Agatha Christie

Life and Literary Activities

By Bohdana NEDAVNYA, Group 34-H, Naukova Zmina Lycee Kyiv 2011

Agatha Christie
Born: Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller 15 September 1890 Torquay, Devon, England Died: 12 January 1976 (aged 85) Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England Pen name: Mary Westmacott Occupation: Novelist Nationality: British Genres: Murder mystery, Thriller, Crime fiction, Detective, Romances Literary movement: Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Agatha Christie as a child

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, in the county of Devon, the daughter of Frederick Alvah Miller, an American with a moderate private income, and Clarissa Miller. Her father died when she was a child. Christie was educated home, where her mother encouraged her to write from very early age. At sixteen she was sent to school in Paris, where she studied singing and piano. Christie was an accomplished pianist but her stage fright and shyness prevented her from pursuing a career in music. In her books Christie seldom referred to music, although her detectives, Poirot and Miss Marple, show interest in opera and Poirot sings in THE A.B.C. MURDERS (1936) a World War I song. When Christie's mother took her to Cairo for a winter, she wrote there a novel. Encouraged by Eden Philpotts, neighbor and friend in Torquay, she devoted herself into writing and had short stories published. Agatha Christie in Paris

In 1914 Christie married Archibald Christie, an officer in the Flying Royal Corps; their daughter, Rosalind, was born in 1919. During World War I she worked in a Red Cross Hospital in Torquayas a hospital dispenser, which gave her a knowledge of poisons. It was to be useful when she started writing mysteries. Christie's first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduced Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective, who appeared in more than 40 books, the last of which was CURTAIN (1975). The Christies bought a house and named it 'Styles' after the first novel.

Archibald Christie

Agatha with her daughter

In 56 years Christie wrote 66 detective novels, among the best of which are The Murder of Roger Acroyd, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1934), DEATH ON THE NILE (1937), and TEN LITTLE NIGGERS (1939). The film version of Ten Little Niggers (1945, US title: And Then There Were None) by the French director Ren Clair, starring Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald, is one of the most faithful Christie adaptations.

In addition to these mysteries, Christie wrote her autobiography (1977), and several plays, including THE MOUSETRAP, which run more than 30 years continuously in London, and had 8 862 performances at the Ambassadors Theatre in London. The play was based on the short story 'Three Blind Mice', and was produced in 1952 in Nottingham and London. The original company at the Ambassadors Theatre included Richard Attenborough as the detective

Christie's marriage broke up in 1926. Archie Christie, who worked in the City, announced that he had fallen in love with a younger woman, Nancy Neele. In the same year Christie's beloved mother died. After hearing that her husband had left for Miss Neele's house, Christie disappeared for a time. "I would gladly give 500 if I could only hear where my wife is," said Colonel Christie. The story of her real life (love?) adventure in the 1926, when she lived in a Harrowgate hotel under the name Mrs. Neele, was basis for the film Agatha. It was directed in 1978 by Michael Apted. In title role was Vanessa Redgrave.

Christie's divorce was finalized in 1928, and two years later she married the archaeologist Max Mallowan. She had met him on her travels in Near East in 1927, and accompanied him on his excavations of sites in Syria and Iraq. Later Christie used these exotic settings in her novels MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA (1936) and Death on the Nile (1937). Her own archeological adventures were recounted in COME TELL ME HOW YOU LIVE (1946). Mallowan was Catholic and fourteen years her junior; he became one of the most prominent archaeologist of his generation. Of her marriage the writer told reporters: "An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her." Mallowan worked in Iraq in the 1950s but returned to England, when Christie's health grew weaker.

Max Mallowan

Christie's most prolific period began in the late 1920s. During the 1930s he published four non-series mystery novels, fourteen Poirot novels, two Marple novels, two Superintendent Battle books, a book of stories featuring Harley Quin and another featuring Mr. Parken Pyne, an additional Maru Westmacott book, and two original plays. In 1936 she published the first of six psychological romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. After visiting Luxor in 1937, where Christie saw Howard Carter, she wrote the play AKHNATON, which was not published until 1973. It dramatized the fate of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhnaton, who tried to replace the old gods with monotheism, and Nefertiti, his wife. Curiously, the Finnish writer Mika Waltari, who gained later international fame with his historical novel The Egyptian (1945), wrote also in the same year a play about the same king, Akhnaton, auringosta sentient (1937). Christie's play was prodeced in New York as Akhnaton and Nefertiti in 1979 and next year in London.

During WW II Christie worked in the dispensary of University College Hospital in London. She also produced twelve completed novels. After the war she continued to write prolifically, also gaining success on the stage and in the cinema. Witness for the Prosecution, for example, was chosen the best foreign play of the 1954-55 season by the New York Drama Critics Circle. Play had opened in London in October 1953 and by December 1954, it was on Broadway. With Max Mallowan she traveled in 1947 and 1949 to expeditions to Nimrud, the ancient capital of Assyria, and in the Tigris Valley.

By 1955 Christie had become a limited company, Agatha Christie Ltd, which was acquired in the late 1960s by Booker Books. It had already acquired Ian Fleming. In 1967 Christie became president of the British Detection Club, and in 1971 she was made a Dame of the British Empire. Christie died on January 12, 1976 in Wallingford, Oxforshire. Mallowan died two years later, but he had married after Christie's death an old family friend. With over one hundred novels and over one hundred translations into foreign languages, Christie was by the time of her death the best-selling English novelist of all time. As Margery Allingham said: Christie has "entertained more people for more hours at time that any other writer of her generation."

Dame Agatha Christie Queen of Crime - Agatha Christie

Famous

Quotes by Agatha Christie

"I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble." "If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles, one would hardly see anybody," I live now on borrowed time, waiting in the anteroom for the summons that will inevitably come. And then - I go on to the next thing, whatever it is. One doesn't luckily have to bother about that. 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 a war is as disastrous as to lose one. The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes. An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her." "Curious things, habits. People themselves never know they have them." A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. world. I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you. I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worries and only half the royalties.

TASK I

1. When and where Agatha Christie was born? 2.What was her penname? 3. Where did Agatha Christie get her education? 4. Who encouraged her to write? 5. Who was her first husband? 6. How did she make for living during World War I? 7. Agatha Christies first novel called 8. What did she buy after her first novel? 9. When did Agatha Christie disappear? 10. Who was her second husband? 11. When was Agathas most prolific period? 12. What Agathas famous quote about her second husband do you know?

Hercule Poirot
Why not make my detective a Belgian?...I could see him as a tidy little man, always arranging things, liking things in pairs, liking things square instead of round. And he should be brainy he should have little grey cells of the mind. Hercule Poirot made his first appearance in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, called upon by his friend Hastings, to solve a most mysterious murder. This Belgian refugee from the First World War began his career as a police officer Christie felt it only fitting that he had a professional background as it would explain his knowledge of police proceedings when he later became a private detective. He began his private career on the continent, which is where he formed his lifelong friendship with Hastings. Poirot would be the first to call himself a great man he has never been known for his modesty - but with such success in his career he is quite justified in his opinion! He finishes each case with a dramatic dnouement, satisfying his own ego and confirming to all, that he is truly the greatest mind in Europe. His love of elegance, beauty, and precision, as well as his eccentric mannerisms are often ridiculed by the local bumbling policemen, but it is always Poirot who has the last word!

Miss Marple

There was no unkindness in Miss Marple, she just did not trust people. Though she expected the worst, she often accepted people kindly in spite of what they were. (Agatha Christie An Autobiography) Miss Jane Marple doesnt look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesnt look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. She has every opportunity to observe human nature as she often points out, There is a great deal of wickedness in village life. Christie also used material from her fictional creation, spinster Caroline Sheppard, who appeared in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. When Michael Morton adapted Roger Ackroyd for the stage, he removed the character of Caroline replacing her with a young girl. This change saddened Christie and she determined to give old maids a voice: Miss Marple was born.

Jane in search of a job

Agatha Christie wrote many detective stories. However, Poirot and Mrs Marple are not always characters of her detectives. There are some stories without them. One of such stories is Jane in search of a job .
This short story first appeared in 1924 in Grand Magazine and was adapted as part of The Agatha Christie Hour in 1982. The cast included Elizabeth Garvie, Stephanie Cole and Amanda Redman. This short story is published in The Listerdale Mystery, and also in The Golden Ball and Other Stories.

