted to travel on that famous train
 Interested in the excavations of biblical city of Ur in Baghdad

32. BAGHDAD
 Visited the Ur excavations done by British Museum and U Penn
 Accorded special treatment as Leonard Woolley’s, head of
excavation, wife was a great fan
 Even invited to return to join digging team next season
 She fell in love with beauty of Ur and with idea of excavating the
past

33. BAGHDAD, CONT.
 Christie returned the next year, 1930
 Met Woolley’s assistant, who had been out with appendicitis last
year, Max Mallowan
 Woolley’s imperious wife commanded Mallowan to escort Christie
back to Baghdad, show her the desert, and then accompany her home
on the Orient Express
 They enjoyed each other’s company tremendously

34. MAX MALLOWAN
 When they returned to England he proposed
• Catching Christie completely off guard
 She had doubts, she was 14 years older than he and just out of a
failed marriage … but she agreed to think it over
 She consulted her daughter who wholeheartedly approved
 They were married on September 11, 1930 in Edinburgh
 Took Orient Express for part of their honeymoon

35. LADY MALLOWAN
 She and Max stayed happily married until the end of her life
• January 12, 1976 at age 85 (married 45 years)
 She worked as photographer on his digs
• Accompanied him on his annual digs for almost 30 years
 Seven of her novels use pre-history and archeology as storylines
 Preferred Lady Mallowan to Agatha Christie, but publishers
advised against changing it professionally

36. THE MALLOWANS
Photo # 7

37. THE MALLOWANS, CONT.
Photo # 8

38. PROLIFIC CAREER
 89 novels
 Over 100 short stories
 15 plays
 2 volumes of poetry
 2 autobiographical works
 6 novels under pseudonym Mary Westmacott

39. ACCOLADES
 Has sold over 1 billion books in English, and another billion in 103
other languages combined
 Sells 25 million books a year
• Outsold only by Shakespeare and the Bible
 Her play Mousetrap is the longest running play in theatrical history
• Began in 1951
 Only crime author to have two famous and beloved detectives

40. MOUSETRAP
Photo # 9

41. MOUSETRAP, CONT.
Photo # 10

42. ACCOLADES, CONT.
 Named the Mystery Writer of the Century by the Boucheron World
Mystery Convention, 2000
 The Malice Domestic Convention (devoted to cozy crime fiction)
presents an annual award named The Agatha
 Only female dramatist to have 3 plays running simultaneously in
London’s West End
 Over 35 movies made of her works, 3 successful TV series as well,
graphic novels, plays, radio dramas, and even video games

43. ACCLAIMED TV SERIES

44. ACCOLADES, CONT.
 Immortalized at Madame Tussauds, 1972
 1st crime writer to have 100k copies each of 10 titles published on
the same day … A Penguin Million, 1948
 Her name has appeared every day for the last 53 years (2005) in
every newspaper with a West End theatre listing
 She was the first ever winner of the Grandmaster Award from the
Mystery Writers of America, 1954

45. MADAME TUSSAUDS
Photo # 11

46.  Made a Commander of the
Most Excellent Order of the
British Empire in 1956
 Promoted to Dame
Commander of the Most
Excellent Order of the British
Empire in 1971
DAME CHRISTIE
Photo # 12

47. MORE IMAGES
Photo # 13

48. MORE IMAGES
Photo # 14

49. MORE IMAGES
Photo # 15

50. MORE IMAGES
Photo # 16

51. HERCULE POIROT

52. HIS FIRST APPEARANCE
AND HER FIRST MYSTERY
 While working at Torque hospital as a young woman, Christie decided
to spent her spare time creating a detective novel
• She had told her sister Madge years earlier that she would like to try this,
though Madge said it would be too hard for her
 Being in dispensary, she decided on poison as murder weapon
• It would need to be an intimate murder … all in the family so to speak
 Avid reader of Sherlock Holmes stories, she decided her detective would
be as different from him as possible
• But, found his use of a companion essential so decided hers would have
one too

53. MOORLAND HOTEL
Photo # 17

54. HIS CREATION AND HER
FIRST DETECTIVE
 Perhaps a scientist … or a schoolboy
 Or modeled after Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin, the gentleman
thief
 Or after Gaston Leroux’s Joseph Rouletabille, a young journalist
 No … wait …
 Might not there be a retired police officer among the colony of
Belgian war refugees in her hometown of Torquay?

55. POIROT IS BORN
Photo # 18

56. FORMING POIROT
“I allowed him slowly to grow into his part … He would be
meticulous, very tidy … always arranging things, liking things in pairs,
liking things square instead of round. And he should be very brainy –
he should have little grey cells of the mind – that was a good phrase: I
must remember that … He would have rather a grand name – one of
those names that Sherlock Holmes and his family had … brother …
Mycroft Holmes.”

