All of Agatha: the Quest Begins

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Inspired by an episode of the Shedunnit podcast, I've decided to embark on a life-long quest to become an Agatha Christie completist [to read her entire bibliography in publication order and for the sake of my rabid but recrudescent anglophilia, I'm going to go with UK publication date and in the case of the short story collections, the original UK table of contents].

I suspect almost all of these will be re-reads. I read Agatha Christie as a child.

So here we go. We begin where we always begin...at Styles.



The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1921.

Poirot's first novel. It is, in my opinion, The Tits! [read this means the best, I like tits] Here are a few observations.

-Hastings is an ass straight out of the Nigel Bruce School of Watsoning [apologies to luthienberen and any other Nigel Bruce fan].

-I ship Poirot and the faithful Dorcas. I may have to write Poirot giving her a little end-of-case seeing-to.

-Equating Japp with Lestrade in describing him as ferret-faced. Or maybe (like grey eyes) there are a lot of ferret-faced people in England and that's a common way of describing people.

-It'd be swell if I could get to Torquay before I die. Maybe when I finish this list as a reward.

Quotes:

"Ah, my friend, one may live in a big house and yet have no comfort."

"Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend," observed Poirot philosophically.

So next month, I'm getting Tommy and Tuppence Beresford's debut in The Secret Adversary and possibly Hasting Being an Ass the Sequel aka The Murder on the Links.

Comments

[autumnia]

What timing! I just watched this PBS documentary yesterday about her, Agatha Christie's England and there were parts of it about the places that inspired her novels, including her sister's stately homes, the train station called Marple, etc.

I've read a Poirot anthology a few years back, Hercule Poirot 100 Years 1916-2016 so I managed to check most of them off my list. Never got into Miss Marple or Tommy & Tuppence (I couldn't get into the miniseries either) but I will cheer you on your challenge from the sidelines. :-)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thanks! I would love to make a pilgrimage to Torquay and other Christie places. Probably won't happen but one can dream.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

:)

[castiron]

Sounds like a fun project! My ex had all the Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries, and I read through them all when our kid was a nursing infant (along with Ngaio Marsh's Alleyn mysteries and Margery Allingham's Campion mysteries), but I haven't read much of her other work.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you! Funny, I found the BBC Sherlock fandom (my first fandom) on maternity leave after my first child. Sort of a liminal time in life.

[smallhobbit]

I read most of the Christie's many years ago and have never felt the urge to reread. I enjoy watching them for relaxation and I think I may write some more.

I've known a few ferret faced people but not many.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I enjoy your Christie drabbles. I always have difficulty understanding physical descriptions in Golden Age books (or any book) especially facial descriptions.

[luthienberen]

Lol, no need to apologise :)

I have only watched the Suchet adaptation of Mysterious Affair at Styles and didn't like it and it appears the book isn't much better. I like the idea of Dorcas getting a happy ending with Poirot!

I do wish you fun on your Agatha Christie read! :)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

:)

[regshoe]

Oh, this sounds like a good project—I hope you enjoy it! Deliberately reading all an author's books in order is really rewarding, getting to see how they develop as a writer over time—I'm currently doing read-throughs of E. W. Hornung's and D. K. Broster's books, although neither of them was nearly as prolific as Christie, so I admire your ambition :)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I am impressed with your read-thrus, and I think that's where I got some of the confidence to go through with this. And, yes, I hope to see her evolution and changes over decades. And catch any works I missed as a child.

It will be a life long thing. There is a lot!

[debriswoman]

What a great start:-)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you! On to Tommy and Tuppence!