Jane in Search of a Job

Jane Cleveland, a young woman of twenty-six is in need of twenty-

a job. Her financial position is precarious and she lives in a shabby boarding house. Browsing the Daily Leader jobs column she finds nothing of note but in the personal column she sees an advert for a young woman of her age, build and height who is a good mimic and can speak French. She goes to the address given and is one of many girls queuing up in answer to the advert. Getting through to the final six, she is interviewed by a foreign gentleman and told to go to Harridge's hotel and ask for Count Streptitch. Presenting herself there as instructed, Jane is again interviewed by the Count and then introduced to an ugly middlemiddle-aged lady by the title of Princess Poporensky who both declare her to be suitable. They ask Jane if she doesn't mind the prospect of danger to which she answers that she doesn't. Finally, Jane is introduced to the Grand Duchess Pauline of Ostrava, exiled from her country after a communist revolution.

Jane is similar in looks and colouring to the Grand Duchess although she is slightly smaller in height. It is explained to Jane that the Grand Duchess is the target of assassination attempts by the people who overthrew and slaughtered her family and that they want Jane to act as a decoy for her during the next two weeks when she is in Britain and has to attend several charitable events. Jane agrees and is given money to stay at the nearby Blitz hotel (under the assumed name of Miss Montresor of New York) and to buy a dress to wear when she is following the Grand Duchess to the events, during which they will swap dresses when they suspect that a kidnap or murder attempt is imminent. Jane suggests a bright red dress in contrast to the Grand Duchess' dress of choice for a charity bazaar at Orion House ten miles outside of London and that she will wear high-healed boots to cover highup the difference in height.

. Three days later, the bazaar is taking place. The main feature of it is that one hundred society women will each donate one pearl each, which will be auctioned the next day. The real Grand Duchess declares the bazaar open and meets the people there. When it is time to depart, she and Jane swap dresses in a side room and Jane leaves in the Duchess' place news having reached them that the assassins will make an attempt on the journey back to Harridge's. Jane is travelling back with the Princess Poporensky when the chauffeur takes them down a side road and down an unknown and secluded route, stops the car and holds up the two women with a pistol. They are at an empty house, which they are locked in. A short time later, bowls of soup are given to the two women, which Jane eats but the Princess refuses. Jane falls asleep suddenly...

The next day Jane wakes up. She is alone in the house and inexplicably back in her red dress. She finds a newspaper in the house, which states that the charity bazaar was help up by a girl in a red dress and three other men. They stole the pearls and got away. The girl in the red dress has been traced as staying at the Blitz hotel under the name of Miss Montresor of New York Jane realizes that she has been set up by a gang of jewel thieves. She hears someone in garden and finds a young man coming round from having been knocked out. He and Jane swap stories and the young man reveals that he was at the bazaar and was puzzled when he saw the Grand Duchess enter a room in low-healed shoes and exit in high-healed ones. He followed her to the empty house and saw a second car arrive with three men and a woman in a red dress. Presently, this woman came out in the Duchess' dress and all except Jane seemed to have departed but when the young man went to investigate he was knocked out. They suddenly become aware that another man is nearby and listening to them. He introduces himself as DetectiveInspector Farrell and having overheard the stories that the two told all has become clear to him and he realizes what really happened at the bazaar hold-up and that Jane is innocent. The young man reveals that having seen Jane at the bazaar, he has fallen in love with her

The story has such features as interesting dramatic plot, personal authors style and a strong moral message: the main character is brave, attentive, careful, reliable, sociable. She can deal with different people, she isnt afraid of difficulties, always thinks about consequences, never gives up and always tries to do her best. The girl managed not only get what she wished but found her true happiness. The story is certainly worth reading. It will appeal both to readers who like detectives, comedies and romantic stories, contemporary and traditional literature.

TASK II

1. How old was Jane? 2 . Where did she try to find a job? 3. Who was the second to interview her? 4. What question was Jane asked during the interview? 5. What did she have to do? 6. Why was she suitable for this work? 7. Why did she wear high-healed boots? high8. What did the Grand Duchess and Jane do after bazaar? 9. Who held up Jane and her companion? 10. What was the girl given to eat? 11. What did she see next day? 12. Who did she meet that day?

The End

A commemorative bust in Torquay