57. FORMING POIROT, CONT.
 Since he was to be a small man, it seemed amusing to name him
“Hercules”
 She didn’t recall where “Poirot” came from
• Perhaps she was thinking he would be pear (poire) shaped
 Other traits …
• Conceited
• Handsome mustache
 “I will still writing in … Holmes tradition … eccentric detective,
stooge assistant, with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective … Japp”

58. POIROT’S FAME
 Starred in 33 novels and 54 short stories
• First in 1920 – The Mysterious Affair at Styles
• Last in 1975 – Curtain
 The only fictional character in history honored with an obituary on
the front page of New York Times, 1975
 His books were named the Mystery Series of the Century by the
Boucheron World Mystery Convention, 2000

59. ESTEEMED PORTRAYALS
 Academy Award nominee, for his Poirot portrayal, Albert Finney
• Murder on the Orient Express, 1974
 Two time Academy Award winner Peter Ustinov
• 6 films
 Tony Randall of TV fame
• The Alphabet Murders, 1965
 David Suchet … “visually the most convincing”
• Matthew Pritchard, Agatha’s grandson

60. PORTRAYAL IMAGES
Photo # 19

61. PORTRAYAL IMAGES, CONT.
Photo # 20

62. CHRISTIE & POIROT
“… what of the relation between us – between the creator and the
created? Well – let me confess it – there has at times been a coolness
between us. … moments when I’ve felt ‘Why, why, did I ever invent
this detestable, bombastic tiresome little creature? Eternally
straightening things, forever boasting, always twirling his mustaches
and tilting his ‘egg-shaped head’ … I have rebelled bitterly against
being yoked to him for life … ”

63. CHRISTIE & POIROT, CONT.
… But now, I must confess it, Hercule Poirot has won. A reluctant
affection has sprung up for him. He has become more human, less
irritating. I admire certain things about him – his passion for the
truth, his understanding of human frailty and his kindliness. And he
taught me something – to take more interest in my own characters; to
see them more as real people and less as pawns in a game.”

64. CHRISTIE & POIROT, CONT.
“… twice in my life I have actually seen him – once on a boat going
to the Canary Islands and once having lunch at the Savoy. I have said
to myself, ‘Now if you had only had the nerve you could have snap-
shotted … and then when people have said “Yes, but what is he like?
I could have produced the snap shot and said ‘This is what he is like
…”

65. FINAL THOUGHTS

66. QUOTES ABOUT HER
 “One of [her] greatest achievements … was to make murder cosy
enough to be palatable to refined middleclass tastes.”
• Charles Osborne, author of a Christie biography
 “Poetry is not the most important thing in life... I'd much rather lie
in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.”
• Dylan Thomas, well-known Welsh poet
 “I learned everything I know about plot from Dame Agatha.”
• Connie Willis, award winning American sci-fi author

67. QUOTES FROM HER
 “An archeologist is the best husband a woman can have: the older
she gets , the more interested he is in her.”
 “I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely
miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite
certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
 “One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing;
that to win war is as disastrous as to lose one.”

68. REFERENCES, PG 1
 “Agatha Christie.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 20
March 2013. Web. 20 March 2013.
 “Arsene Lupin.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 14
March 2013. Web. 18 March 2013.
 Brunsdale, Mitzi M. Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection: From Sleuths to Superheroes. 1.
Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2010. 135-68. Print.
 “Christie and her stories.” Agatha Christie: The Official Information and Community
Website. Agatha Christie Ltd. Web. 20 March 2013.
 Curran, John. Agatha Christie: Murder In The Making. New York: Harper Collins, 2011.
182-9. Print.

69. REFERENCES, PG 2
 “Dashiell Hammett.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 14
March 2013. Web. 12 March 2013.
 “Detective Fiction.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 14
March 2013. Web. 15 March 2013.
 “Dorothy L. Sayers.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 12
March 2013. Web. 15 March 2013.
 “Golden Age of Detective Fiction.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia
Foundation, Inc. 8 March 2013. Web. 15 March 2013.
 “Hercule Poirot.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 19
March 2013. Web. 20 March 2013.

70. REFERENCES, PG 3
 “Ngaio Marsh.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 9 March
2013. Web. 15 March 2013.
 “Margery Allingham.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc.
26 February 2013. Web. 15 March 2013.
 “The Mystery of the Yellow Room.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia
Foundation, Inc. 17 March 2013. Web. 18 March 2013.
 “One Thousand and One Nights.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia
Foundation, Inc. 14 March 2013. Web. 15 March 2013.
 Osborne, Charles. The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie - A biographical companion o the
works of Agatha Christie. Paperback. London: HarperCollins, 2000. Print.

71. REFERENCES, PG 4
 “Private Detective.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia
Foundation, Inc. 14 March 2013. Web. 15 March 2013.
 “Yuan Dynasty.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia
Foundation, Inc. 15 March 2013. Web. 15 March 2013.

72. PHOTOGRAPHS, PG 1
 #1 Sayers – “Fine Art America” website, artist is Granger, photo
taken by Howard Coster in 1938. Marsh – “Chestnut Hill Local”
website, April 22 2011 entry of “How to know ‘whodunit’? Read the last
chapter first” Christie – “Good Reads” website, author profile.
Allingham – “The Margery Allingham Society” website, biography page.
 #2 “Tired of London Tired of Life” website by Tom Jones, Dec 27
2010 entry of “Attend the Agatha Christie Tea Dance,” photo courtesy of
her grandson Matthew Pritchard

73. PHOTOGRAPHS, PG 2
 #3 - #14, #16 - #19 Osborne, Charles. The Life and Crimes of Agatha
Christie - A biographical companion o the works of Agatha Christie. Paperback.
London: HarperCollins, 2000. In-between 136-7 and 280-1. Print.
 #15 Morgan, Janet. Agatha Christie: A biography. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1985. Print.
 #20 Ustinov – Wikipedia website, “Hercule Poirot” article. Suchet
– “Agatha Christie: The Official Information and Community” website,
entry of “Detective and sidekicks.”