The Agatha Christie CompanionRussell H. Fitzgibbon presents a short history of Dame Agatha s life, criticism of her works, and a summary of how critics and reviewers view her work. Includes a bibliography of all the works of Christie published in either Great Britain or the United States, classified according to the detectives involved; an alphabetical list of Christie detective and mystery book and short-story titles; a short-story finder for Christie collections; and an index of all but the least important of the thousands of characters introduced by the author in the detective and mystery short stories and novels. " |
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Adapted Adventure Affair Agatha Christie American appearance Battle became become began Beresfords British called changed characters Christmas clues collection Collins course Crime Dame Agatha Dead Death detective story detective-story Dodd early England English especially Express eyes face fact fiction Fontana Books Four French give given Golden Grosset and Dunlap Hercule Poirot Holmes House human Includes involved Jane Lady large print later least Leicester less literary Little London Mead Mirror Miss Marple Murder never novels once Orient Express Pan Books Parker Pyne Penguin Books perhaps personality play Pocket Books police present probably Problems produced publication published Quin Regatta Mystery Satterthwaite Scotland Yard seemed Sherlock short stories Side sleuths successful Surprise Tell thing thought Three told Tommy and Tuppence Train Ulverscroft Witness World writing wrote York
Popular passages
Page 22 - An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.
Page 27 - My dear James, You have always been one of the most faithful and kindly of my readers, and I was therefore seriously perturbed when I received from you a word of criticism. You complained that my murders were getting too refined - anaemic, in fact. You yearned for a 'good violent murder with lots of blood'.
Page 48 - As it is, I admit freely and without the hypocrisy that I am a great man. I have the order, the method and the psychology in an unusual degree. I am, in fact, Hercule Poirot! Why should I turn red and stammer and mutter into my chin that really I am very stupid? It would not be true.
Page 59 - He looked across the hearth to where she sat erect in the big grandfather chair. Miss Marple wore a black brocade dress, very much pinched in round the waist. Mechlin lace was arranged in a cascade down the front of the bodice. She had on black lace mittens, and a black lace cap surmounted the piled-up masses of her snowy hair. She was knitting — something white and soft and fleecy. Her faded blue eyes, benignant and kindly, surveyed her nephew and her nephew's guests with gentle pleasure.
Page 60 - Downstairs in the lounge, by the third pillar from the left, there sits an old lady with a sweet, placid, spinsterish face and a mind that has plumbed the depths of human iniquity and taken it as all in the day's work. Her name's Miss Marple. She comes from the village of St. Mary Mead, which is a mile and a half from Gossi^ton; she's a friend of the Bantrys and, where crime is concerned, she's the goods, Conway.
Page 39 - Do not give to a people institutions for which it is unripe in the simple faith that the tool will give skill to the workman's hand. Respect Facts. Man is in each country not what we may wish him to be, but what Nature and History have made him.
Page 23 - In recognition of her talents and war services she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1946. A London critic described her as "within her range . . . one of the two or three best actresses in the world.
Page 2 - The basic formula is this: a murder occurs; many are suspected; all but one suspect, who is the murderer, are eliminated; the murderer is arrested or dies.
Page 11 - ... choice of sex, they are obliged to be so irritatingly intuitive as to destroy that quiet enjoyment of the logical which we look for in our detective reading. Or else they are active and courageous, and insist on walking into physical danger and hampering the men engaged on the job. Marriage, also, looms too large in their view of life; which is not surprising, for they are all young and beautiful.
Page 59 - Murders as reported in the press have never claimed my attention. I have never read books on criminology as a subject or really been interested in such a thing. No, it has just happened that I have found myself in the vicinity of murder rather more often than would seem normal.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Agatha Christie Companion |
| Author | Russell H. Fitzgibbon |
| Publisher | Popular Press, 1980 |
| ISBN | 0879721383, 9780879721381 |
| Length | 178 pages |
| Subjects | › › Fiction / Mystery & Detective / General Literary Criticism / Mystery & Detective Social Science / Popular Culture |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |